Almost a year after launching the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone… and then canceling the product after numerous reports of Note 7 smartphones catching fire, the Note 7 is back. But this time it's called the Samsung Galaxy Note Fandom Edition, it's had a small price cut, and it'll be available exclusively in South Korea at launch. The phone goes on sale in that county on July 7th.
The refurbished phone has a smaller battery, but otherwise has all the features of the original, plus software features borrowed from the Galaxy S8 and S8+ smartphones.
Samsung's move to re-launch the phone would probably be more exciting if the company wasn't expected to unveil the newer Galaxy Note 8 soon.
As a member of the Galaxy Note family, the phone has one key feature that sets it apart from the Galaxy S family: a pressure-sensitive digital pen called the S-Pen.
The Samsung Galaxy Note FE (Fandom Edition) has a pen that supports 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity, and the phone features a 5.7 inch, 2560 x 1440 pixel display, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, a microSD card reader, a USB Type-C port, and an IP68 waterproof chassis.
Samsung says it used unopened Galaxy Note 7 units and unused parts to assemble the new Galaxy Note FE, and used 3,200 mAh batteries instead of 3,500 mAh batteries to help reduce fire risk. The company also runs every unit through an 8-point battery safety test.
While Samsung originally sold several million Galaxy Note 7 smartphones before issuing a recall, the company is only planning to make 400,000 Note FE units available in South Korea for now. Depending on the reception, the company may decide to offer the phone internationally.