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.

James Rogerson

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.