Samsung’s cool new display feature might end up in a MacBook

Samsung is about to unveil its new lineup of flagship Galaxy S26 smartphones on February 25, and the most interesting and innovative feature appears to have caught Apple’s eye. According to a new report, Apple is looking to bring Samsung’s new Privacy Display tech to a future MacBook.

According to research firm Omdia (via Ice Universe), Samsung’s latest display tech isn’t expected to arrive in a MacBook until 2029, which is longer than the typical Apple rumor. Typically, reports like this target products launching within two years, but 2029 is probably more realistic given Apple’s development cycle.

Samsung announced the new feature on January 28, ahead of the launch of the next Galaxy line of phones. While privacy screens aren’t new, this next-gen tech allows users to “protect specific parts of your experience, such as notification pop-ups. It’s a tailored approach that you can fine-tune or switch off entirely, rather than a blanket one.”

The Korean tech giant has teased Privacy Screen as one of the flagship features of the Galaxy S26, noting that it took “five years of engineering, testing, and refining” to develop. A series of short videos shows things like a user’s PIN and notifications being hidden from someone trying to see the screen from an angle, and suggests it will be one of the phone’s main selling points. Ice Universe previously showed how the display will be used in practice.

It’s not hard to see how this could be even more useful on a laptop. While phones can easily be covered or moved out of someone’s line of sight, stopping someone from glancing at a MacBook screen is much more difficult, which is why Apple sells a third-party privacy screen from Kensington in its online store. For anyone using a MacBook in a cafe, on a train, or even in an office where you don’t want strangers or colleagues to see sensitive information, it could be a game-changer.