The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 story just isn’t getting any better for the South Korean smartphone manufacturer. Despite recalling the device last month, and exchanging the majority of affected devices with a new “safe” Galaxy Note 7, the device is still pretty hot. Just this past week, a Southwest Airlines flight had a Galaxy Note 7 start smoking before the plane had left the ground. Which has led an investigation by the feds as well as Samsung to see what exactly happened. Due to this, the wireless carriers – at least in the US for now – are allowing their customers to exchange their Galaxy Note 7 for another device.
This morning, Sprint first announced that they would allow those with a “safe” Galaxy Note 7 to exchange their device for another device. Later on, AT&T followed suit. And now T-Mobile and Verizon are doing the same. So if you have a Galaxy Note 7 from Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile or AT&T, you can take into your local carrier store and get it exchanged for a device that’s a little cooler, and less likely to explode. There’s no word about those units purchased from Best Buy just yet, but expect them to jump on board with the same process in the next few days, if not hours.
Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 was announced in August, and went on sale later that month. Samsung had thought they beat the iPhone 7 to market, and would sell a ton of their devices. Which they did. They had sold 2.5 million units worldwide, before they were forced to recall their latest smartphone. It’s costing the company a ton of money, and it’ll be even more if they are forced to make a second recall for these smartphones. The first recall was unprecedented, so needless to say, a second one would also be unprecedented. Due to the issues that Samsung is having with the Galaxy Note 7, it appears that the company is looking to push up the release of the Galaxy S8. Hopefully by the time that device is announced, the company will have figured out the issue with the Galaxy Note 7 and can be sure that the same issue won’t happen again with the Galaxy S8.