Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

 Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra's OLED display will be brighter and more efficient

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. Samsung is now rumoured to apply Colour Filter on Encapsulation (CoE) technology to the screen of its Galaxy S26 Ultra, due to launch in about a year. The news comes from Samsung's home of Korea. CoE has been used in Samsung's Galaxy Fold line since the Z Fold 3, but this would be the first time it's used by the company in a slab-style device that doesn't fold.

A fresh report says that the display will use the Colour Filter on Encapsulation (CoE) technology which replaces OLED's polarizing plates with colour filters. These plates reduce reflections and improve viewing angles but there are advantages to replacing them. Note that the report only mentions the S26 Ultra, so we assume that means the S26 (if it will even exist) and S26+ won't be getting this. The rumour does claim CoE will then spread to more candybar-style smartphones in the future, so it won't be exclusive to the Ultra forever (like the Gorilla Glass Armor seems to be).

Without the bulky polarizers which 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. So if you're wondering what CoE is all about, it replaces polarizers with colour filters, thus improving light transmittance and making the OLED panel thinner in the process. Samsung has also changed the general Pixel Define Layer (PDL) to a black PDL, which reduces the light that's reflecting inside the panel.

The new OLED technology removes the polarizing plates and improves power efficiency by 25%. That's necessary because that was the primary function of the removed polarizer - which had the downside of decreasing brightness by more than 50%. This isn't a thing with colour filters but reflections still need to be addressed, hence the black PDL. 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 colour accuracy. The black PDL absorbs the stray light reducing light leakage which helps to create deeper black colours improving the contrast ratio. Additionally, a colour filter (CF) is printed at a low temperature on a thin film encapsulation (TFE) layer.

All of this means the display will be brighter versus a comparable one that doesn't use CoE and black PDL, and more efficient as well. The Galaxy S24 Ultra's panel can already go up to 2,600 nits of peak brightness, and this means the S26 Ultra could go ahead from this limit. 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 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.