Samsung's Galaxy S27 will make it much harder to snoop on your screen

You know the feeling: you’re checking your banking app on the subway, and the person next to you is clearly reading along. Samsung is doing something about it.

The company’s MX division plans to make privacy displays standard across the entire Galaxy S27 series, according to Korean outlet THE ELEC. The feature is currently exclusive to the Galaxy S26 Ultra, where it’s baked into the OLED panel itself.

The technology comes from Samsung Display and goes by the name Flex Magic Pixel. Instead of relying on a software filter or a physical privacy screen attachment, it works at the hardware level — integrating a precisely arranged black matrix into the display panel that controls light direction at the pixel level. The result: the screen stays perfectly clear when viewed head-on, but visibility drops sharply from any off-axis angle. Anyone trying to peek from the side sees mostly black.

That’s a meaningful upgrade over the software-based privacy filters most phones offer today, which dim the screen for everyone — including you — and drain battery in the process.

Samsung is betting the feature will become a selling point as people spend more time on their phones in public spaces. Commuters, coffee shop workers, and anyone who’s ever felt a stranger’s eyes on their screen are the obvious audience.

Meanwhile, Chinese phone makers Xiaomi, OPPO, and vivo are also exploring similar privacy display technology, THE ELEC reports. It’s early days for all of them, but the direction is clear — the days of casually reading someone else’s screen on the train might be numbered.