April 20, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Greenpeace International on July 3 announced that it welcomes Samsung launching the refurbished version of Samsung Electronics' ill-fated Galaxy Note 7 on July 7, following the organization’s campaign for the right handling of unused phones and parts.

Samsung suspended sales of the bigger-screen phone in October last year after several reports of fire and explosion. Since then, Greenpeace had urged Samsung to come up with measures to recycle the phones and parts. 

“We welcome Samsung’s decision to produce a refurbished Galaxy Note 7 instead of wasting valuable resources,” said Lee Hyun-sook, an activist of the environmental organization.

“Samsung will have to disclose its position about what the company will do with the rest of the parts that are not used for refurbished phones.”

Lee also said that the recall of 4.3 million units of the Note phone could have been avoided if the phone had originally been designed to replace the battery or get fixed more easily.

According to a report published by Greenpeace and repair experts of iFixit, the latest Galaxy S8 has also made no major improvements on repairability, scoring 4 out of 10. The report said, among other things, the display screen is extremely difficult to replace without breaking.

The refurbished Note phone, called Galaxy Note Fan Edition, will hit the Korean market on July 7 with a price tag of 699,600 won (US$612), about 30 percent cheaper than the original phone. Samsung said plans for global sales have not yet been decided.

By Song Seung-hyun (ssh@heraldcorp.com)