Samsung is not done with the Galaxy Note 7 yet; intends to start selling refurbished units in June

Samsung isn’t done with the Galaxy Note 7 yet. The company, which was forced to recall over 3 million units of the flagship smartphone when units started randomly exploding, now plans to refurbish these phones and resell them.

You heard that right. Refurbish. Initial jitters about the safety of such a move aside, it actually seems like a sensible one. After all, now that Samsung has identified the source of the issue and placed all the blame on the battery, what can go wrong? Right?

Issues with Battery B. Image: Samsung

Korean website Hankyung reports that Samsung has about 5 million usable devices left in its inventory and that the company intends to replace the batteries on the phones with smaller, 3,000 – 3,200 mAh units. The device originally came with 3,500 mAh units.

The report – which is in Korean – also adds that these phones will be sold off in markets like India and Vietnam, and not western markets.

If Samsung chooses to dispose of the phones, it will potentially face heavy penalties from the Korean government on environmental grounds. Refurbishing the phones and pawning them off on developing markets seems like a good idea.

Image: Hui Renjie

The US and EU are, of course, unlikely to stand for such behaviour, which is why the likes of India and Vietnam appear to be targeted. It’s not like India is an easier target, however, and we’d certainly like to see Samsung get around the Indian Government’s disdain for refurbished products. After all, Apple’s proposal to sell its refurbished iPhones in India was rejected by the government.

That said, the phone was a brilliant piece of design and engineering and if it wasn’t for the battery, would have propelled Samsung’s mobile division to new heights of profitability. A reasonably priced, refurbished, safe Galaxy Note 7 certainly seems like an excellent idea, particularly if it can take on the likes of the OnePlus 3 and other such devices in the budget flagship segment.

You’d need tremendous faith in Samsung if you’d take the risk of buying a Galaxy Note 7 again. And it better not explode this time, or Samsung will never recover from the shock.

The refurbished units are expected to start selling in June this year.

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