Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 may skip this major Galaxy S26 Ultra upgrade — and its foldable screen is to blame

Samsung's updated foldable lineup will debut at its next Galaxy Unpacked event in late July. It'll be an interesting launch as Samsung attempts to get ahead of Apple's iPhone Fold.

But a new leak from regular Samsung leaker Ice Universe claims the 2026 foldables won't have the Galaxy S26 Ultra's best feature: the Privacy Display. Per the rumor, the Galaxy Z Fold 8, Z Fold 8 Ultra and Z Flip 8 will not come with the privacy feature.

The reveal came in response to one of Ice Universe's followers asking about the brightness and the feature. "The Fold 8, Fold 8 Ultra, and Flip 8 do not have privacy screens," they said.

He went on to say that the foldable would have a peak brightness of 3600 nits, significantly brighter than the S26 Ultra, which clocks in at 2600 nits.

What is Privacy Display and why it might not work on foldables

As a reminder, Samsung built a privacy screen into the display of its flagship S26 Ultra at the hardware level. The technical explanation is that Samsung has built in a filter that narrows the light emitted from each pixel in the display using a black matrix.

That narrow light reaches you but prevents people from snooping in from the side. These narrow light pixels can operate alongside wide light pixels. This means you can activate the Privacy Display on certain parts of the screen but not others, letting you control what any shoulder surfers might see.

It works really well, but was controversial when it launched, with S26 Ultra owners complaining about eye strain and fuzzy text. We found in lab tests that the S26 Ultra is dimmer than its predecessor, even with Privacy Display turned off.

It's notoriously hard to develop foldable screens. Apple allegedly avoided producing an iPhone Fold until it could eliminate the crease created by the folding screen.

Assuming Ice Universe is correct, it's possible that Samsung couldn't make the filter layer work in the Z Fold 8 display and still improve its creasing.

Release and price

The presence or absence of the privacy display was never going to change the price of the new foldables. The most recent leaks suggest the Z Fold 8 will retain its $1,999 starting price, though larger storage and RAM options are expected to cost more.

The Flip 8 is also expected to retain its $1,099 starting price. As for the wider Fold 8 Ultra, it's unclear what price the iPhone Fold will carry, but it likely won't be less than $1,999.

Most of the pricing leaks came earlier this year and don't seem to account for Apple raising prices across the board on every device it makes except the iPhone. Even analysts were surprised by the amounts, suggesting iPhone 18 prices could be much higher than we thought.

That could change Samsung's moving forward, but we won't know until July 22.

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