Samsung’s Galaxy S27 Ultra could feature the company’s most advanced OLED materials, potentially helping it stay competitive with Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro Max and foldable iPhone Duo.
A new report suggests that Samsung’s premium Galaxy S27 Ultra will continue the company’s focus on display quality by adopting the best OLED technology currently available from Samsung Display.
Galaxy S27 Ultra tipped to use advanced M16 display materials
According to South Korea’s ETNews, both the Galaxy S27 Ultra and Galaxy S27 Pro are expected to use M16 display materials.
M16 is currently Samsung Display’s most advanced generation of OLED materials and promises improvements in several key areas, including color reproduction, brightness, energy efficiency and panel longevity.
Equipping the Galaxy S27 Ultra with M16 could give Samsung one of the most notable smartphone displays of the 2027 generation.
The technology is expected to help the device remain competitive on display quality as rivals increasingly invest in premium screens of their own.
Samsung, however, will not be the first smartphone maker to use M16. Google’s Pixel 11 has already become the first phone to feature the material.
Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max and new foldable iPhone Duo also use M16.
Vivo’s iQOO 16, which is expected to launch in China later this month, is also reported to feature the same technology.
That means M16 could be considerably more common by the time the Galaxy S27 Ultra arrives next year. Even so, it remains one of the display technologies that could help Samsung’s flagship hold its own against its biggest rivals.
Building on the Galaxy S26 Ultra
The Galaxy S27 Ultra will not be starting from scratch. Samsung has already established a strong display foundation with the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
The Galaxy S26 Ultra is currently the only smartphone equipped with Privacy Display, a technology designed to make it harder for people nearby to see what is being shown on the screen.
Xiaomi and Honor are developing similar solutions, but Samsung still holds a first-mover advantage.
The Galaxy S26 Ultra is also currently the only mainstream smartphone to use Color Filter-on-Encapsulation, or COE, technology. It removes the conventional polarizer to improve light efficiency while helping make the display thinner and more energy-efficient.
Combined with M16 OLED materials, this technology could give the Galaxy S27 Ultra one of the most advanced displays in the smartphone market.
There is, however, one issue Samsung still needs to address. Some Galaxy S26 Ultra users have reported a reddish tint on the display, and users will be hoping Samsung resolves the problem before the Galaxy S27 Ultra launches.
Samsung may not be cutting costs on the display
The reported M16 upgrade is particularly notable because Samsung is believed to be scaling back or dropping some previously planned Galaxy S27 Ultra upgrades as it seeks to control costs.
Samsung is one of the world’s leading OLED display manufacturers, but it does not always bring its newest display technology to its own smartphones immediately. To keep costs under control, the company has often reused previous-generation OLED materials in newer phones.
That pattern has been evident across the Galaxy S series. The Galaxy S24, S25 and S26 generations used M13 materials on multiple models, while newer technologies were reserved for premium products or held back for later generations.
The Galaxy S27 Ultra reportedly making the jump directly to M16, rather than using the M14 materials previously seen on the Galaxy S26 Ultra, would therefore represent an unexpected shift.
M14 technology is expected to expand to the Galaxy S27 and S27+, which have continued to use M13 materials across several generations.
If the reports prove accurate, Samsung may be pursuing an intriguing strategy: trimming some features and upgrades to control costs while preserving the elements it considers most important to the flagship experience.
