The latest report from South Korea claims that Samsung is planning to bring premium features to its lineup of affordable handsets in the future.

According to Korea Herald, the mobile giant is planning to release budget smartphones with fingerprint sensors that support Samsung Pay. There's still no word on the release dates of these devices, but the new mobile payments platform is expected to be available in mid-tier and budget smartphones as early as mid-2016.

An insider, who asked not to be named, said that that "Samsung is planning to deploy fingerprint sensors in budget smartphone models." However, the company's exact definition of "budget" was left ambiguous. That said, the inclusion of a fingerprint sensor and Samsung Pay strongly implies the devices will come with NFC back covers.

NFC or near filed communication are protocols that let electronic devices pair with one another via touch or near proximity to establish radio communications. A simple tap or swipe from an NFC-enabled device to another is more than enough to pay bills and do other swift transactions. NFC enables wireless data transfer without the help of a stable internet connection. The back cover of an NFC smartphone plays a huge role in the smooth transfer of data, as per Tech Radar.

Each mobile platform has a unique version of the NFC functionality such as Google Wallet, Android Pay, Apple Pay and Amiibo. But as of the moment, the feature is only limited to high-end smartphones.

Samsung is undoubtedly feeling the pressure from its rivals in China, who have already included NFC back covers and fingerprint scanners in their mid-level offerings. As a matter of fact, handsets from mobile makers like Xiaomi and Huawei offer more features than Samsung for the same price.

Currently, only a handful of Samsung's high-end smartphones has fingerprint sensors that could unlock the device as well as authenticate users for mobile applications such as Samsung Pay.

The unnamed source explained that one of the major obstacles for the adoption of biometric scanners in affordable handsets will be its production cost, which will eventually factor in the handsets' final pricing.

At any rate, the plan is part of the Korean tech giant's efforts to expand its top-class features to budget smartphones for emerging markets.

According to market researcher Strategic Analytics via KoreaJoongangDaily, Samsung is the number one smartphone brand in 14 out of 15 emerging markets. The company's market shares in the Netherlands, Romania and Turkey accounted for more than 40 percent of the total market shares per country. Meanwhile, Samsung racked up a 53 percent market share in Egypt.