Should you buy the refurbished Samsung Galaxy Note 7?

As the launch date of the refurbished Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is inching closer, the number of speculations has also started piling up. There are reports that the smartphone will be dubbed as the Galaxy Note 7 FE, where ‘FE’ stands for ‘Fandom Edition’. Few online reports also suggest the expected price of the device, falling just under $600 mark.

Currently, it seems that the device will go on sale in South Korea. However, it is most likely that the smartphone will ship to other markets as well. But the most important question here is whether you should buy the refurbished Galaxy Note 7/ Galaxy Note 7 FE?

Although Samsung has renamed the smartphone, it is just not enough to shake the fears of the device being combustible. However, it is highly unlikely that Samsung would use the same innards for the Galaxy Note 7 FE that were responsible for the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco.

Its been almost eight months since the Galaxy Note has been discontinued, which must have given the company enough time to identify the issues with the original model and bring it back to life with a new soul. 

Furthermore, Samsung chose to go with a smaller battery this time around, possibly down to 3200mAh from 3500mAh. The smaller battery size will avoid the cell compression issue, resulting in a safer mobile experience. But the drawback here is that a small battery size means lower battery life, which isn’t very convincing if you are someone seeking great productivity, the type of consumers the Note series aims to cater.

The age of the hardware should also be taken into consideration here. By the time the Galaxy Note 7 FE sees sunlight; it will be almost ten months to the Note 7’s demise, meaning other flagships launched in 2017 have already achieved what the Note 7 brought to the market as a fresh offering. 

However, the Galaxy Note 7 FE will still incorporate competitive features such as the zippy Exynos 8890 processor backed by 4GB of RAM and 64GB internal storage, a 12MP rear camera sensor and IP68 water and dust resistant certification. But then again it doesn’t bring anything new to the table.

If you look beyond the dated hardware, the Galaxy Note 7 FE will still be an updated machine on the software end. It will come with Samsung’s latest software updates and could feature company’s latest virtual AI assistant Bixby.

Although Samsung fanatics will get what they expect from a Galaxy Note series phablet in the form of Galaxy Note 7 FE, there is still a very concrete possibility that users will prefer a more loaded Note 8 over the Galaxy Note 7 FE. If the rumours are to be believed, the Galaxy Note 8 will boast a host of new features including a dual camera setup and a new processing unit with more RAM, all packed in a slim bezel-less design.

That being said, the purchase decision can boil down to the pricing of both the devices. There are reports that the Galaxy Note 7 FE will cost from as low as $420 up to $600, which really doesn’t make sense considering the latest flagships that have better specifications on the brochure can be grabbed at lower prices. For example the OnePlus 5 is available for a price as low as $479 and comes with the latest Snapdragon 835 paired with 6GB/8GB RAM and a dual camera setup.

Also the users who import the smartphone have to lose out on the official Samsung warranty, which is a big setback. If you are someone who loved the Galaxy Note 7, its advanced S Pen and the superior build but had to give it back to Samsung due to obvious reasons, should consider buying this phone. However, if you want to be an early adopter of the latest technology, then take note that the upcoming Apple iPhone 8, Galaxy Note 8 and the LG V30 are just around the corner.