Smartphone privacy has been redefined by Samsung in its Galaxy Unpacked event in San Francisco on 25 February 2026. The Galaxy S26 Product Improves artificial intelligence (AI) and overall functionality; the most notable addition is the Privacy Display of the S26 Ultra, which is a hardware feature to effectively black peripheral visible to shield the display to intrusive eyes on trains, buses, and businesses. Pre-orders are currently open and the sale will start on 11March.
Privacy Revolution
The OLED panel on the S26 Ultra makes the conventional screen protectors irrelevant as it uses dual pixel arrays: the ultra-thin beam can project on the user specific screen and the broader beam on the general screen.
The setting can be switched either via Quick Settings or on an application-by-application basis or automatically using geofencing, e.g., automatically turned on when in an office.
Empirical testing shows that there will be only marginal losses in brightness and this has been much better than the third-party movies which normally obscure the display.
Slanderer, Beastly, Powerful
The three of these, the S26 ($900, 6.3FHD+), the S26+ ($1100, 6.7QHD+), the Ultra ($1300, 6.9QHD+) use a similar aesthetic, all featuring
Armor 5000 Aluminum frames and a narrowed down thickness of 7.9mm in the Ultra, which has cost the phone 4gms of weight.
It uses the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 “For Galaxy,” which gives 19 % increased CPU performance, 24 % use of the GPU, and 39 % more NPU acceleration on AI workloads. The main sensor (200 MP, f/1.7) of the Ultra records images that are a fifth brighter in the Night Mode.
Loupe battery performance is impressive: the 5,000mAh battery of the Ultra substantially charges. The Ultra supports 60W of wired charging with 75% of its total charge of 5000mA (5,000mA), although it does not support Qi 2 magnetic charging directly.
AI Takes Center Stage
The feature set of Samsung AI is the most abundant: it is possible to remove unwanted objects in the photo or change a backdrop with the help of the Photo Assist feature; the Creative Studio feature enables the creation of stickers and wallpapers; the Gemini feature includes an autonomous ride-hailing system in the United States and South Korea.
Other upgrades comprise the Audioeraser which is used to minimize the noise in the background on streaming services, scam-detecting features on the incoming calls, as well as, automated systems to organize the screenshots. Each device is updated to seven years of software.
Strategic Positioning
The reaction of Samsung to the switch to aluminum in the iPhone 17 comes at a time when Samsung is still behind in implementing silicon carbon battery technology, used by many competitors like the OnePlus 15 that has a 7300 mAh battery.
The price changes due to the RAM prices readjustment. Nevertheless, the number of shipments in 2026 is expected to grow owing to the possibilities of AI-related development.
The competitors are expected to imitate the Privacy Display so that the competition will increase in the hardware-software integration sphere.
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