Amidst all the rumors regarding the Galaxy Note 7 making a comeback as a refurbished smartphone, Samsung has made the news official by announcing the Galaxy Note Fan Edition. The recall of the millions of original Galaxy Note 7 cost Samsung billions of dollars along with a huge heap of useless smartphones.
Samsung handled the situation quite well and ensured that the 2016 fiasco doesn’t impact the sales of their future phones. In fact, the Galaxy S8 series launched earlier this year was one of the highest selling smartphones, not only from the company but in the industry. Samsung had announced an 8-point battery safety check to ensure the safety of the battery and the device in general.
To prevent the Galaxy Note Fan Edition’s battery from overheating or anything worse, Samsung has included a smaller battery of 3200mAh, compared to the 3500mAh battery on the original Galaxy Note 7. This device, too, has passed through the 8-point test to ensure the safety of the buyers. After all, Samsung wouldn’t want another blunder this soon.
With all the safety measures taken by Samsung and seeing the example of the Galaxy S8, we can safely say that the Fan Edition won’t blast like the Note 7 did. But there are a few other things that you need to consider if you are planning to buy the refurbished phone from Samsung.
The specifications of the phone are essentially the same as the Note 7, which should be about 10 months old now if it wasn’t recalled. The Galaxy Note FE wouldn’t be as bad in the performance department, but it would be difficult to compete with the 2017 smartphones.
The features of the phone include a large QHD display, with support for industry-leading stylus support, a 12MP camera that proved itself with the Galaxy S7 series too. Its 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage are fine even for a smartphone. The phone is still waterproof with the IP68 rating.
Samsung took note of the outdated specifications and has sweetened the deal with a reduced price. The company has priced the phone at 699,000 won or about $611 which is about 40 percent lower than the $1000 launch price of Galaxy Note 7. Moreover, the software has been updated to bring it on par with the Galaxy S8 series and will also come with Bixby pre-loaded, sans the dedicated Bixby button, thankfully.
Another thing to consider is that the Galaxy Note 8 is about to launch in just a couple of months. If budget is not an issue and you want the latest tech, then why not wait for some time and get the latest phone with all the updated features. You will have to consider all this if the phone is made available in your local market. Samsung has announced to bring the Galaxy Note FE only to South Korea for now and we don’t if it would be making to other markets or not.
Samsung would be coming out with just 400,000 units of the phone, while the earlier reports suggested that Samsung had recalled at least 3.5 million Galaxy Note 7 devices from all over the world. The company said that the Fan Edition has been made of “unused” and “unopened” Note 7 parts and the phone has been launched to minimize the “environmental impact” that would have happened by disposing of the millions of devices.
