Samsung has just announced the new Galaxy S21 series as part of its first Galaxy Unpacked event for 2021. The series, comprising the Galaxy S21, S21 Plus, and S21 Ultra, comes with a number of improved features but removes some too. Apart from the removal of the in-box charger, the smartphones lack one of the interesting features of Samsung Pay and we are not sure if the payment service is any cool right now. Also Read - Samsung Galaxy A52 India launch soon: Expected specifications, price of 5G and 4G versions
Samsung Galaxy S21 doesn’t get Samsung Pay MST
It is revealed that the latest Galaxy S21 series doesn’t include Samsung Pay’s MST or Magnetic Secure Transmission feature. The news got confirmed after the South Korean major provided an official statement to Android Police on this. Also Read - Galaxy A52 5G, Galaxy A72 spotted on Samsung website, revealing official renders
The statement reads, “Due to the rapid adoption of near field communication (NFC) technology by consumers and businesses, beginning with devices launched in 2021, Samsung Pay will focus its support on NFC transactions, across the Galaxy portfolio. While future devices will no longer include magnetic stripe technology (MST), customers with previous, compatible Galaxy devices will be able to continue using Samsung Pay, including MST.” Also Read - Samsung Galaxy A22 5G India release date, more specifications leaked: Here's a look
While you may wonder why is it a big deal, you should know that Samsung Pay‘s use of MST enabled easy cardless payments in the absence of NFC-enabled payments.
The feature sent a magnetic signal imitating the ones sent from a traditional card to the payment terminal for easy payments without the need to use the actual wallet. This helped in convenient cardless payments in the absence of NFC and helped people avoid the hassle of getting the card swiped.
This doesn’t mean that the new Galaxy S21 series is going all inconvenient. It still supports NFC-based payments, which is another way of making payments via Samsung Pay.
However, henceforth, Samsung will ditch the MST feature for its phones and stick to NFC payments. While there is one functionality still available, MST ensured Samsung Pay has an edge over other payment platforms such as Google Pay, Paytm, and more with digital payments in places without NFC support.
As a reminder, the Galaxy S21 series also lacks an in-box charger, earphones, and support for microSD storage expansion.
We reached out to Samsung for more details on this. Hence, stay tuned.
