Ever since Samsung first debuted its “Privacy display” on the Galaxy S26 Ultra, we’ve been wondering why nobody thought to make our larger screens harder to spy on. China-centric brand Huawei claims it already figured out how to add such a screen to a laptop, and now it’s a feature we want on every large-screen device going forward. You can see this new display in action on the Huawei MateBook Pro S (via Android Authority), a thin and light laptop sporting a 3.1K-resolution OLED display. The “Smart Shield Privacy Screen” will keep your screen visible to the person sitting directly in front of it. Depending on the steepness of your angle from the screen, you may only see a dim or completely black screen. Huawei claims the laptop will detect if there are any onlookers with the webcam, and users can enable the privacy screen by clicking a popup. You can also flick a physical switch to turn privacy mode on or off. Sure, there are existing, cheap privacy shield covers you can buy for laptops, but any filter will inevitably reduce the clarity of the display.
The MateBook Pro S is additionally light at 1.7 pounds and thin at 11.9 mm, or 0.47 inches. © Huawei Huawei further says its displays use a two-layer pixel design The second set of pixels activates when you click the privacy setting, and the company claims you’ll still get the same brightness as you would during regular use. We’re not so convinced, considering the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra’s display quality and brightness take a hit with the feature enabled. The MateBook Pro S can reach 1,600 nits of peak brightness in HDR, but we doubt you’ll get nearly as much luminance with the privacy mode enabled.
