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Samsung To Sell Refurbished Galaxy Note 7 With a Smaller Battery, Says Report (androidauthority.com)

According to a report via The Korean Economic Daily, Samsung is said to be putting refurbished Galaxy Note 7 handsets on sale with new batteries following the cancellation of the device late last year. The speculation suggests the smartphones could be relaunched this June. Android Authority reports: Samsung is said to be swapping the Note 7's 3,500 mAh batteries with a "3,000 to 3,200 mAh" batteries, according to The Korean Economic Daily's sources, predominately for sale in emerging markets such as India and Vietnam. The move is said to be part of Samsung's plan to recover costs from the initial device recall and avoid environmental penalties from the estimated 2.5 million or so Galaxy Note 7s it would have to dispose of. Samsung hasn't made any official announcements in this vein, but before the battery investigation concluded, a spokesperson did tell us that the company was: "Reviewing possible options that can minimize the environmental impact of the recall." Shifting refurbished units would certainly be one way to achieve that.

73 comments

  1. Things that go boom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    In other news - Vietnam has an ongoing problem dealing with unexploded ordinance.... looks like it isn't getting better any time soon.

    1. Re:Things that go boom by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Still nobody can spell ordnance.

    2. Re:Things that go boom by Godwin+O'Hitler · · Score: 1

      But they can spell ordinance perfectly. It just doesn't explode like they think it does.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      --
      No, your children are not the special ones. Nor are your pets.
  2. Re:No! by fizzer06 · · Score: 1

    Should reduce the blast radius. Somewhat.

  3. Fire sale on refurbished Note 7's in June by naughtynaughty · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Actually a good plan to save an otherwise really nice phone. I'd buy one if the price was right.

    1. Re:Fire sale on refurbished Note 7's in June by execthis · · Score: 1

      Frak yes! On 300 mAh less battery and will probably be a lot cheaper. Want one!

    2. Re:Fire sale on refurbished Note 7's in June by cherishjoo · · Score: 1, Insightful

      I will never buy a Samsung phone.

    3. Re:Fire sale on refurbished Note 7's in June by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I will never buy Samsung anything.

    4. Re: Fire sale on refurbished Note 7's in June by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Good. The reduction in demand by wealthy idiots in the first world mean prices where people have to think before throwing resources away stay reasonable.

    5. Re:Fire sale on refurbished Note 7's in June by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Congratulations. I'd vote you insightful but I'll give you an internet cookie instead.

    6. Re:Fire sale on refurbished Note 7's in June by OneHundredAndTen · · Score: 1

      I will discourage my acquaintances from buying Samsung anything ever again.

    7. Re:Fire sale on refurbished Note 7's in June by JackieBrown · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'll shill for them!! My cost: one refurbished Note 7.

    8. Re:Fire sale on refurbished Note 7's in June by cherishjoo · · Score: 1

      Does Samsung sell anything else except bombs, uh?

    9. Re:Fire sale on refurbished Note 7's in June by cherishjoo · · Score: 1

      Thank you. How can I vote you insightful as well?

  4. What about the airlines? by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Did the FAA lift the ban on these?

    1. Re:What about the airlines? by OrangeTide · · Score: 1

      Maybe we'll need some certification sticker on the refurbs to take them on airplanes?

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    2. Re: What about the airlines? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Not officially, but since the problem was the battery and not the phone, and over 95% of shipped units were recovered, it doesn't make sense to continue the ban.
      Especially when they still haven't banned the iPhones over in China that have been blowing up due to similar battery problems.

    3. Re:What about the airlines? by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      Did the FAA lift the ban on these?

      Yes. When it was revealed like 95% of the recalled phones have been returned, the FAA removed the ban seeing that most of the phones are gone, and the few remaining ones were to commit digital suicide by refusing to charge the battery anymore.

    4. Re:What about the airlines? by ChunderDownunder · · Score: 1

      Your FAA may have stopped the ban but I caught international flights with Qatar this week and they still made pre-flight announcements.

    5. Re: What about the airlines? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not officially, but since the problem was the battery and not the phone, and over 95% of shipped units were recovered, it doesn't make sense to continue the ban.
      Especially when they still haven't banned the iPhones over in China that have been blowing up due to similar battery problems.

      Well, to be fair, iPhones ship with a fanboi-powered reality distortion field.

    6. Re: What about the airlines? by torkus · · Score: 1

      They no longer announce them on planes.

      While still banned, it's not something on the immediate radar anymore.

      Plus Samsung just needs to brand them 'Note 7a' or 7.1 or something so it's clearly different.

      --
      You can get rich if you own a politician, but you have to be rich to buy one in the first place.
  5. Deflation by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

    If the battery is smaller, it cannot be a galaxy. Rename it Star Cluster Note 7.

    Or more appropriately, Cluster Fuck 7.

    1. Re:Deflation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or Cluster F*ck Note 7 !

  6. this is why we can't have nice things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But everyone on the other side of the planet will have them. (captcha: lawsuits)

    1. Re:this is why we can't have nice things by ClickOnThis · · Score: 1

      Everyone (well, many) on the other side of the planet would dearly love to have the "nice things" that you and I take for granted.

      --
      If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
  7. the 7 will always be cursed by turkeydance · · Score: 1

    "yes, kids. back in my day we had things called smartphones that exploded!" ooooooo...

  8. I'm not sure I follow by rmdingler · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Kill your #2 best selling phone in a rather respectable, billion dollar act of seppuku, and then bring the maternal copulater back?

    The smaller battery could've fixed it in the first place if you'd left the easily replaced battery as a bloody option. Twats.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

    1. Re:I'm not sure I follow by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Let me break it down for you: high end phone for a low end price. Everybody's a winner.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    2. Re:I'm not sure I follow by execthis · · Score: 1

      Did one explode in your pocket? In your house? Anywhere? Did you *own* one even? No???

      Then what's your frikkin' gripe??

      First of all the batteries with issues weren't make by Samsung, second only an extremely, extremely small number of them had any issues. Third, I give the company a lot of credit for attempting to push the envelope as close to margins as possible with their designs - that's something to be applauded, not derided.

      I'm sick of these idiotic, griping posts bashing the company by ppl with apparently nothing better to do in their lives.

    3. Re:I'm not sure I follow by adolf · · Score: 1

      We've been through this before: It wouldn't have helped.

      Sure, it'd have fixed the fire problem for people who follow the rules. But it'd still be banned from commercial flights because there's no way in hell an airline will inspect the battery to ensure that it has been properly replaced and is of the correct vintage.

      Furthermore, plenty of folks (myself included, because I'm daft like that) would have refused to return the old, too-big battery and kept it as a spare.

      As much as I want easily-swapped batteries in all of my devices, it wouldn't have made much of a difference here.

      Now that the smoke is clearing I may look into a fire-sale Note 7 just to futz with as a semi-pocketable tablet with a stylus.

    4. Re:I'm not sure I follow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cue an endless stream of jackasses defending the practice of gluing batteries into phones. :(

    5. Re:I'm not sure I follow by thegarbz · · Score: 0

      Or maybe with the user replaceable battery it would have been smaller to begin with and even smaller now. But clearly you're much smarter than the world's largest smartphone manufacturer.

    6. Re:I'm not sure I follow by cdrudge · · Score: 1

      Everybody's a winner.

      Unless you're a Samsung stockholder. Or the original battery supplier. Or the engineer that designed or spec'ed it. Or one of the victims.

    7. Re:I'm not sure I follow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I give the company a lot of credit for attempting to push the envelope as close to margins as possible with their designs - that's something to be applauded, not derided.

      I was all just a misunderstanding. Maybe a mistranslation. They wanted to produce bleeding edge hardware, and the engineers thought they said burning edge.

    8. Re:I'm not sure I follow by Tough+Love · · Score: 2

      Or an iPhone fatality or you, soon to suffer a gastric detonation due to excessive anal tension.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  9. Best phone to use on International trips by ghoul · · Score: 1

    Use it on international trips and when you come back and CBP wants to spy on your phone tell them its a Note 7 and watch them clear you immediately so they dont have to deal with it. Alternately you can offer to let them keep it in their evidence locker but if it blows up all their evidence not to blame you.

    --
    **Life is too short to be serious**
    1. Re:Best phone to use on International trips by Luthair · · Score: 1

      I'm actually wondering how they expect airline employees to know which ones have been refurbished.

    2. Re:Best phone to use on International trips by naughtynaughty · · Score: 1

      By re-marking the outer case.

      Not that there are likely any actively used Note 7's in the wild.

  10. Marketing : "It's the bomb!" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Seriously, how do you overcome an explosion/fire problem like this as if it's nothing?

    1. Re:Marketing : "It's the bomb!" by ScienceofSpock · · Score: 1

      Seriously, how do you overcome an explosion/fire problem like this as if it's nothing?

      You offer it at a slight discount and watch consumers stumble over themselves to get one.

    2. Re:Marketing : "It's the bomb!" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      By tracking down the cause of the explosion/fire to one component (the battery) and by replacing the faulty battery with a good battery. People with IQ below 80 might not follow this and their brain won't go past "Note 7 can catch fire, avoid fire". These people will buy a more expensive model instead, so it's not a problem for Samsung.

    3. Re:Marketing : "It's the bomb!" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      OP asked how to overcome the explosion/fire problem, not how to overcome the cost of the recall.

    4. Re:Marketing : "It's the bomb!" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They have already replaced the faulty battery once and it still caught fire. I don't trust this device and never will.

    5. Re:Marketing : "It's the bomb!" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Did you watch their video explaining why the problem happened? It was an issue with the battery not having enough room to move. These batteries need to be able to expand, and in the note 7 there wasn't enough room which caused the electrodes to short out. Smaller battery = problem fixed.

    6. Re:Marketing : "It's the bomb!" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They're related Einstein.

    7. Re:Marketing : "It's the bomb!" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The engine in my car and the seats in my car are related, but if you ask about fuel economy the heated seats don't play a huge part.

    8. Re:Marketing : "It's the bomb!" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They do if they explode.

  11. Downsizing by Dunbal · · Score: 1

    Market research feels that people will be much more open to a smaller incendiary device which instead of burning your house down and killing you will only cause 3rd degree burns on a single limb.

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
    1. Re:Downsizing by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Right, so insightful. The only real question remaining in consumer's minds these days is whether to buy their dangerous device from Samsung or Apple

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  12. Why only in warm countries? by MiniMike · · Score: 1

    They'd probably sell better in areas above the Arctic circle (especially if they left the original battery in).

  13. They won't just be cheap... by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

    .. it'll be a fire sale! ;)

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  14. What happens to the Note 7s bricked by carrier... by LongNose · · Score: 1

    Now that Samsung is saying the phones could have been fixed by replacing the battery, those phones where bricked for no reason.

  15. Re:What happens to the Note 7s bricked by carrier. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "No reason"? I think ensuring the safety of the user is "no reason." The manufacture can unbrick it usually.

  16. Sell them on the 2nd tier providers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I for one would love to get a $99 or $149 refurb Samsung on Virgin, Boost, Cricket or whatever.

  17. One hour of use by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So... one hour of use. Instead of one and five minutes?

  18. Re:No! by unixisc · · Score: 1

    That brand has been irreparably damaged. They should focus on Note 8 - or better yet, lose the 'Note' brand name, since it will forcibly bring memories of the Note 7

  19. Re:No! by queazocotal · · Score: 2

    So damaged that if it is available cheaper, I'm buying one.

  20. Re:No! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I would buy a re-furbished Note 7 in a heartbeat (despite all that Samsung bloat) if the price was extremely reduced. It's a good phone/computer with antennas, just needs the correctly sized battery.

  21. Good move, difficult marketing by gnasher719 · · Score: 1

    Facts are: There was nothing wrong with the phones themselves, except the batteries. Samsung first had the problem that some batteries were physically larger than they should have been, which _will_ cause problems. Then they had a second problem, that in order to fix the first problem, they rushed other suppliers to deliver high capacity batteries before they were properly designed. Lots of the damage to the brand was caused by the fact that they first had a problem, said it was fixed, and then had the exact same problem again because they rushed for a solution.

    It seems that trying to fit in that extra high capacity (3,500mAh) was difficult. Too difficult, it turns out. Same battery with lower capacity (3,000mAh) should be much easier to build without any safety problems. I'm personally not in the market for a Samsung phone, but if let's say Apple offered "iPhone 7 with 2 hours less battery for $300 less", I'd be quite interested.

    Anyone who wants to buy Android, I'd recommend looking at the price, and checking what you get for it. If it's better than another phone for the same price apart from lower battery life, you just decide what you want more (features, speed etc. vs. battery life) and buy it or don't. Emotionally, the brand is damaged. Rationally, I would think that these phones will be absolutely fine.

    1. Re:Good move, difficult marketing by ausekilis · · Score: 1

      "if you had enough time to do it a second time, you had enough time to do it right the first time."

      Though in Samsungs case, "Third times the charm"?

      I still think its funny there's this talk about e-waste from disposal of the phones. Somehow it was left out that they need to get rid of 2.5 million 3500 mAh batteries. Don't those count as environmental waste? Are they going to be properly disposed of? ....Don't tell me Samsung just took a sander/file/saw to the existing batteries and slapped them back in...

  22. no media campaign nor massive advertising by Provocateur · · Score: 1

    That was the decision of , no not the CEO, but the Prime Minister of North Korea. The resulting headline Kim Jong Un shoots down Samsung's plans was definitely more agreeable and PR friendly compared to Samsung comes up with a Big Bang which was perceived to be taken literally by the smart phone crowd, which turned out be be smarter than average after all.

    --
    WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
  23. I would buy one by smil2355763 · · Score: 1

    My phone isn't going to get upgraded. I don't want my dad to upgrade it because I'm interested in the simpler Nokia. I have to get an iPad for writing things and other stuff because my phone's screen is too small for writing.

  24. Disappointed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It won't be an explosive device any longer.

  25. Re:What happens to the Note 7s bricked by carrier. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So, do you think Samsung doesn't have the tools to reprogram it at the factory when they put in the new battery and change the casing?

  26. Re:No! by JackieBrown · · Score: 1

    Same. I am really hoping to see this sell for 500 but not to hopeful.

    Heck, if I could buy the possible exploding version for around 300-400, I'd do it a a heartbeat.

  27. I'd pay full price for pre-installed SuperSU... by emil · · Score: 1

    ...but not one dime for a Samsung phone that includes a straitjacket that I cannot escape. I will also require an sd-card slot, and the ability to replace my own battery (and glue really annoys me).

  28. Happy to hear. by Roskolnikov · · Score: 1

    As long as the smaller batteries allow for expansion in situ, this is great... better than destroying an otherwise good product (and yes, I am an iPhone fanatic).

    --
    Unix, an obscure operating system developed by bored researchers in an attempt to get a better game playing experience.
    1. Re:Happy to hear. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >I am an iPhone fanatic
      opinion discarded