Galaxy S26’s NFC Upgrade May Improve Samsung Wallet Contactless Payments

With the development of the upcoming Galaxy S26 series underway, new details keep coming rapidly, thanks to early leaks. Now, a fresh report claims that Samsung may make an under-the-hood change to its 2026 flagship to improve contactless payments on Samsung Wallet. The company is expected to integrate a new NFC antenna on top of the device alongside the existing rear coil.

Samsung may feature a new NFC antenna in the Galaxy S26

Samsung lets its users make NFC-powered contactless payments through its Samsung Wallet (formerly Samsung Pay). However, the NFC antenna is placed next to the rear camera or at the bottom center of the smartphone, which makes tap-to-pay a bit inconvenient. Users may have to twist their wrists when tapping a card reader.

Thankfully, Samsung may address this inconvenience with its Galaxy S26 series. According to a report from Etnews, the Korean firm is considering introducing a new NFC antenna during the design process. “The design is centered around retaining the existing NFC coil location and adding a new NFC antenna,” an industry insider told the publication.

Samsung will still keep the existing NFC coil in the Galaxy S26 series. This will improve NFC functionality on Samsung Wallet, solving the frequent payment failure issues. Furthermore, users will be able to make payments without moving their hand positions awkwardly.

But why did Samsung take so long to adopt this solution? This is because of intellectual property barriers. “Apple holds many related patents, so it took Samsung Electronics a considerable amount of time to technically circumvent them,” an industry insider noted.

Note that the new NFC antenna design on the Galaxy S26 has not yet entered the production stage. There is still a possibility that Samsung may make changes to the antenna placement or other component specifications. If implemented as planned, this could greatly improve payment convenience for Samsung Wallet users.