Samsung plans to sell Galaxy Note 7 phones in South Korea with recycled parts for a fraction of the price.
The new version will be built on the platform of the same phone that made headlines for catching fire in 2016. The Federal Aviation Administration and international aviation agencies banned the Note 7 from flights after several reports of the batteries catching fire.
According to the Associated Press, environmental activists pushed for Samsung to not just recall but reuse the defective devices. Functional parts from recalled phones will be used to produce the Galaxy Note FE, or “Fan Edition,” in Samsung’s home country of South Korea. Overseas availability may go into effect later, Samsung said.
The Fan Edition will match the other phones in the Note series in terms of display size and functionality, with a 4.7-inch screen and a stylus. It will retail for 700,000 won ($611), down from $850, and go for sale on Friday, July 7. Only 400,000 units of the Galaxy Note FE will be produced.
Samsung was certain to reassure potential customers that the Note FE exhibits “perfect safety” after the infamous Note 7 ban. The exploding batteries were found to be a result of design and production flaws from two different battery suppliers.
Samsung and Korean phone operator SK Telecom completed a test last week in which Samsung’s 5G virtualized core surpassed speeds of 1 Gbps. The setup used Samsung’s 5G virtualized core, virtualized RAN, and Distributed Unit and a test device using up-to-date 3GPP NR standards. The tests were performed at 3.5 GHz, which is still a contested band. Countries such as China and South Korea are indicating preference for this band for international 5G use, but it faces competition in the United States from the Citizens Broadband Radio Service, which currently occupies that spot.