It has been over a decade since Samsung started equipping Galaxy phones with NFC. It offers a convenient way to make payments when you’re shopping online and can be used to unlock cars and doors. If the company uses the newest version of NFC, mobile payment and other NFC-based features could work drastically better.
NFC Release 15 quadruples detection range to 2cm
The NFC Forum, which oversees the development of the NFC technology, has announced a newer version of NFC. It is called Release 15, and it brings a detection range of up to 2cm. That is 4x longer than the current version of NFC, which is limited to just 0.5cm. This allows for a faster, more reliable way for contactless connections, and that could greatly improve the experience of making mobile payments, unlocking doors, and pairing devices.
If this new version of NFC is integrated into future Galaxy phones and smartwatches, you don’t need to make them touch the NFC payments point (PoS) in stores or stations. Moreover, it also means that phones or devices don’t have to be aligned or placed in a certain way or at a certain angle for the NFC to get detected. Connections will be faster and there will be fewer instances of a connection not happening.
While there are already some devices in the market with an NFC range of 2cm, they use custom implementations. NFC Forum said that the new release of NFC will offer a standardized way to bring a longer range and brands won’t have to spend more time to use custom implementations.
Samsung and other adopter member brands can start testing NFC Release 15 staring from Fall 2025. We hope Samsung brings this newer version of NFC with the Galaxy S26 series early next year.
