SumUp Solo review: nifty, little touchscreen card terminal for simple payments

How SumUp Solo works

SumUp is known for its user-friendly, simple card payment solutions for small businesses and sole traders alike.

The latest card terminal, SumUp Solo, is a special one: a square-shaped, standalone card reader without a physical PIN pad. Instead, it is operated exclusively via the front-facing touchscreen, like a purpose-built mobile device for card payments.

Fees and pricing

SumUp Solo only costs a one-off price of £79 + VAT with the desk stand, or £139 + VAT with the receipt printer.

No setup fee applies, and it gets delivered for free within 2-3 working days. If you change your mind about the purchase, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee on Solo.

There is no monthly fee, contractual commitment or other ongoing costs, just a fixed rate of 1.69% per card payment.

Payouts are processed free to your bank account within 2-3 working days, or to the SumUp Business Account the following day if you are directing payouts there.

It is free to refund card transactions, as long as the transaction has not yet been settled in your bank account (i.e. within 1-3 days of the original transaction). After that, SumUp will charge a 1.69% transaction fee to process the refund.

If a customer disputes a payment, a chargeback fee of £10 occurs.

A membership subscription, SumUp One, is available for £19 per month. This reduces your chip and contactless rate to 0.79% per transaction for domestic consumer cards (non-UK and commercial cards would cost 1.99%) and gives you a 50% discount on SumUp Solo.

Terminal features

SumUp Solo is a totally unique card terminal to enter the UK market. It is the first card machine 100% designed by SumUp in-house by a team of over 100 engineers and product designers. Previous card readers – such as SumUp Air – were partly designed by SumUp, using certain hardware components by third parties.

And the result? A simple touchscreen terminal that can constantly evolve with software updates. It is comfortable to hold in your hand, lightweight and easy to slide into a pocket. The built-in software is quite basic at this point, but SumUp may add features down the line.

The (non-colour) touchscreen is highly responsive. When it’s on standby and not in the accompanying dock, you simply tap the dark screen to show the checkout screen. If stationed in the countertop- or receipt printer dock, you have to press the power button on the side to activate the screen.

You can adjust the screen brightness to suit any environment and set it to turn off the screen after 30 seconds, 1-5 minutes or never.

We tested the maximum screen brightness in strong sunlight, and the screen was still readable. It was grey and not bright in the sun, though better than its predecessor SumUp 3G’s display that had complaints about being hard to see in the sun.

The battery life is officially 100 transactions from a full charge, but in reality, it depends on how it’s used.

With maximum screen brightness and frequent testing, the battery did not take more than an hour to use half its power. If you only used it for transactions, with low screen brightness, it would last longer. It used to drain the battery within hours to keep it on standby, but SumUp has improved the battery life significantly since.

In addition, the new receipt printer attachment acts as a power bank that automatically starts charging the terminal when low on battery (while placed in the printer). From a full charge, the receipt printer itself can print up to 800 receipts without a recharge.

It takes a few hours to charge Solo from 0% to 100% in the basic desk dock, whereas the receipt printer only takes an hour to fully charge itself and the card reader together.

What about the software? Here are the features:

Accessories and printed receipts

Since this is a standalone card machine, there are not many accessories to connect it with.

If you buy the cheaper Solo package, the main accessory included is a non-slip display stand to put on a countertop. This doubles as a charging dock with an internal storage compartment for a USB charging cable.

You can either plug the charging cable into Solo directly, or place Solo in the cradle and plug the cable into the dock to charge the card reader. You’ll need your own adapter plug for the USB cable, or charge it through a USB charging socket.

The countertop dock’s clear, magnetically attached lid is a great, stylish protection to keep the reader free from dust and dirt. The included decals showing all the cards accepted by SumUp Solo can be stuck onto the lid perfectly.

If you buy the Solo and Printer package, you don’t get the above countertop dock. Instead, you get a receipt printer dock specifically designed for the SumUp Solo card reader. It’s built to look great as both a countertop stand and portable printer, so it works equally well at till point and on the go.

No other receipt printer works with Solo.

You cannot connect the card reader with point of sale equipment like a cash drawer, barcode scanner or kitchen printer. It is meant purely for card and mobile wallet transactions, not cash or POS setups where you scan products or print itemised receipts.

SumUp Solo vs Air

Faced with the choice between SumUp Air and SumUp Solo, there are some crucial differences.

For a start, SumUp Air only works when it’s connected with SumUp App on a phone or tablet connected to the internet. Solo only works on its own.

Because Air is only switched on when a transaction created in SumUp App is ready for the card payment, the battery life of Air is much better than Solo at 500 transactions from a full charge. Transactions on Solo are created from start to finish via a power-consuming touchscreen, so it only lasts 100 transactions from a full charge.

Reporting and other free extras

If you need more than a basic transactions overview on the terminal, you can log into your SumUp Dashboard on a laptop. Here, you can analyse sales and export sales reports.

You’ll also see many additional features (included free) such as invoicing, a product library and your SumUp Business Account.

Even if you don’t have a SumUp Air reader, we recommend downloading the SumUp App on your phone because it has lots of additional features. You can send payment links, accept QR code payments, sell and accept gift cards, and create a basic online store.

The app also has an overview of payouts, employee accounts (staff can have different logins) and a product library to sell from in the app only, not SumUp Solo.

Customer service

All SumUp merchants can phone, email or message customer support on weekdays between 8am-7pm and weekends between 7am-5pm. Some customers do not get prompt support, while others do – calling is usually the fastest way to reach the team.

You cannot access help guides on the terminal, but it does show the URL to SumUp’s online FAQs that you can look up on your phone.

Getting started

SumUp is one of the easiest options around for getting started with card payments.

You simply go on the website, click to get started and complete an online sign-up form (takes about 5-10 minutes). You can then order the card reader online and wait 2-3 working days to receive it by post.

It may take a few days before your bank account – which must be in a name that matches your business name – is linked to your SumUp account, but you can still accept payments straight away. As soon as the bank account is verified, transactions can be released in your bank account.

Alternatively, you can choose to receive transactions in the online SumUp account, if you want to keep it separate from your bank account.

Our verdict

SumUp Solo is an interesting card machine built for card payments that don’t require integration with a POS system. It works well for simple transactions where you just enter a payment total, not itemised receipts linked to a food menu or inventory library.

It’s fundamentally different from its predecessor SumUp 3G because of its touchscreen and compact design, but they are equally basic in their features. If you want more advanced features, you may consider SumUp Air that connects with POS systems – but Air doesn’t work on its own.

With Solo, you can truly use it solo, anywhere with a mobile connection or wireless internet. The accompanying stand or receipt printer makes it great for, say, hairdressers and pop-up shops with a counter, and the tipping options are advantageous for hospitality and professional services.

Last but not least: the lack of monthly fees, commitment and complicated costs is attractive for a card reader. The upfront cost is low compared to traditional card machines, and the fixed rate competitive below a monthly turnover of £5,000.