While all eyes are on the launching of the new Galaxy Note 8, Samsung is busy redeeming the Note 7's tarnished reputation in South Korea as consumers have warmly welcomed the Galaxy Note Fan Edition.
Samsung released on July 7 in South Korea a refurbished version of the ill-fated Galaxy Note 7. So far, Korea Times reports that retail shops have ran out of supply of some variants of the Galaxy Note Fan Edition merely days after its release.
Among the hottest sellers are the black onyx and blue coral variants of the Galaxy Note Fan Edition, which is selling for a little over $600. The Fan Edition is selling so good that it has already matched the sales performance of Samsung's Galaxy S8 series.
The Fan Edition is almost identical to the Note 7, the most significant difference being the change in battery. While the Note 7 had a 3,500mAh battery, the Fan Edition depends on a 3,200mAh. However, power capacity is not the only thing that changed. According to iFix.org, the Fan Edition carries a physically smaller battery. It was widely believed and admitted by Samsung that the Note 7's battery was ill-fitted, which caused it to overheat and eventually catch fire.
To ensure that the Note 7 incident would not happen again, Samsung employed what it calls the eight-point battery stability check, which is now used in all phones including this year's S8 series.
Aside from having safer batteries, the Fan Edition also has the signature S Pen, IP68 certification for waterproofing and dustproofing capabilities, and the same iris and fingerprint scanners of the Note 7.
Finally, Fan Edition gets an improvement from the Note 7 courtesy of the addition of Bixby, Samsung's digital assistant.
Samsung plans to sell only 400,000 units of Fan Edition and as of now, there is no concrete plan to offer it outside of South Korea, according to the Korea Times report.
