It appears that Samsung could soon start selling refurbished Galaxy Note 7's in some markets, according to a new report.
Samsung launched an investigation to find out why the Galaxy Note 7 was catching on fire, and it was due to faulty batteries. In fact, it was primarily because of stuffing too large of a battery in too small of a space. So now, if a report circulating is to be believed, Samsung could start selling Galaxy Note 7's with a smaller battery capacity in some markets.
This report comes from Hankyung, and claims that Samsung could start selling refurbished Galaxy Note 7's with 3,000mAh to 3,200mAh batteries in India and Vietnam, starting in June 2017. The original Galaxy Note 7 had a battery capacity of 3,500mAh.
Samsung sold 3.06 million Galaxy Note 7 units worldwide and has recovered at least 98% of those devices out in the wild. Simply disposing of them wouldn't give Samsung much of a chance to recoup it's losses, so instead, it appears that the company will be fixing them up.
We don't know exactly how successful this will be, especially with how bad a reputation the Galaxy Note 7 now has among the public — even the company's reputation has dipped substantially since the debacle. It'll be interesting to see actual sales figures if Samsung goes ahead with this, or even if the report is true.
Only time will tell at this point.
I know some people will flame Samsung if they do go ahead with this, but if the alternative is to just put them in the landfill I think refurbishing them and getting them back out in the world is a good thing, assuming the refurbished units are safe.
I’d buy one in a heartbeat. Hated sending mine back.
If the price is 50%-60% of the RRP when it was released, I would jump on it… As long as it doesnt explode that is.