One of the most touted features of the Galaxy S5 is its fingerprint scanner, and the ability to use it for making PayPal payments, something which we exclusively confirmed before the device was officially announced. According to MIT's Technology Review journal, the Galaxy S5 is the first smartphone to support this feature and goes beyond what Apple offers on the iPhone 5s – while Apple only supports making payments on its own content store after verifying a fingerprint, the S5 will be able to authorize payments at any website or store that supports PayPal payments. The feature is made possible due to the Galaxy S5 being certified for PayPal’s new FIDO-based fingerprint system, with Samsung's flagship the first commercial product to do so.
Fingerprint scanners are expected to become a common feature of smartphones in the future, and Samsung is leading the charge in making secure online payments easier and quicker with the Galaxy S5. We'll likely see the fingerprint sensor be present on the next Galaxy Note as well, and while Samsung did get inspired by Apple into using fingerprint recognition on its devices, it's good see the Korean manufacturer went beyond what the Cupertino giant managed to achieve.
