And the first Galaxy S26 Ultra Privacy Display copycat is… You Should Know
Ever since the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra arrived in early March, we’ve been waiting to see who would be the first to copy its killer new Privacy Display feature.
Now we may have our answer, and it’s not a particularly surprising one. It’s none other than Samsung’s biggest Android rival.
According to established tipster Yogesh Brar, Xiaomi is working on a Privacy Display-like feature. It’s claimed that this will launch with the company’s new HyperOS 4 UI update (based on Android 17) later in the year.
That latter detail suggests it’ll be quite different to Samsung’s – for better and worse.
Why Xiaomi’s implementation might not be as impressive
It suggests that Xiaomi is pursuing a software implementation for its anti-shoulder-peeking system, whereas Samsung’s original Privacy Display involved custom hardware.
The Flex Magic Pixel technology of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra can focus its light output in a specific direction, rendering selected content blank to anyone other than the user.
A software-only solution would almost certainly be more limited, but if it were to roll out to all compatible HyperOS 4 devices, almost every Xiaomi phone could be in line to benefit. By contrast, Privacy Display is currently exclusive to the S26 Ultra.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that Xiaomi isn’t working on a hardware solution in tandem with a HyperOS 4 UI implementation. The first sign of such a feature was always likely to appear in code before any hardware leaks.
That was precisely the order of leaks for Samsung’s original Privacy Display, after all.
Luke Baker
We’re big fans of Samsung’s Privacy Display breakthrough, though it does come with some caveats. The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra’s screen is technically dimmer and less sharp than that of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra before it.
Of course, if you face shoulder peepers on your daily commute, that may well be a worthwhile tradeoff.
