If you've noticed a discolouration on your Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra screen, there's now a fix.
Galaxy S26 Ultra owners have been spotting an annoying red tinge on their screens, with many believing they have a broken display.
However, Samsung has officially confirmed that the reddish discolouration appearing in the centre of some units is down to a software calibration glitch, not a hardware fault.
The South Korean tech giant posted a notice on its Members app in South Korea, opening with an apology to those affected. Samsung wrote: "We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused by an issue where the centre of the screen appears reddish on some Galaxy S26 Ultra products.
"This phenomenon can be resolved through a software calibration fix. If you visit a national service centre, you can receive immediate complimentary calibration service regardless of your product's remaining usage period, and same-day processing is available."
Even better, it doesn't matter whether your device is still under warranty or not — the company will carry out the recalibration at no cost either way.
And if you can't make it to a centre, there's an update coming directly to your mobile.
Samsung continues in the post: "For our customers' convenience, Samsung Electronics is also preparing a method to apply the software calibration without requiring a service center visit (via a remote update).
"We will provide details on the distribution schedule as soon as the preparation is complete. Samsung Electronics will continue to strive to provide a better user experience for our customers. Thank you."
Since it's a software problem rather than a physical defect, it can be sorted without replacing any parts.
The catch? There's no word yet on when the remote update will arrive. Samsung has said it will share details on the rollout schedule once preparations are complete.
Reports of the issue first surfaced just weeks after the Galaxy S26 Ultra launched in March, though only a small number of handsets were affected. Owners noticed a rectangular patch with a reddish tint sitting right in the middle of their displays.
There had been speculation that the phone's new Privacy Display panel might be behind the problem.
This unique feature is built into the AMOLED panel at the pixel level – obscuring elements on-screen for anyone but the owner of the handset. From the outside, it works like those privacy screen protectors that've existed for years. If you're trying to peep at the screen off-axis, everything looks gloomy. But everything remains visible when looking at the screen straight-on.
But this clever feature is much, much smarter than those off-the-shelf screen protectors. For starters, it can be enabled or disabled from the Quick Settings dropdown. Samsung lets you toggle the feature on a per-app basis, so WhatsApp and your banking app can be obscured each time they're on-screen, but everything is visible for everyone.
Samsung even lets you obscure just the incoming notifications from specific apps, while keeping the content on the rest of the screen uninterrupted. Granular settings let you obscure the PIN and password input screen too, so those around you won't be able to tell what you're typing when logging into a secure app.
