Samsung Pay may hit the UK early next year, and it's smarter than Apple Pay

Samsung Pay
Samsung Pay is almost here

Samsung Pay is supposedly meant to be a competitor to Android Pay and Apple Pay, but as it's currently only available in the US and South Korea it's not much use to most of the world.

That might be about to change though, as SamMobile has received information that the mobile payment service will be launching in the UK, China and Spain in the first quarter of 2016.

We were always expecting a UK launch at some point, so this rumour isn't unbelievable, but it is still just a rumour.

No NFC required

If true, though, we may be mere months away from seeing Samsung Pay and it's worth getting excited about: Samsung's payment service can work on almost any card terminal, even those without contactless technology built in.

It does this by mimicking a card swipe, though it can also be used in the same way as Apple Pay where NFC is supported. That gives it a big advantage over rival services which rely purely on NFC terminals.

Sadly it only works with Samsung devices, and more specifically only the Samsung Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, Galaxy S6 Edge+, Galaxy Note 5 and Gear 2 for the time being.

But if you've got any of them, your iPhone-wielding friends could soon have something to be jealous about.

TOPICS

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.

Latest in Samsung Phones
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra could have even smaller bezels - and that could mean an even bigger display
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra on an orange background
The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is still full price and I don't know what Samsung's playing at
An image of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra from a hands-on event
Will Samsung's new Galaxy AI features come to older devices? Here's what we know
'Circle to Search' on a Galaxy S25 Ultra can now identify a song you sing, hum, or play.
Samsung’s clever new ‘Circle to Search’ trick could help you figure out that song that is stuck in your head
An image of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra from a hands-on event
We celebrate the Samsung Galaxy S25 launch event with a special episode of our podcast
Samsung Galaxy S24 hands on handheld back straight white
Samsung Galaxy S25 AI leak teases major Gemini upgrades and new morning briefings
Latest in News
DeepSeek
Deepseek’s new AI is smarter, faster, cheaper, and a real rival to OpenAI's models
Open AI
OpenAI unveiled image generation for 4o – here's everything you need to know about the ChatGPT upgrade
Apple WWDC 2025 announced
Apple just announced WWDC 2025 starts on June 9, and we'll all be watching the opening event
Hornet swings their weapon in mid air
Hollow Knight: Silksong gets new Steam metadata changes, convincing everyone and their mother that the game is finally releasing this year
OpenAI logo
OpenAI just launched a free ChatGPT bible that will help you master the AI chatbot and Sora
An aerial view of an Instavolt Superhub for charging electric vehicles
Forget gas stations – EV charging Superhubs are using solar power to solve the most annoying thing about electric motoring