Galaxy S26 Ultra Privacy Display: is it worth the new 1,400 euros?
Samsung's new flagship has a display that goes dark when viewed from the side, the first such trick on a smartphone, but the price is up 100 dollars over the previous generation.
Tired of strangers glancing at your screen on the bus, in a meeting or in a cafe? Samsung claims it has solved that problem in hardware.
The Galaxy S26 Ultra is the first smartphone in the world with a Privacy Display feature. It cuts visibility from angles wider than 30 degrees. The phone was unveiled on February 25 in San Francisco and went on sale on March 11.
Privacy Display is not new technology. It has been used on laptops for years. The difference is that Samsung is the first to fit it into an OLED panel for a phone. From the side, the screen looks darkened. The person holding the phone sees the image normally.
The Serbian price is not locked in, but the starting point is known
Samsung has not published Serbian pricing yet. Regional markets line up like this:
- S26 Ultra (256 GB): 1,399 euros, around 164,180 dinars
- S26 Plus: 1,099 euros, around 129,080 dinars
- S26 (base): 899 euros, around 105,620 dinars
The Ultra is 100 dollars more expensive than the S25 Ultra was at launch. The reason is the new storage baseline, which starts at 256 GB. The 128 GB option has been dropped.
How Privacy Display actually works
The feature toggles with a two-finger swipe down, or from display settings. When it is active, anyone looking from the side sees a gray-black surface instead of the content. Head-on, the screen looks normal.
In real use:
- It works well on the bus, in a shop, in meetings
- It performs poorly when someone sits right next to you at less than a 30-degree angle
- It does not defeat prism glasses (specialty accessories that try to trick the screen)
It is not a replacement for situational awareness, but it does shut down casual onlookers.
What the three models share and where they differ
The three versions, S26, S26 Plus and S26 Ultra, share the same chipset and the third generation of Galaxy AI features.
The differences are screen size, battery and camera system. The Ultra gets a 200-megapixel main sensor and a stronger telephoto. The Plus and the base model carry over the previous generation’s sensor.
The AI features go a step further than what the S25 generation introduced. The on-screen assistant can now launch an action in a third-party app without further input from you. Impressive in a demo. In daily use, it still asks for patience.
What this means for users in Serbia
Privacy Display makes the most sense for business users who often work outside the office. For someone who uses the phone mostly at home, the feature is more of a curiosity than a real need.
The Ultra’s roughly 165,000 dinar price is high, especially against the S25 Ultra now selling on promotion around 110,000 dinars. The older model performs almost identically in daily use.
Our take:
- If you are replacing a phone that is three years old or more, and you handle sensitive data, the new Ultra makes sense
- If you have an S24 or S25, wait for the next generation
Is the Privacy Display worth 100 dollars more than last year?
For most users, no. The feature is serious and it works, but for typical phone use at home or in a car, it does not change the experience.
For anyone regularly doing banking, reading work email or reviewing confidential documents on public transport, it does.
Would you pay 100 dollars more for a phone purely for screen privacy?
