13 comments

  • dsdxd 8 hours ago ago

    There’s been screen protector film on the market that does exactly this for almost as long as the iPhone‘s been available. Almost 20 years?

    • TheDong 8 hours ago ago

      Can the screen protector film only mask banking apps and notifications, but not the lock screen and homescreen?

      It's a real, albeit minor, quality of life improvement for the phone screen to only become less-vibrant for a subset of content.

    • iknowstuff 8 hours ago ago

      It’s clear that you haven’t really looked much into this. It’s per pixel.

      Screen protectors also degrade light output

      • Kirby64 7 hours ago ago

        > Screen protectors also degrade light output

        So does this function from Samsung. You can see in all the video demonstrations that the 'privacy' pixels are notably dimmer even head-on compared to normal pixels.

        • throwaway270925 5 hours ago ago

          Not the same thing.

          These pixels are dimmer by themselfs. They dont get muted by a layer on top of them.

          This means way less energy usage therefore longer lasting battery at similar brightness!

          • Grisu_FTP 4 hours ago ago

            Also these pixels can just go bright the moment you dont need this anymore, instantly making everything look good and bright again :)

    • SilverElfin 8 hours ago ago

      The Samsung masking tech can selectively mask parts of the screen. And it has configurability so it automatically is turned on only in certain apps and things like that. Because it dims the screen slightly (when you look at it straight on), just like a screen protector, it’s really useful that it can be customized in these ways. You get to keep the quality of the screen high to a much greater amount while still keeping your privacy.

  • c22 6 hours ago ago
  • kevin061 4 hours ago ago

    I think it's a gimmick that Samsung will cut out in future models for cost savings reasons. Like Samsung ditched the edge displays, or the Bluetooth in their S-Pen, or like Apple ditched 3D touch.

  • WithinReason 5 hours ago ago

    Currently a lot of smartphone power consumption is used to drive the screen, but only a small fraction reaches someone's eye. This could be used to improve the power efficiency of screens by at least an order of magnitude

  • that_lurker 7 hours ago ago

    Samsung makes the screens for iPhones so they most linely will make this tech available after the testing period with the new phone

  • tremarley 6 hours ago ago

    They will likely copy it in 8 years and label it innovative.

  • yftsui 7 hours ago ago

    When your display fails in viewing angles, we call it privacy screen