Samsung has collected 57 design recognitions across the 2026 IDEA and Red Dot Design Awards, with the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s Privacy Display receiving Red Dot’s Best of the Best distinction. The company received 45 IDEA honors and 12 Red Dot awards, spanning phones, home appliances, storage, packaging, display branding and design tools.
Privacy Display is designed to reduce screen visibility from side angles on the Galaxy S26 Ultra. Samsung says the feature can be enabled in specific situations, including when entering a PIN or password, within selected apps, or for notifications. The approach targets visual privacy in public spaces rather than applying a permanent viewing restriction across the interface.
At IDEA, Samsung’s Accessibility Design for Home Appliances project received the organization’s first Impact Award, a new 2026 category for work focused on social and sustainability impact. The program includes Easy Mode, which simplifies appliance interfaces and enlarges text, as well as voice guidance for users with visual impairments.
Samsung also highlighted Auto Open Door, allowing compatible appliance doors to be opened with a light touch or a voice command. Accessibility settings configured on a phone can be transferred to connected appliances, according to the company, while Voice ID can recognize an individual user and apply their preferences automatically.
The IDEA tally includes one Impact Award, nine Bronze Awards and 35 finalists. Among the Bronze-winning projects are the Portable SSD T7 Resurrected, which uses an enclosure made entirely from recycled aluminum; the Samsung Mobile Origami Package, a smartphone packaging concept made from a single sheet of recycled paper; the Infinite AI Air Purifier; and the Micro RGB Brand Identity.
Samsung’s AI Design Companion was also recognized. Rather than being a consumer product, it is a design-process tool that uses AI, digital twins and virtual simulations to generate and adjust digital models, including assessments of ergonomics and product use across different users.
Other Red Dot-recognized work includes Vision AI Companion, the Galaxy XR Package, Samsung b.IoT Digital Twin and the Movingstyle identity. The results underline how Samsung’s design push now extends beyond hardware into interfaces, packaging and the systems used to develop connected products, while Privacy Display remains the most prominent phone-facing feature in this year’s awards.
