Related Articles
Orange has a new phone that uses its ‘Quick Tap‘ NFC tech that lets you pay for stuff in shops using your phone. The Samsung Wave 578 joins the earlier Samsung Tocco Lite Quick Tap in being able to transfer wonga when you slap it down on a special machine.
The downside? It only works if you’ve got a Barclaycard, Barclays debit or Orange credit card. If you do use one of those cards, you can load up to £100 on to your phone to use while you’re out and about, making payments of up to £15 at a time.
It also only works in certain shops. Pret a Manger, Eat, McDonalds, Subway and Little Chef are all signed up, but you’re still unlikely to see contactless payment machines in most high street establishments.
So in the event that you’re an Orange customer who also uses Barclaycard, and you find yourself in McDonalds and wishing to make a payment of under £15, this could absolutely save you seconds of faffing about with your wallet. But what about the phone itself?
Wave! 5, 7, 8!
It’s only one digit away from being a 90s boot-scootin’ pop nightmare, but that’s no reason to hate on the Wave 578. Running Bada, Samsung’s own operating system, this phone has a 3.2-inch resistive touchscreen as well as Wi-Fi connectivity. There’s a 3.2-megapixel camera around the back.
If that doesn’t sound too fancy, then rest assured your fancy-gadget antennae is functioning correctly — this phone is a basic, budget blower, so we’re not expecting it to cost very much. We first got our eyes on this phone way back in February, when it popped up at Mobile World Congress.
To tempt people to sign up, Barclays will funnel £10 into your account when you activate, and you get 10 per cent cash back on all Quick Tap purchases you make within the first 90 days. The Samsung Wave 578 with Quick Tap will be available from Orange in the next few weeks, on pay as you go and contract — let us know if you’re tempted down in the comments, or on our Facebook wall.
