Galaxy S26 Ultra's OLED display will be brighter using technology that reduces battery consumption
The Galaxy S25 Ultra will be unveiled in two weeks but that doesn't mean that we can't discuss next year's Galaxy S26 Ultra. We are learning details about a different display technology that will supposedly make Samsung's 2026 top-of-the-line flagship phone brighter and more power efficient. A fresh report says that the display will use the Color Filter on Encapsulation (CoE) technology which replaces OLED's polarizing plates with color filters. These plates reduce reflections and improve viewing angles but there are advantages to replacing them.
Without the bulky polarizers that control the light emitted by the OLED pixels, the screen is thinner and more flexible. In addition, the technology uses a black Pixel Define Layer (PDL) which keeps light from reflecting inside the panel. All of these changes allow more light to pass through the display leading to a brighter image and more power efficiency. Thus, a lower amount of power is needed to make the OLED display brighter.
The new OLED technology removes the polarizing plates and improves power efficiency by 25%. Image credit-Samsung
Changing over to a black PDL requires replacing an orange photosensitive polyimide (PSPI) material with black material. The PSPI material is known to leak light between the red, green, and blue sub-pixels which can reduce contrast and color accuracy. The black PDL absorbs the stray light reducing light leakage which helps to create deeper black colors improving the contrast ratio. Additionally, a color filter (CF) is printed at a low temperature on a thin film encapsulation (TFE) layer.
Samsung first employed the CoE technology on the Galaxy Z Fold 3's foldable OLED display. Using the technology on the Galaxy S26 Ultra would make the latter the first "candy bar" form factor phone to sport an OLED panel with CoE technology. At this stage, it is unclear whether the Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26+ will also use CoE OLED displays.
Based on the reports, should Samsung decide to use the CoE technology on the Galaxy S26 Ultra as expected, the company will have a decision to make. It could raise the peak brightness on the Galaxy S26 Ultra to 3,000 nits from the 2,600 nits expected for the Galaxy S25 Ultra panel this year. Or, Samsung could decide to keep the peak brightness of the Galaxy S26 Ultra's display at 2,600 nits but improve the phone's battery life.
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