Samsung announced that it plans to begin selling and renting refurbished Galaxy Note 7 smartphones.
For those who need a refresher, the Galaxy Note 7 was the ill-fated phablet that carried explosion-prone batteries. After a chaotic and mismanaged recall, Samsung finally pulled the plug on the Note 7 in October, permanently discontinuing and ceased manufacturing the device.
Now, it seems, that at least some Note 7 devices will be returning to the consumer markets as refurbished devices, the Korean company announced in a press release late Monday. While that may seem like a bad idea on the surface, Samsung and independent researchers alike have found that the phones had no other problems beyond the faulty batteries, which were revealed to be the primary culprit behind reports of Note 7-related fires, Reuters reported.
Perhaps to save face in the wake of last year’s fiasco, Samsung has refrained from announcing any of its plans for the recovered phones — until today, that is. “Regarding the Galaxy Note 7 devices are refurbished phones or rental phones, applicability is dependent upon consultations with regulatory authorities and carriers as well as due consideration of local demand,” the company said in the statement.
Samsung’s announcement suggests that such refurbished devices won’t be returning under the Note 7 brand: “The product details including the name, technical specification and price range will be announced when the device is available,” the company wrote. The refurbished devices won’t be offered within the U.S., but Samsung plans on selling them in Korea in July or August of this year — equipped with safe batteries, of course. The company is aiming at selling between 400,000 and 500,000 refurbished phablets in its home country — which, along with the upcoming Galaxy S8 flagship — should help recoup some of the $5.5 billion profit hit that it took as a result of the Note 7 disaster.
But while money could be a factor, Samsung told The Verge that the primary objective of its new plans is “solely to reduce and minimize any environmental impact.” Beyond the refurbished devices, Samsung is also planning on recovering, using and selling as many reusable components and materials from recovered phones as possible.
It’s worth noting that Greenpeace applauded the efforts in a press release on Monday. Previously, the environmental advocacy group had protested Samsung’s keynote at this year’s Mobile World Congress — demanding to know what the company planned on doing with its recovered Galaxy Note 7 devices. “Samsung’s announcement is the first step to show its effort to set a new path for recycling smartphones starting with the Note 7s,” the group wrote.