Ahead of its September 23 China launch, Xiaomi confirmed the Xiaomi 18 Pro privacy screen will work as a hardware feature built into the display panel itself, and the teaser details the company released this week suggest it does a few things Samsung hasn't publicly demonstrated in the same way on the Galaxy S26 Ultra, according to Android Central.
That confirmation covers a narrow slice of Xiaomi's lineup. The feature is confirmed only for the Xiaomi 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max, launching in China on September 23. Nothing in the reporting cited here confirms global availability, pricing, or a release timeline outside China.
The finding worth paying attention to is more specific than "Xiaomi copied Samsung's homework." Xiaomi's teaser demonstrates privacy protection applied to a floating app window, split-screen mode, and lock-screen notifications, while Samsung's own support documentation already confirms app-specific protection and partial privacy for notification pop-ups on the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
Samsung has also added Privacy Display support for Picture-in-Picture through a One UI 9 beta update. Xiaomi's materials therefore show some broader multitasking scenarios, particularly freeform floating windows and split-screen, but they don't prove Samsung's underlying technology is less capable.
The evidence currently supports a narrower conclusion than "Xiaomi wins," so it's worth walking through what's confirmed, what's still a company claim dressed up as a demo, and what needs independent testing before either phone's privacy mode earns trust for anything genuinely sensitive.
What the Xiaomi 18 Pro smart privacy display has shown so far
Xiaomi's official Weibo Q&A confirms the smart privacy display is built into the display panel itself, not a software filter layered on top or an external screen protector. That's the same basic hardware-based phone privacy screen approach Samsung uses on the Galaxy S26 Ultra: controlling how light leaves the panel rather than adding a coating to the glass.
Xiaomi says the panel alternates standard wide-angle pixels with dedicated privacy pixels that use microscopic structures to restrict light at side angles. When privacy mode is enabled, the standard pixels switch off and the privacy pixels remain active.
At a 60-degree side angle, Xiaomi says brightness drops to roughly 1% of the front-facing output. That's a specific number from Xiaomi's own testing, not something an independent teardown or lab test has verified yet.
Xiaomi also says normal front-on viewing remains largely unaffected at a typical viewing distance, but the company acknowledges that some clarity loss can be noticeable if the screen is viewed from extremely close range while privacy mode is active. That makes the claim narrower than saying the person holding the phone sees no change at all.
Xiaomi's Weibo post goes further, confirming app-level customization, page-specific protection, personalized privacy rules, and voice-based setup through Super XiaoAi. Users can also configure the system to protect notifications, lock-screen pop-ups, floating windows, and split-screen views associated with selected apps.
The company says the front camera can detect someone looking over the user's shoulder and trigger an alert, while location-based rules can turn privacy protection on or off in places such as an office or home. Those functions remain company claims until reviewers get hands-on time with the phone.
Xiaomi 18 Pro vs. Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra privacy screen: shared ground and new demonstrations
Samsung's Privacy Display gave the Galaxy S26 Ultra a genuine standout feature this year, and independent testing has documented some display trade-offs when the feature is active.
Similar to Samsung, Xiaomi lets privacy protection apply to specific apps or selected content instead of acting as a blunt all-or-nothing toggle. Per-app privacy control isn't something Xiaomi invented here.
Samsung also already supports partial protection for notification pop-ups while leaving the rest of the screen visible, along with automatic activation for selected apps and PIN, pattern, or password entry.
What Xiaomi has demonstrated more explicitly is how its system carries privacy protection into freeform floating windows and split-screen multitasking. Its official Q&A also says notifications and lock-screen pop-ups tied to protected apps can automatically use the privacy display.
Samsung's One UI 9 beta, meanwhile, has added Privacy Display support for Picture-in-Picture video while leaving the rest of the screen unobscured.
That keeps this from being a clean win for Xiaomi. The current material shows Xiaomi supporting and demonstrating a broader set of multitasking scenarios, but it doesn't establish that Samsung's Galaxy S26 Ultra can't handle equivalent use cases now or through software updates.
The accurate claim is that Xiaomi has publicly shown some privacy-screen behaviors Samsung's current documentation doesn't spell out in the same way, not that Xiaomi's technology is fundamentally more capable.
What buyers should verify before trusting either privacy screen
A handful of specific questions will separate a genuinely useful feature from an impressive teaser clip.
Can protected and unprotected regions of the screen display side by side without visible artifacts at the boundary? Does lock-screen notification privacy work consistently with third-party apps? And does Xiaomi 18 Pro privacy performance at different viewing angles actually hold up under normal indoor or outdoor lighting rather than the controlled conditions of a company demo?
Xiaomi also says the 18 Pro series uses a new M11 display with peak brightness up to 4,000 nits. The company claims its new green light-emitting material improves luminous efficiency by 20%, while the full RGB Super Pixel 2.0 layout can deliver clarity comparable to a traditional 2K panel with power consumption closer to a 1.5K display, details also covered in reporting on the new panel.
Those are manufacturer claims rather than independent measurements.
More importantly, the headline display figures don't establish how the phone behaves once privacy mode is actually doing its job. Xiaomi itself says enabling privacy mode turns off the standard pixels and can cause some clarity loss at extremely close viewing distances.
Xiaomi's demonstrated floating-window, split-screen, and lock-screen privacy controls remain the strongest evidence so far for extra flexibility, but this is still company material measured against Samsung features that have already been shipping and independently tested, not a controlled side-by-side comparison.
The feature stays confirmed only for the China-launching Xiaomi 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max, with no global rollout confirmed in the reporting available so far.
Current Galaxy S26 Ultra owners don't need to do anything differently; Xiaomi's teaser does not change what Samsung has publicly documented about the Galaxy S26 Ultra. Prospective Xiaomi buyers should wait for independent hands-on testing of privacy mode across real lighting and viewing angles, along with confirmation of any release beyond China, before assuming the phone or the feature is something they can actually buy.
Anyone considering either device for sensitive information, banking apps, private messages, or financial data should hold off on trusting either company's marketing claims until reviewers verify effectiveness at common shoulder-surfing angles in ordinary conditions, not just in a staged demo.
Watch for hands-on coverage after the September 23 launch, and treat Xiaomi's Super XiaoAi controls, automated privacy rules, and shoulder-surfer detection as manufacturer claims until someone outside the company gets to test them.
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