Galaxy S26 Ultra might score upgraded privacy glass and added screen protection. We’ve known about the latter for a while, but screen protection has been reported just now by Ice Universe. This is everything we know about the glass upgrade.
IceUniverse dropped a clue about it on X. The S25 Ultra already has Gorilla Glass Armor 2. The leaker didn’t give up the exact name of the next-gen protector. But he did say it’s a “high-strength” Gorilla Glass. The Armor protection was already one of the toughest and premium Glass layers.
The leaker believes that manufacturers are solving durability problems directly at the screen level, which was an issue only screen protectors solved back in the day. It seems Samsung is deliberately trying to eliminate the need for most 3rd part glass protectors.
Tempered Glass protectors are a thing of the past. Gorilla Glass Armor 2 solves for that. We’ve also seen anti-reflective or Matte sheets for the screen. You don’t need that when Samsung new Ultra mobile already has an almost glare and reflection-free coating.
The Privacy Glass films are also famous. But Samsung has baked privacy right into the S26 Ultra’s AMOLED panel. And it’s not live 24/7. This will be triggered right from the software when you need it. They’ve almost completely eliminated the need for these three types of 3rd party glasses.
Samsung has started the drift away from external protectors, so we assume the others will follow. The company won’t gatekeep these screen features for long. And when that happens, the next few years will be the end of the screen protector industry.
Galaxy S26 Ultra has the potential to make tempered glasses obsolete with a High-Strength Gorilla Glass. They’ve made the phone thinner (allegedly), and the camera setup is more optimized now. Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is the biggest update on the S26 Ultra.
