Personal or not, I can’t live with the S26 Ultra’s screen

I have always liked Samsung displays. I used Samsung phones for a particularly long time – almost six years – and the screen was always one of the best parts of the experience. Last year I switched to the Pixel 10 Pro, and recently my wife bought the Galaxy S26 Ultra, and after looking at them together, I couldn’t live with the S26 Ultra’s display.

When I took my 10 Pro and S26 Ultra outside to take photos together, I noticed how much brighter the Pixel is. The difference doesn’t look as dramatic through the camera lens as it does in person, but trust me when I say the difference in person is staggering. For a long time I believed that display brightness was an exercise in diminishing returns. Once you get to about 1,500-2,000 nits, you won’t notice any meaningful difference. I was wrong.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra reaches a peak brightness of 2,600 nits, while my Pixel 10 Pro is capable of up to 3,300 nits. That 700 nits is enough of a difference that during our recent holiday, during which we had an unusual amount of sunshine in the UK, my Pixel was easier to use, especially when taking photos. The extra brightness helped frame shots and really see what I was photographing.

I wondered if the issue was the privacy display, as it reduces viewing angles even with the feature turned off. I’m not sure that’s the issue. The Z Fold 7 I have, which has the same 2,600-nit peak brightness for its cover display, was equally difficult to see. However, the privacy demonstration is not without its problems.

The Privacy Display is a nice piece of hardware. It’s like magic when you see it in action, and I loved fiddling with it when I got my hands on the S26 Ultra ahead of its launch. Now that I’ve had more time with the phone, I realized there’s a problem – it gives me migraines.

I’ve suffered from migraines for a long time since I was 13, and whatever is happening with the S26 Ultra’s display is not good for me. I’m not the only person who feels this way; Some customers have returned the phone due to eye strain, nausea and other problems. There is no strong evidence to suggest that this is due to privacy concerns. This may be related to Samsung’s low PWM dimming.

However, I think privacy performance is the issue. As I said in the beginning, I’ve used a lot of Samsung devices, and I still use the Galaxy Z Fold 7. The Fold 7 has the same PWM rate as the S26 Ultra, and the Fold has never given me a problem.

Whenever I use my wife’s S26 Ultra for more than a few minutes, whether the privacy display is enabled or not, I start feeling sick. At first, my eyes start to hurt and feel blurry. If I use it for too long, the other obvious symptoms of an oncoming migraine start to set in: nausea, fatigue, and stiffness in my neck.

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what caused the problem. If this is something that isn’t fixed in future phones, I won’t be able to use a Samsung phone anytime soon. The lack of brightness is something I can ignore, but locking myself in a dark room for an entire day after using the phone is something I can’t ignore. When Google touted the Pixel 10 Pro display as the best in the world during the launch event, we all scoffed at it. However, now that I’ve lived with it, I think there’s more to that statement than I thought. Compared to what Samsung is doing anyway.