Samsung Releasing Refurbished Note 7 Devices as 'Fandom Edition' in South Korea

About ten months after the first reported cases of Galaxy Note 7 fires began circulating online, Samsung is gearing up to re-launch the smartphone "initially" only in South Korea, according to people familiar with the company's plans (via The Wall Street Journal). Referred to as the Galaxy Note 7 FE, or "Fandom Edition," the launch is said to be coming on July 7 in the country, and it'll represent the third debut for Note 7 devices following the original launch last August, and a widespread recall and replacement later in 2016.

Even those replacement devices caught fire, but Samsung has chosen to continue the Note 7 brand with the new Fandom Edition and bring a "relatively modest" stock of inventory to retailers in South Korea. In total, it's believed 400,000 Note 7 Fandom Editions will debut among three major telecom companies in the country.


Samsung will bring the Fandom Edition to market "with different components," instead of the faulty battery components that caused the first launch and some replacement devices to catch fire. Any word on a wider launch for the Fandom Edition was not mentioned by the sources.

A refurbished version of the premium smartphone, whose global recall last year garnered unwanted attention for the South Korean technology giant after some caught fire, is coming to retailers’ shelves on July 7 with different components under the name Galaxy Note 7 FE, according to people familiar with the matter.

The refurbished Note 7 will be priced below 700,000 South Korean won ($616), although smartphone prices are generally adjusted up to the point of release due to fluctuating market conditions, the person said.

Samsung's intent to keep the Note brand alive was detailed in a report earlier this month, which also pointed towards the unveiling of the Galaxy Note 8 coming sometime in August. Since the Note 7 was discontinued, Samsung released the mid-cycle Galaxy S8 smartphone in April, with the company saying pre-orders for the device were its "best ever" and analysts suggesting that the S8's messaging and launch helped it to begin recovering from the Note 7 disaster.