No More Payment Fails? Galaxy S26 Could Change the Game

The Galaxy S26 series leaks have started flowing, and there’s no stopping until their launch. The flagship phones may launch in January 2026, much like the Galaxy S25. There could be a new Galaxy S26 Pro in the series. It is said to be a compact offering that’ll replace the standard variant in the series. A fresh new report says that Samsung is planning to improve the mobile payments experience on the upcoming Galaxy phones, starting with the Galaxy S26 lineup next year. 

Galaxy S26 may get a new NFC antenna for improved payments

As per a report by ETNews, Samsung is planning on adding an NFC antenna at the top of the phone. This could be in addition to the existing NFC coil at the back of the phone. It will apparently make it easier to tap and pay at PoS (point-of-sale) machines using Samsung Wallet. The move possibly comes with a goal to make the mobile payments experience similar to iPhones.

In the current state, Galaxy phones have an NFC coil at the back. This meant users have to twist their phones a bit to make payments in some cases. In other cases, even with the phone properly aligned on a PoS machine with an NFC reader, the payment fails. 

Reportedly, Apple has quite a few payments related to the placement of the NFC antenna for mobile payments. It looks like Samsung took its time to find a way around those.

The new design hasn’t entered the production stage yet

Reportedly, the Galaxy S26’s design with the new NFC antenna hasn’t entered the production phase yet. This means there could be any last-minute changes. However, if things fall in place and the design is finalised, this could improve the mobile payments experience on the Galaxy S26. This should also help Samsung boost its Wallet’s market share in the USA.

Besides the wallet experience, the Galaxy S26 series will also reportedly feature bigger batteries compared to their predecessors.