We brought you one of the first solid pieces of information that suggested that Samsung is working on a refurbished Galaxy Note 7, and the company recently made it official that it would be doing its best to salvage usable components from the Note 7 and possibly launching a refurbished version depending on market viability. Today, pictures of what is supposedly the refurbished Note 7 have been leaked.
The handset in the images is running Android 7.0 Nougat and carries model number SM-N935, just like we said it would. The battery capacity is also listed as 3,200 mAh on the device; it had been rumored earlier that the refurbished Note 7 would feature a smaller battery than the original, and it certainly looks like that will be the case. Whether the reduced battery size will hold up well in real-life usage remains to be seen, and there’s even the question of whether the refurbished unit will actually go on sale.
The original rumor had suggested that the refurbished model would launch in India and Vietnam, and though a Samsung India employee had rubbished the rumor, the fact that today’s leaked pictures come from the SamsungVN website (a Vietnamese fansite not officially related to Samsung) suggest that it could go on sale in the latter. It wouldn’t be surprising, either, as Samsung currently assembles its smartphones in Vietnam, so relaunching the Note 7 in that market would be considerably easier than in other markets.
Again, there’s no telling if and where Samsung will get the necessary government permissions for selling the refurbished Galaxy Note 7. We’re just hoping that its availability isn’t restricted to only a few markets as there are likely a lot of folks who would put down their hard earned money to get their hands on the Note 7. It’s odd how the Note 7 suddenly looks so boring and generic in design now that the Infinity Display-toting Galaxy S8 is here, but it certainly still holds the crown for offering the most productivity on a Samsung phone (not counting the new DeX station for the S8).
