Not to be the bearer of bad news, but you shouldn't expect the Galaxy S26 Ultra's display to excel

Image credit – Ice Universe (@UniverseIce) on X

It's officially December now, and once we throw away the excessive Christmas gift wrap, it'll be January: and that means the Galaxy S26 family is upon us!

The Galaxy S26 Ultra is the one that everybody expects miracles from, especially now that we've heard about its potential Privacy Display built-in feature. It's exactly what it sounds like: powered by Samsung's Flex Magic Pixel technology, this fancy feature would limit viewing angles to keep content private in public.

Here comes the "But…", folks.

M14 OLED material and screen brightness

As you've probably heard before, the Galaxy S26 Ultra is to utilize the M14 OLED material. The Galaxy S25 Ultra uses M13. Now, M14 is the latest generation of organic material sets developed by Samsung Display for manufacturing high-end smartphone OLED panels.

Its primary advancement is the increased use of deuterium across the host layers (Red, Green, and Blue), which significantly enhances the material's stability, leading to greater power efficiency (reportedly 20-30% better than M13), higher potential peak brightness, and a longer overall lifespan for the display.

That's great, right?

Will the Galaxy S26 Ultra take advantage of all of this? Not quite, says none other than the highly prolific and reputable tipster Ice Universe:

According to their findings, users should not expect the M14 OLED material to bring significant display improvements to the Galaxy S26 Ultra. The core point is that while the M14 panel is premium, Samsung is rumored to use it primarily for power savings rather than maximizing visual performance. The tipster contrasts this with the iQOO 15 phone, which allegedly utilizes the M14 to its "full potential" by achieving higher peak brightness, wider color, and high-frequency dimming.

Allegedly, Samsung is expected to limit the S26 Ultra's display to maintain its 5,000 mAh battery life by restricting it to 8-bit color, 2,600 nits of brightness, and low-frequency Pulse Width Modulation (PWM), effectively turning the M14 into a power-saving tool… instead of a performance upgrade.

Different brands, different approaches

"The two brands take completely different approaches in how they utilize it [the M14 OLED material]", says Ice Universe.

And this difference in approach is where Samsung risks being seen as underachieving with its own, superior technology. By restricting the M14 panel to the same specs of its predecessor, Samsung prioritizes power efficiency to maintain battery life without using a larger cell.

This is great news for endurance, despite not unleashing its full potential. If we're stuck with the same 5,000 mAh capacity on the S26 Ultra, at least we should get a longer battery life. Gotta stay positive, right?

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