Samsung Pay: Mobile payment system to be extended to budget Samsung smartphones

The recently unveiled Samsung Pay, hitherto available only in select high-end Samsung smartphones, is now being extended to less-expensive handsets as well. However, the list of these devices is yet to surface.

According to The Korea Herald, that quotes officials at Samsung, the contactless payment system will be rolled out gradually to multiple Samsung budget smartphones. Currently, owners of the Samsung Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge and Galaxy S6 Edge Plus can use the mobile payment system.

Samsung Pay is aimed at competing with contactless mobile payment services such as Apple Pay and Android Pay. Samsung Pay is slated to be released officially in the US on 28 September in association with major financial institutions such as Bank of America and Chase, and in collaboration with credit card companies such as Visa, Discover, MasterCard and American Express.

Samsung has hinted that Samsung Pay will be rolled out to the UK, Spain and China. Debit and credit cards issued by banks partnering with Samsung can be synchronised with users' smartphones to make cashless payments

Apple Pay vs Samsung Pay

The major difference between the mobile payment systems of Apple and Samsung is while Apple Pay is designed to work on card machines with contactless card reader, Samsung Pay also works with magnetic stripe readers in addition to synchronising with contactless card readers. Samsung Pay uses Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) technology that enables retailers to use their existing hardware without upgrading to receive payments from customers.