PAX A920 & A920 Pro: setup, apps, and payments.

What the PAX A920 is

The PAX A920 is an Android-based smart payment terminal that runs PAX's PayDroid operating system. Unlike a traditional single-purpose card machine, it behaves like a small, locked-down Android device dedicated to payments: a color touchscreen, apps, and network connectivity, all hardened for handling cards. It's portable and battery-powered, with a built-in thermal receipt printer, a camera that can scan barcodes and QR codes, and card readers for contactless (tap), chip (EMV), and magstripe, over both Wi-Fi and cellular.

The A920 Pro is the upgraded generation — a larger, brighter screen and faster internals — while keeping the same core payment capabilities. Both are popular precisely because the Android base lets a merchant run a real payment app, not just a fixed firmware menu. Lifted Pay supports the A920, A920 Pro, and A920 Max.

First-boot setup, step by step

Exact prompts vary by firmware and provider, but every A920 follows the same shape when you take it out of the box:

1. Charge and power on. Give it a full charge, then hold the power button. The terminal boots into PayDroid.
2. Connect to a network. Join Wi-Fi from the settings, or insert a SIM for cellular. A payment terminal needs a live connection to authorize cards.
3. Set date, time, and region. Accurate time matters — payment security and receipts depend on it.
4. Let it check for updates. PayDroid and installed apps typically pull updates over the network on first connect.
5. Install your payment app. This is the key step, and it happens through PAXSTORE — covered next.
6. Activate the app to your merchant account. The payment app links the device to your account so it can take real cards.

How apps install: PAXSTORE

You don't sideload apps onto a payment terminal the way you would a phone. The A920 uses PAXSTORE, PAX's app marketplace and remote device-management platform. Your payments provider publishes or assigns the payment app there, and it installs onto your terminal over the air. This is deliberate: it keeps payment apps signed, centrally managed, and updatable, and it lets a provider push fixes to a whole fleet without touching each device. When you get an A920 through a processor, the payment app is provisioned this way rather than downloaded from a consumer app store.

Lifted Pay is a PAX-signed, PayDroid-certified app for the A920 family — signed and packaged for distribution through PAXSTORE. That signing-and-certification step is normal for payment apps and is exactly why terminal software ships through PAXSTORE rather than a sideload.

Taking a card-present payment

Once a payment app is installed and activated, a sale is straightforward: enter the amount, then the customer taps, inserts, or swipes. Card-present transactions like these are what the A920 is built for, and they generally carry lower interchange than keyed or online payments — one reason a physical terminal is worth it for counter sales. On Lifted Pay, the flow includes tips, cards on file, a virtual terminal, and reporting today; an item catalog with cost and margin, invoices, and payment links are on the roadmap. See Lifted Pay and the PAX payment app page for the full picture.

A note on the screen during payment

On PAX terminals, the trusted payment layer (BroadPOS) takes over the physical screen the moment a card interaction begins — amount confirm, tap/insert/swipe, PIN, and approval. That's a security feature: the part of the flow that touches the card is owned by the trusted payment stack, not the app's own UI. A well-built terminal app respects that handoff rather than drawing over it.

Security: E2EE and tokenization on the A920

A modern payment app on the A920 encrypts the card at the reader and stores it only as a token. On Lifted Pay, cards are end-to-end encrypted and vaulted as tokens with Voltage, so the clear card number never touches merchant systems — which supports a SAQ-A compliance posture and enables cards on file and refund-after-settlement (proven on a live A920 Pro). If you want the full mechanics, see our guide to tokenization and SAQ-A compliance.

Buyer's checklist

• The terminal is only half the decision. The app and the processor behind it determine your rate, your features, and your compliance scope.
• Ask how the app is distributed. A signed app managed through PAXSTORE is the norm for payment terminals — it means updates and fixes reach you cleanly.
• Confirm encryption and tokenization. Cards should be encrypted at the reader and stored as tokens, never as a clear card number.
• Pair it with the right pricing. Card-present rates plus interchange-plus pricing is the combination that actually keeps costs down — see our pricing guide.