Samsung Galaxy S26 introduces new Privacy Screen to block shoulder surfers

The prices are up, AI is everywhere but takes a back seat, action camera features abound and Samsung pips Apple for privacy – that’s the summary of the Samsung Galaxy S26 series launch here in San Francisco today.

So let’s start with the bad news, prices are up. Year on year when comparing the new S26 models to the S25, the base model and Plus models are $150 more expensive than last year.

At the top end, the S26 Ultra fares a little better, just $50 up on the S25 Ultra.

No comparison needed for the S26 Edge, it doesn’t exist. That short-lived year of the thin phone seems to have not met the expectations of Samsung so they’re back focusing on their main game.

And while last year AI was the headline thanks to some deep integration with Google Gemini, Samsung this year is still calling this Galaxy Ai, and still pumped by their Google Gemini features – but they are also promoting Bixby as a way to find features of your phone or control your smart home, and now even have a Perplexity integration too – talk about a foot in every AI camp!

In fact, Samsung believe their strategy is to have AI appear as and when you need it, rather than being something you seek out.

How practical that is, I’m not sure, but there are some cracking new image editing tools built in to add and remove features from photos which take that whole “what is a photo” question to new levels too.

The camera on the Galaxy S26 Ultra is exceptional, and while we’re not chasing megapixel numbers Samsung has basically made the camera better. 200 megapixels but with a wider aperture meaning more light gets in and that’s better for low-light photography.

A few tweaks like that will make the difference for those who really lean into photography.

If you find yourself filming shaky videos, the new Horizontal Lock feature will blow your mind.

Far more advanced than just Steady mode or Action mode, with this feature enabled, you can shake your phone side to side on angles, even rotate it 360 degrees, and the subject stays level and in frame. Great for holding up high to film at a concert, would work well on the slopes though I’m not sure who’s holding their smartphone for that, the Galaxy S26 series are basically action cameras.

It’s really quite impressive.

But likely the most impressive feature of all is exclusive to the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra. The Privacy Display.

This pixel-level technology can restrict angled viewing of your screen by app, or even areas of the screen like where a PIN entry is displayed or notifications appear.

How it works I’ll let other boffins decide, but as I understand it, they’re using fewer pixels (so yes, the pixel density may be reduced, but it didn’t impact my view of the screen, frankly) – and these pixels may be set lower and their angled view blocked, or similar – what matters is it works, and it’s very cool.

I’d imagine makers of privacy screen protectors will be arguing theirs do a better job, but those are on 24/7, in this case, you can choose to use it all the time, whenever you want, or on an app-by-app basis.

Set your email and banking apps to be active in Privacy Display, and whenever you launch those apps, the screen mode is enabled.

It can also be applied to just a part of the screen, where the notifications appear, or where you are entering a PIN.

Stop those prying eyes on the bus, train, plane, or ferry, or just on the couch at home!

I’d imagine some industries working in defence and cybersecurity, let alone governments, could consider this device for this reason alone. A screen protector can be removed, it’s likely this mode could be enforced by IT policy on an app level, that could be a game changer.

Pre-orders for the S26 range start today, they go on sale on March 11.

Trevor Long travelled to San Francisco as a guest of Samsung – read our commercial interest disclosure and full travel details here.

Full S26 Series specifications