Samsung Pay is coming to a mid-range phone near you

Samsung could soon be rolling out its mobile payment platform to more of its handsets as it looks to take on the likes of Apple Pay and Android Pay - so you won't necessarily have to buy a top-of-the-range Galaxy to be able to use it.

Markets in developing countries, where the number of budget and mid-range phones in use is rising quickly, are the places Samsung wants to get a foothold, reports Mashable. Anonymous sources have said India will be used as a testing ground for this upcoming Samsung Pay expansion.

All that a phone will need is a PIN code to authorize the transaction, so there's no fancy fingerprint sensor required, and Samsung is apparently in negotiations with payment providers in India to support the service.

Choose your payment method

If all goes well in India then it shouldn't be too long before Samsung Pay reaches just about every handset the company puts out, giving you even more choices if you want to buy goods with a new-fangled payment system that baffles store assistants.

One of the benefits Samsung Pay has over the likes of Apple Pay is it can use Magnetic Secure Transmission technology, which is basically the same tech that powers credit and debit card transactions - no updated NFC terminal is needed.

Again, that puts it in a strong position in a market like India, which doesn't necessarily have the latest tech installed across the country. At the moment 85 million Samsung smartphones are in use in India, many of which should be in line for the upgrade.

David Nield
Freelance Contributor

Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.