When I use my Galaxy phone, I want the screen to look as vibrant as possible. So when I saw that the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s screen was missing something, I wasn’t sure what it was until I found the right controls hidden in the Display settings submenu. The colors looked duller than I wanted, so I turned on Vivid. That made a difference, and tweaking the slider a little more got the screen looking just the way I wanted it.
I checked the same menu on my Galaxy A34 too. The options weren’t identical, but the path was. The trick is knowing where Samsung put the controls and which settings can make them disappear.
Where to find Samsung’s hidden display controls
I tested this menu on both the Galaxy S26 Ultra and Galaxy A34, mostly because I wanted to see whether Samsung saved it for its pricier phones. You only need to go to Settings -> Display -> Screen mode -> Make sure Vivid is selected -> Advanced settings.
Samsung lists the same basic path in its own support guide. So at least on the two phones I tested, you don’t need one of Samsung’s newest flagships to get into this menu, though the controls inside aren’t exactly the same.
If you follow the steps but don’t see Advanced settings, the first suspect is that you’re still in Natural mode. You won’t see it on the S26 Ultra if Adaptive color tone ison. Samsung says blue-light features can also affect which screen modes are available. You should also turn off Eye comfort shield to see the feature. The exact options can still vary depending on your phone and software version.
That’s what makes the feature feel hidden and harder to find than one would like. So before deciding that your Galaxy screen is too dull, warm, or intense, turn off those display settings and look again.
I got the vivid colors I was looking for
The slider gave me the option to customize it more
The Vividness slider is designed to make colors look more vivid on your display, and that’s what I saw on the S26 Ultra. The Galaxy A34 still had Vivid mode, but it didn’t have the extra tool.
To see the difference between Natural and Vivid, you can look at the preview images at the top. Swipe between the colorful pinwheel, an abstract geometric design, and a red house on a yellow field to see how the setting affects different colors. You can see the changes across the display, including app icons, wallpaper, Gallery photos, and videos, making them look even richer. Samsung also says Vivid mode may not behave the same way across all third-party apps.
If you lower it, you can get closer to the calmer look that Natural mode offers. It doesn’t improve the camera or edit your photos, though. You’re only changing how the screen shows them, so the same picture may look different on someone else’s screen. On the S26 Ultra, moving the slider up made the colors feel less held back to me without making everything look overdone.
Samsung didn’t add the slider for fun. When the Galaxy S24 series came out, some owners on Samsung’s own community said Vivid still looked washed out and barely different from Natural. Samsung announced the new control a few weeks later, saying the update was based on feedback and would let users pick a more vibrant display.
The other sliders helped fix the colors that still looked off
The R, G, and B sliders helped fix the smaller annoyances
At times, white areas looked too blue, skin tones felt warmer than I liked, and gray menus seemed to pick up a faint tint. I had controls to change that on both the Galaxy S26 Ultra and the A34.
The Cool-to-Warm slider was the easiest place to start. This option changes the overall color cast of the display. Moving it toward Cool gives the screen a bluer tone, while Warm gives it a warmer tone. It’s useful if whites look too yellow, too blue, or simply different from how you like them.
You’ll also see sliders with the letters R, G, and B, which simply stand for red, green, and blue. These sliders help when whites look blue, or faces seem too red. On both phones, all three sliders started at their highest positions, so fixing a tint usually meant lowering the color that looked too strong instead of raising the other two. Play around with them until everything looks just the way you like it . Try moving one slider at a time and see how the preview image above looks. There’s no perfect combination Samsung recommends. If you like how it looks, you’re all set.
Now that I see what Vivid does, I’m not going back
When Vivid wasn’t on, the colors on my Galaxy looked boring. They didn’t look as bright and vivid as I wanted them to be. However, after turning it on and seeing the before-and-after, I can say for sure that it’s a feature that’s going to stay on my phone from now on. If I have to look at my phone for a while for whatever reason, I might as well make it look as nice as possible, and the Vivid feature helps me with that. If for some reason I want to turn it off, I can easily go back to my phone’s settings and turn it off as many times as I want. To some, the difference might be too small to make a meaningful difference, but if you want your screen to look as good as possible, leave Vivid on.