Exchange program hits its stride in the UK starting today — but no new Note 7 sales yet.
Update: We’ve updated this post with confirmation from Samsung on the update to cap “unsafe” Notes at 60% battery, and show a green battery icon in replacement units.
From today, Samsung will start swapping out potentially dangerous Galaxy Note 7s with new, safe units in the UK. In line with the company’s announcement a couple of weeks back today’s the day anyone with an early Note 7 unit in the UK can get a new replacement.
Samsung halted sales of the Galaxy Note 7 right before the official UK street date of September 2, so the only people with UK devices will have been pre-order customers who took advantage of Samsung’s offer to get the phone three days early. (A significant number, but far fewer than would be out there had the retail launch gone ahead as planned.)
Samsung says customers should get in touch with the place they bought their Note from in order to arrange an exchange, if they haven’t already been contacted.
UK customers will be contacted by the provider or operator from which they purchased the product in order to arrange their device exchange. If customers have not been contacted before 19 September they should contact the provider or operator themselves to arrange the exchange.
Samsung has also confirmed earlier reports that it’ll issue a software update to limit potentially unsafe Note 7s to 60% battery charge, and make new “safe” handsets show a green battery icon. Both updates (presumably as part of the same firmware package) will land on British Note 7s from tomorrow.
Samsung will issue new software to all pre-ordered Note7 devices in Europe that will limit the battery charge to 60%. This software will begin rolling out to existing customers’ devices this week (from September 20th in UK and Ireland). By actively limiting the ability of the device to charge to full capacity, Samsung aims to reduce the risk of incidents and simultaneously reinforce the message to customers that they should immediately replace their existing device with a new Note7.
Customers who exchange their existing device for a new Note7 can be fully confident that their replacement device is not affected by the battery cell issue, courtesy of a new UX update to the battery icon. Any Note7 device that shows a ‘green’ battery icon (previous software version is white) on the device notification bar, the ‘Power Off’ prompt screen or the Always-On Display can be assured that the device is safe for charging. This UX update will be rolled out from tomorrow in UK and Ireland.
There’s still no word on exactly when new sales of the Note 7 will begin; a Samsung told AC “Our first priority is to support current Note7 owners who are participating in the Product Exchange Program. We will confirm new in store dates shortly.”
Independent retailer Clove says stock has been delayed until “early October,” while Carphone Warehouse is more pessimistic, saying October 21.
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