After issuing a recall of more than 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7 smartphones sold around the world (including a million phones sold in the US), Samsung has begun providing customers with replacement phones. But that could lead to a bit of confusion: how do you know if you have an old Galaxy Note 7 or a new one?
It turns out there are a few simple ways to find out.
First, before you even open the box a phone comes in, check the label. if you see a square symbol in the upper right corner of the label, you’re looking at a new Galaxy Note 7.
Once you turn the phone on, you’ll get another indication: the battery icon will be green instead of white.
You can see the green battery icon in three places: the status bar at the top of the phone, the always-on display screen, and the power off screen.
Samsung issued the recall after receiving and confirming a number of reports of Galaxy Note 7 handsets catching fire. The company traced the problem to a battery manufacturing error and says only a small percentage of phones were actually affected. But since it’s hard to tell a good first-batch Samsung Galaxy Note 7 from a bad one, the company recalled all of them.
Customers that take advantage of the recall program can either trade in their phones for a new model (and get a $25 gift card), or swap them for a Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge smartphone (and receive a refund for the price difference).
So far there are indications that a lot of people haven’t yet traded in their phones or stopped using them… which makes me wonder if airlines, the FAA, or other agencies will be lifting their bans on using Galaxy Note 7 phones in flight anytime soon.
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Seriously people trade or return those phones. I think Swappa, Ebay and Amazon better put in some safeguards to prevent re-sale of those phones immediately on their sites, because you know some shady people will take advantage and try to pawn them off!
Yep, I’d be happy to exchange for a new Note 7. Unfortunately there is no flipping way to do so still. Stores do not yet have them, contacted ATT Premier Business support and there is no replacement from them even though I ordered from the Premier site. Answer is to go to the store which has no phones. Just hung up from Premier 3 minutes ago. Massive fail all around. I like the phone and I’m still using it. I will keep using it until it blows up at this point. I imagine it will be a few weeks before stock is in my stores locally so until then I just keep carrying this possibly dangerous phone. I will not exchange for another phone, I want the Note 7. Stores are swamped and you cannot call, and when you go in you have to wait for an hour to even… Read more »