News & Reviews:   Samsung Pay

Did you know? Samsung Pay will be one year old in Malaysia and to celebrate this occasion, Samsung Malaysia Electronics has teamed up with several partners to offer your shopping and reward redemption more accessible. So starting tomorrow (2 March) until 4 March 2018, every Samsung Pay users will earn 2X the Samsung Rewards Points for every purchase made from the payment app.

After the preview with Maybank and Samsung Pay, Samsung Malaysia Electronics has officially launched their contactless electronic wallet Samsung Pay for more Samsung phones (Samsung Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 edge, Galaxy Note5, Galaxy S6 edge+, Galaxy A7 2016, Galaxy A5 2016, Galaxy A5 2017 and Galaxy A7 2017) and more supported banks. While Maybank is still the only bank that supports debit and prepaid cards, CIMB, Citibank and Standard Chartered credit cards are now supported on Samsung Pay. Hong Leong bank is expected to join the pack shortly with other banks set to join up eventually. 

Have you heard? Tomorrow (24 February) Samsung Malaysia Electronics will hold an event roadshow at KLCC Centre Court until 28 February 2017 and it will be the official day of Samsung Pay going live officially. This is open to all shoppers and Samsung customers, so why not come and experience the convenience of Samsung Pay, and get some rewards too from participating banks! 

Samsung Pay, which was previewed in partnership with Maybank roughly a month ago, will soon be officially launched in Malaysia on 24th February 2017.

What is Samsung Pay? It is a wallet-less mobile payment system, that allows payments to be made at card terminals using compatible Galaxy smartphones (Samsung Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge, Galaxy Note5, Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Galaxy A Series (2016) and Galaxy A Series (2017)). While it was initially available only to Maybank VISA card holders, with the official launch, Samsung Pay will finally be able to accept both Mastercard and VISA cards issued by CIMB, Citi, and Standard Chartered too!

Again, last week had no really dominating news but there were some notables. Caving in to the pressure, Microsoft have announced that the full Windows 10 experience may soon run on Qualcomm Snapdragon processors. Fitbit are buying Pebble, effectively marking an end to the initially crowd-funded Pebble smartwatch.

Walletless or electronic payment in Malaysia is taking a big step forward as Samsung Malaysia Electronics and Maybank jointly announced that Samsung Pay is now in open beta for Malaysia. It is exclusive to Maybank Visa debit, credit or prepaid card holders and compatible Samsung smartphones. This exclusive access is available from 9 December to 31 December 2016.

This week we launched our own GadgetBook Giveaways so you can win or own a floating Bluetooth speaker with more weird, trendy and fun gadgets coming soon. However, most of the tech news this week involved the official arrival of the Apple iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 plus and their subsequent deliveries or bundled launches with Celcom, Maxis (which involved interrupting a band), Digi and U Mobile along with GemFive.

Apart from selling devices, Samsung is also involved in other businesses, which includes shipping, construction and even white goods. One of the features that they have introduced previously is Samsung Pay – a payment system that allows Samsung phones to be used as payment instead of cash. It seems that Malaysia is next on the list of countries to have this payment system as Samsung users have been prompted with an invitation to join the Open Beta trial locally.

While other countries are busy using Android Pay, Apple Pay or Samsung Pay for their daily payment convinience, we as a country have yet to embrace wireless payment technology – until now. Maybank just introduced MaybankPay, the banking company’s own mobile payment service via smartphones and supported devices.

What a day at Samsung SEA Forum 2016! There were a lot of products displayed such as the Samsung SUHD TV with Quantum Dot Display, Family Hub refrigerator, AddWash Washing Machine, Galaxy TabPro S, new Gear S2 classic colours, and even Samsung Pay! We did some hands-on video on the products so check out below to watch them!