The firm said the Note Fan Edition would “minimise the environmental impact” of its high-profile flop.

The handset will go on sale only in South Korea on 7 July, with a safer, smaller battery, the firm added.

Samsung stopped production on its iPhone rival late last year after an earlier botched recall and re-release.

About 2.5 million handsets have since been recalled. The new phone features components from those recalled devices, as well as unused parts Samsung has in stock.

Smaller battery, smaller price tag

Environmentalists had been putting pressure on the firm to reuse Galaxy Note 7 components to reduce the amount of so-called e-waste.

It is thought about 400,000 handsets will be made available from Friday. It will be priced about 30% cheaper than the Galaxy Note 7 at around 700,000 Korean won ($615; £472).

The devices will be fitted with 3,200 mAh batteries that Samsung says have passed strict safety tests. The Note 7 used 3,500 mAh batteries.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 8, the successor to the original Note 7, is due for release later this year.

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Source: BBC

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The update aims to encourage the few owners who have not yet returned the faulty devices to hand them in.
Samsung issued a global recall for the Galaxy Note 7 in September following complaints about exploding batteries.

It estimates that in Europe about 10% of Note 7 owners have yet to return their devices.

In a statement, Samsung, which plans to begin the changes on 15 December, said the update it issued in September that limited charging capacity to 60% “helped to drive a high rate of return”.

“This new battery software update is specifically designed to reinforce to the remaining minority of customers to immediately replace their device,” it said.

Radio communications cut
Customers can swap their phones via local replacement programmes, it added.

Reports suggest Samsung is taking different steps in other regions to encourage people to turn in their phones.

In Canada, an update reportedly turns off all the radio communications on a phone, including phone, wi-fi and bluetooth, rendering it useless.

In the US, Samsung said it would issue an update on 19 December that would stop devices charging and “eliminate their ability to work as mobile devices”.

It said about 93% of all faulty phones had been returned in the US.

Verizon has said it will not apply the update because of safety concerns for people who have no other phone.

“We do not want to make it impossible to contact family, first responders or medical professionals in an emergency situation,” it said in a statement shared with tech news site The Verge.

After the battery debacle, Samsung stopped global production of the Note 7.

Reports of fires led to Samsung issuing a warning and asking owners to turn off their devices and hand them in.

Profits at the electronic giant plunged following the recall.

In late October Samsung announced that its operating profit for the three months between July and September was 30% down on the same period in 2015.

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Source: BBC

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In a commentary piece posted on its website on Thursday evening, CCTV said Samsung’s behavior in China after the Sept. 2 recall of 2.5 million phones was “full of arrogance”.

CCTV said a video apology Samsung issued to U.S. consumers, along with various replacement options and compensation, was in stark contrast to its treatment of those in China, where the company issued a brief statement saying most phones didn’t need to be replaced. “Samsung’s discriminatory policy has caused discontent from Chinese consumers,” it said.

Samsung China didn’t immediately responded to requests for comment on the CCTV criticism.

The CCTV criticism may provide an unwelcome distraction for Samsung as seeks to bolster its position in the world’s largest smartphone market. Once the number 1 mobile phone vendor in China, Samsung dropped out of top 5 in 2015, hit by the strong growth of domestic brands like Huawei, Xiaomi and Oppo.

A number of big-name global consumer brands have fallen foul of the influential broadcaster’s blasts in recent years, prompting firms from German automaker Volkswagen AG VOWG_p.de to Samsung rival Apple Inc (AAPL.O) to undertake strenuous efforts to bolster their image.

Earlier in September, after a meeting with China’s quality safety watchdog, Samsung China issued a brief statement saying 1,858 Note 7 devices sold in the country as part of a test scheme before the official launch would be recalled.

Most Note 7s on sale in China have batteries from a different supplier and are not part of its global recall of 2.5 million phones announced on September 2, Samsung said.

But after anecdotal reports of a handful of Note 7s catching fire in the mainland, Samsung China issued a statement on Thursday apologizing to Chinese consumers for a “lack of sufficient explanation” on what it said were safe Note 7 phones in China.

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Source: Reuters

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