From what Slashdot is reporting we are unlikely to see refurbished Note 7s in North America but they will be appearing in markets on the far side of the Pacific. The battery was determined to be the cause of the rather spectacular failure of Samsung's latest tablet and so they will be installing a battery with a smaller capacity in the refurbished models. One hopes it is physically smaller or more carfeully manufactured, as it was the expansion and puncturing of the battery which caused them to burst into flames. It is understandable that Samsung would like to recoup some losses, this seems like a very risky move to undertake.
"Samsung is said to be swapping the Note 7's 3,500 mAh batteries with a "3,000 to 3,200 mAh" batteries, according to The Korean Economic Daily's sources, predominately for sale in emerging markets such as India and Vietnam."
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I dont see any problem,
I dont see any problem, actually, as the note7 being such an awesome phone, I think it’s ok to refurbish them with smaller batteries, as, theoretically, it wouldnt explode anymore.
Phones were OK. I wonder to
Phones were OK. I wonder to whom they will sell the batteries.
Some enterprising folks in
Some enterprising folks in India and Vietnam are going to make a fortune reselling these into other markets. I’d take one in a heartbeat if the price was right, even if I had to jailbreak it.
Guaranteed the new battery has undergone an incredible amount of testing and QC.
as tempting as this phone
as tempting as this phone seems to be, I honestly can’t willingly buy a refurbed phone unless I had no other choice and absolutely needed a phone at that moment. Good luck to whoever buys those refurbs!
It’s possible that these
It’s possible that these refurb units, at least many of them, will be brand new phones that simply have had the faulty batteries swapped for the new ones.
I’ll buy one back in an
I’ll buy one back in an instant if it’s available in my country! Best phone I’ve ever used.
“One hopes it is physically
“One hopes it is physically smaller, as it was the expansion and puncturing of the battery which caused them to burst into flames”
The fault was not with the phone having too little space for the battery, but with the battery construction itself being to blame with two separate root faults. Fault 1 was an electrode location and encapsulation fault, fault two was a tab weld fault. With identically sized batteries that did not have these faults, the phone itself would operate safely unmodified.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/01/galaxy-note-7-investigation-blames-small-battery-cases-poor-welding/
I will slap that link into
I will slap that link into the post for those who want more than a very quick summation of the issue that could be misleading if you aren't familiar and clean up my sentence
I would buy it
I would buy it
From all reports, they
From all reports, they practically had to pry these phones out of people cold (but burnt?) dead hands with threats of bricking them and then actually bricking them.
Put in a battery that Samsung is convinced is safe (third time’s the charm!) and cut $200 off the price and these will fly off the shelves!
If Samsung wasn’t so greedy
If Samsung wasn’t so greedy with her planned obsolescence, by making it so that the average user would not be able to easily replace the battery, they could have saved a lot of time and money by simply mailing out replacement batteries.
Now they are stuck having to not only use a smaller battery, but also go with a design that is physically different so that the TSA does not go crazy when people try to bring it on a plane.