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Samsung is reportedly trying to bring the unlucky Note 7 series back to life and start selling its refurbished units in emerging markets including India and Vietnam.
Although the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is expected to be released in the second half of this year, Samsung is trying to give another chance to the ill-fated Note 7. A new report from a Korean outlet, as spotted by Engadget, is putting that Samsung wants to sell the refurbished units from the series. The safer Note 7 units might go on sale in the emerging markets starting this June. The Note 7 has been banned by the respective regulatory authorities in countries like US and UK. Samsung, however, might sell the units in other markets like those of India, Vietnam, and perhaps Pakistan.
The South Korean giant has about 2.5 million Note 7 handsets with it after it forced users to return their handsets. Samsung was able to recover 98% of its total smartphones. After sacrificing 20,000 units for finding out the cause of the problem, Samsung still has good many handsets in its store. The report suggests that Samsung could sell them in order to financially recover from the debacle. The sales will also help it avoid the environmental issues related to the complete disposal of the said 2.5 million handsets.
According to the report, the refurbished units of the Note 7 will have their batteries downgraded from 3500 mAh to 3200 mAh or 3000 mAh. All of the components of the Note 7 will mostly remain unchanged, Samsung however will be designing a new case for these handsets.
Samsung was forced to recall and shut down the production line of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 after it started exploding. Initially, the battery of Note 7 was diagnosed unsafe. Note 7 were recalled globally and replaced with the safer ones. Samsung, however had to permanently halt the production and sales of Note 7 after the problem still persisted and bought full page advertisements in the famous US-based dailies to apologize for the incident. Later in January this year, Samsung publicly announced the causes behind the explosions.
Image — Pocket Lint
