Samsung Galaxy S27 might finally introduce DC dimming

We already heard word that Samsung Display is gearing up to start Galaxy S27 display manufacturing soon. That might have already happened; hence, these new leaks might be perfectly plausible. Apparently, the S27 Pro and S27 Ultra will be the first Samsung smartphones to offer DC dimming. That sounds like it can’t possibly be true, and yet a quick search later – indeed, even the Galaxy S26 Ultra relies on traditional PWM to adjust its brightness.

Simplifying things a bit, in case you don’t know what we are talking about, PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) is the traditional way of adjusting a display’s brightness. It basically flickers the light source (backlight or the pixels themselves in self-emitting display tech) very quickly on and off to achieve different perceived brightness. It works, but it is kind of a “hack” relying on how our eyes work, and some people are actually pretty sensitive to the technique and can suffer eye fatigue and even headaches. The solution we have is DC dimming. It actually adjusts the voltage input to the light source, so no nasty flicker. It is much harder to do, though, especially on modern displays with other features like variable refresh rate.

That doesn’t mean it’s impossible, though, just difficult. Open, say, a recent flagship Xiaomi device specs sheet, and you will instantly spot adaptive refresh rate with LTPO tech and optional DC dimming. That is still a technological hurdle, like we said, and often requires a hybrid approach where medium to high brightness levels use DC while low-brightness levels switch to PWM. Still, it can be done, and it’s largely to the user’s benefit and comfort.

Anyway, more to the point, a rumor has surfaced claiming that the S27 Pro and S27 Ultra will finally offer DC dimming. At least in some capacity, that is, since a hybrid approach might still be required. This is apparently another thing that is part of the wider S27 display “split”. As per sources, the Pro and Ultra will get Samsung’s latest M16 OLED material formula, while the regular S27 and the S27 Plus will get M14+. Another display differentiator is also the Privacy Display feature, introduced in the Galaxy S26 Ultra. Apparently, it is sticking around on the S27 Pro and S27 Ultra.

Frankly, it is kind of surprising that Samsung is retaining the frankly niche Privacy Display feature that is pretty complicated hardware-wise and sounds like much more of an investment than the move to DC dimming. And while on the subject, we don’t want to sound like we don’t appreciate the potential addition, but where is proper hardware 10-bit color support? Some competitors are already offering 12-bit color.

Before you light up the comment section, we get how economy of scale works both ways and that in insanely high-volume models, saving even cents makes huge sense. And, just to keep things as balanced as possible, it’s not like Samsung is the “greedy villain” here. Apple iPhones don’t really have DC dimming either. They have a “smooth PWM” mode in settings. And there is no hardware 10-bit color on iPhones either. So if you’re going to be mad at anybody, it should probably be the “big guys”.

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