Samsung Electronics on Sunday officially announced the Galaxy Note Fan Edition, a refurbished variant of the Galaxy Note 7. The company’s latest device has been the subject of several delays in recent months and has also missed its last reported launch date, though it’s still unclear why the Seoul-based consumer electronics manufacturer took so long to unveil it, with the Galaxy Note 8 being just around the corner. Regardless, the refurbished variant of the ill-fated Galaxy Note 7 isn’t expected to put a significant dent in the sales of its upcoming successor, with Samsung saying that only 400,000 units are planned for retail.
Unlike the original device that shipped with a 3,500mAh battery, the cell powering the Galaxy Note Fan Edition is of the 3,200mAh variety, with the handset itself being otherwise identical to the 2016 model. The refurbished variant of the Galaxy Note 7 will be priced at 699,600 won, which translates to just over $611 at today’s exchange rate. It’s currently unclear whether the phone will eventually make its way outside of Samsung’s home country given how previous reports indicated that it may go on sale in China, though the South Korean original equipment manufacturer (OEM) already confirmed it has no plans to launch it in the West.
Save for its battery capacity that Samsung now reduced due to the original unit being too crammed and consequently volatile for everyday use, the Galaxy Note Fan Edition is still the same Galaxy Note 7 which received high praise from both critics and consumer alike when it launched last summer. The handset sports a 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display panel and is powered by Samsung’s octa-core Exynos 8890 system-on-chip (SoC) and 4GB of RAM, in addition to featuring 64GB of internal storage expandable by up to 256GB via a microSD card. The back panel of the Galaxy Note Fan Edition houses a 12-megapixel camera, with its top bezel featuring a 5-megapixel sensor. The device will be available in Black, Blue, Silver, and Gold, all of which will be priced the same and presumably be available in 100,000 units each. No firm release date has yet been given by Samsung but more details on the matter should follow shortly.
