TIME's Best Inventions Put a Privacy Screen Inside a Phone

The Privacy Screen Inside a Phone just earned one of tech's biggest annual honors. TIME named the Galaxy S26 Ultra to its 2026 list of the world's best inventions, with the phone's built-in display privacy tech cited as the reason. The phone limits how much of the screen anyone beside you can read, and the user controls exactly when the feature turns on.

According to Samsung's announcement in Seoul, three of the company's products made this year's list: the flagship phone, a smart refrigerator, and a gaming monitor. The list itself, compiled from nominations by the magazine's editors and correspondents around the world, honors three hundred ideas judged on originality, efficacy, ambition, and impact. TIME called the S26 Ultra a privacy-focused smartphone, saying its screen can dim visibility from the side and make snooping nearly impossible.

Why the privacy screen stood out

The feature, called Privacy Display, works at the panel level instead of relying on a stick-on film. Drew Blackard, Samsung's senior vice president of mobile product management, told the magazine that the user can decide when it turns on, or limit visibility for specific content such as popup notifications. In practice, that means the whole screen can go private on a crowded train, or only the notification shade can be hidden while a PIN pad stays shielded from shoulder surfers.

The recognition is not only about the display. TIME noted that not long after its spring release, the phone became the world's fastest-selling Android handset of the year, even with a price tag above a thousand dollars. It is the fourth time a Galaxy device has landed on the annual list, and Samsung said its products have appeared on the list every year since 2021, according to the Yonhap News Agency.

The fridge that watches your groceries

The Bespoke AI Family Hub refrigerator made the list for an expanded AI Vision system that recognizes a far wider range of fresh and processed foods. TIME said the latest lineup uses Google's Gemini as a second AI assistant, letting the appliance identify more than two thousand packaged foods so it can track what is on the shelves. Samsung says the goal is simpler meal planning and fewer forgotten leftovers, since the fridge can log groceries as they arrive and suggest what to cook.

The fridge also carries updated personalized calendar, reminder, and recipe features, plus doors that open and close with a light touch or a voice command. For a generation that already manages its whole life from a phone screen, the pitch is a kitchen that keeps its own inventory.

The monitor that trades resolution for speed

The 32-inch Odyssey G8 gaming monitor was picked as the industry's first 6K gaming display, TIME reported. It runs at up to one hundred sixty-five hertz at full resolution, and a Dual Mode setting trades some sharpness for speed, pushing the refresh rate to as high as three hundred thirty hertz. According to the magazine, that combination of resolution and speed is what earned the monitor its spot in the entertainment and gaming section of the list.

What the list says about 2026 tech

This year's selections point toward what one roundup described as practical intelligence: technology that protects privacy, wastes less food, and works harder in daily life. Samsung is not the only winner. The same list also praised LG's wireless television, and Apple's new iPhone Duo appeared in a lengthy segment of its own, which means two rival phone makers both convinced the judges this year.

There are caveats. 9to5Google, which has tested the feature, reported that the privacy display can be inconsistent in certain lighting conditions and that some on-screen elements can look slightly off. In other words, the tech is genuinely new, but it is still first-generation at the panel level, and buyers should expect a few rough edges.

For readers, the takeaway is simpler than the spec sheets. A Privacy Screen Inside a Phone is a quiet answer to one of modern life's small anxieties: the stranger reading over your shoulder. If more makers follow Samsung's lead, the privacy film stuck on so many phone screens could become as old-fashioned as the phone booth. TIME named the Galaxy S26 Ultra, Bespoke AI Family Hub refrigerator, and Odyssey G8 monitor to its 2026 list, 9to5Google reported on the phone's placement for its privacy tech, and AI Stock Wire covered Samsung's three-product showing. Related reading: Dreame's Leaptic Cube Is a Modular 8K Action Camera and The Freddy Fazbear Animatronic Breaking TikTok.