The launch and recall of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was not exactly a pleasant time in Samsung’s history. The fiasco hit the Korean OEM in the two places; the reputation, and the wallet. Some analysts believe that the amount of total monetary damage Samsung will incur when all is said and done could be as high as $17 billion. The market value loss was even greater. They ran a full page apology ad in multiple publications, and are making all sorts of efforts to soothe their jilted fanbase. According to a new report which is based on information from sources, one of the ways that Samsung plans to remedy the situation is to refurbish Galaxy Note 7 units that didn’t suffer from an issue and sell them.
Nobody could be faulted for approaching this rumor with a heavy dose of suspicion, but the demand may just be there. The Galaxy Note 7, before units started failing, received rave reviews from multiple publications throughout the tech world. Galaxy Note fans were very satisfied and the new features that the Galaxy Note 7 brought in have even found their way into the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge in the newest beta of Samsung’s upcoming Android 7.0 (Nougat) update. There are still a huge amount of phones reportedly in the wild, over a million by some estimations, and many mobile communities house a good number of Galaxy Note 7 users still talking about optimizations and tweaks for the device.
There isn’t much substance to this rumor at the moment, but the motivation is there, given proper quality control. Phones are usually checked through third-party quality control reviewers, and Samsung’s decision to do the quality checks in-house may very well have played a factor in the issues that arose with the Galaxy Note 7. Refurbished and inspected properly, these phones could be finding their way to store shelves soon, with significantly less risk of failure, if any – and presumably at a much more affordable price. The information coming through is that the phones could end up in markets where lower-end and mid-range phones are popular. Those in other countries wanting to get their hands on a newly refurbished unit are left in the dark for now; if the phone does relaunch in other territories, of course, importing is always an option. The news leaves one wondering how Samsung will approach issues like the Galaxy Note 7 being banned on most airlines, or software support for the new units asynchronously from software updates for the old units meant to reduce functionality and encourage trade-ins.