Six months after the Note 7 made its explosive exit from the smartphone market we are still finding ourselves talking about it. As we encourage you to part with potentially dangerous Note 7s, we are hearing reports that Samsung plans to sell refurbished models outside the UK and…
You’d think the images of devastation met by unlucky owners of exploding Galaxy Note 7 handsets would be enough to put off others from wanting to use the phone. Amazingly that has not been the case, and despite it being discontinued several months ago now Samsung still faces issues with taking the Galaxy phablet out of circulation. Verizon, for example, has said in January 2017 that in the US «thousands» of people are still using the Note 7.
Back in October the company saw fit to set up booths in airports to attempt to prevent people carrying onboard flights potentially dangerous mobile devices. It also rolled out a software update that changed the colour of the battery icon to alert potential new and secondhand owners as to whether or not the battery had been replaced. You might also like: Samsung Galaxy Note 5 review and Samsung Galaxy S7 review.
It said back then that more than one million Note 7 handsets were still in circulation — and that is still an issue even now. Samsung has resorted to desperate measures to prevent people using the Note 7, rolling out an update in the UK in December that would cap the battery at 30 percent, making it impossible to get a day’s use from the Note 7.
But while it has previously pulled out all the stops in order to get back any potentially dangerous Note 7 devices, there is now talk of Samsung reselling those units outside the UK and US — primarily in India and Vietnam, according to the source. The refurbished Note 7 may go on sale in these territories as the Note 7s, it says, and feature a new, smaller battery.
It says Samsung has around 2.5 million devices left over, which it can fit with new cases, and smaller-capacity batteries of around 3,000- to 3,200mAh.
After a thorough investigation Samsung discovered that the battery itself was the cause for the explosions, so there is not a problem with the company removing the faulty parts and reselling the units. However, getting consumers to trust that their new phones aren’t about to explode may be a new problem.
The Note 7, originally expected to go on sale at the beginning of September, was pulled from sale after it was reported that some early handsets had set alight due to battery problems. Samsung thought it had fixed the problem and began sending out replacements, only to realise the problem remained and on 11 October it discontinued the phone for good. It has since offered customers refunds and exchanges, but has insisted that they power down and stop using the phone immediately.
The discontinuation of the Note 7 has hit Samsung’s bottom line hard, with some estimates at over $5bn. O n 11 October following the discontinuation it revised its earnings guidance for that quarter by reducing its consolidated operating profit from around 7.8 trillion won to 5.2 trillion won.
Now that the Note 7 is now more, you will be looking for an alternative phablet. The Samsung Galaxy S7 edge or Google Pixel XL are excellent alternatives. Also read our thoughts on the possibility of a new Galaxy Note 8.
On 23 January 2017, Samsung confirmed that the problems with its Note 7 were caused by the batteries themselves, and nothing to do with the hardware or software of the phone.
It said: “A short circuit within the battery may occur when there is damage to the separator that allows the positive and negative electrodes to meet within the jellyroll. Based on a detailed analysis of the affected batteries, both Battery A from the first recall and Battery B from the second recall, we identified separate factors that originated in and were specific to the two different batteries.
