Samsung Pay is a very convenient payment service that, in my opinion, beats Google Pay in many ways. Quick selection of a card for payment right on the lock screen, the need to verify every transaction with a fingerprint or iris of the eye, and the ability to pay contactlessly even on terminals without NFC support, undoubtedly make it the best means of payment on Android. However, it also has at least one drawback, which annoys me almost more than the lack of hot swapping of cards in Google Pay.
Samsung Pay made me blush at the checkout with a full shopping cart
Of course, I'm talking about not using Samsung Pay when the battery is low. I would hesitate to give specific numbers, since, apparently, each smartphone has a different limit, but I personally faced a refusal to use contactless payment on the Galaxy A51 when it reached 15% charge. The smartphone simply wouldn't let me start Samsung Pay, citing low remaining energy, and made me blush in line at the checkout, looking for a wallet with a physical payment card.
Samsung Pay doesn't work
Does the battery run out? Samsung Pay won't turn on either
Perhaps, for Samsung users, this is a completely common practice, but I have not had the opportunity to use smartphones of this brand before, and, secondly, to pay for purchases via Samsung Pay when the device is on its last legs. Therefore, when I found out that Korean smartphones sin with this shortcoming, I was very disappointed, given that sometimes I do not take my wallet or bank cards with me, and I only hope for a smartphone and contactless payment, which today is accepted in any stall with shawarma.
Why Samsung is limiting Samsung Pay, no one really knows. I decided to look for information on the Internet and the only explanation that seemed logical to me was that the MST technology (the one that allows contactless payment on terminals without NFC) requires too much energy. Perhaps this is true, since no other service has such a limitation. But most of the new Samsung smartphones do not support MST technology, and Samsung Pay will still not start on them with a low battery charge.
Samsung Pay won't work
A quick analysis showed that this problem is annoying not only to me. There is a whole thread on Reddit dedicated to this Samsung Pay flaw. Moreover, the claim of the majority of users refers not even to the restriction itself, but to Samsung, which does not warn of its existence in advance, but confronts the fact that all the goods are pierced and all that remains is to lean the smartphone against the terminal to make a payment.
Apple Pay works even if the battery runs out to zero. But Samsung has its own rules
In my opinion, this is a rather strange practice – to limit the payment functions of the smartphone when it reaches 15% of the charge. First, the fact is that 15% is quite a lot. In some cases, this resource may be enough for the smartphone to work for another hour. Secondly, contactless payment technology is one of the least resource-intensive. This is proved by Apple, which allows you to pay for travel in transport using iPhone, even if its battery is discharged to zero, and Samsung for some reason is not even 15%.
Is it possible to correct the current situation? Personally, I think you can. After all, if Apple succeeds, Samsung should do it too. Another thing is that, most likely, the Koreans do not think too much about this, and the limitation on the use of Samsung Pay with a low battery charge has been going on since the mid-tenths, when the batteries were low-power, and MST, perhaps, really required more resources than NFC. Well, if this is technically impossible, then I will be even more disappointed in the abilities of the engineers of the South Korean company.