Samsung halted the global sales of Galaxy Note 7 due to faulty battery issues. To compensate those who pre-booked the phablet, Samsung India is offering a free Gear VR headset, along with $50 Oculus store voucher.
The Galaxy Note 7 launch may have not gone the way Samsung hoped. The flagship phablet is plagued with battery issues, due to which the company not only had to halt the sales, but also recall all units that users purchased. And for those who pre-ordered the Galaxy Note 7, Samsung will compensate by offering free Gear VR headset, which is priced at Rs 7,290. Samsung also announced that users will be given Oculus content voucher worth $50 (approximately Rs 3,350), when the phablet and Gear VR headset starts shipping.
Earlier, Samsung had announced that those who pre-booked the Galaxy Note 7 would get the Gear VR at a special price of Rs 1,990. The Galaxy Note 7 was supposed to go on sale in India on September 7 but was delayed after Samsung halted sales of the phablet globally after receiving 35 cases where its battery exploded. There is no word at the moment when Samsung will start selling the Galaxy Note 7.
“At Samsung, we are committed to producing the highest quality products and we take every incident reported by our valued customers very seriously. In response to recent cases reported globally of the new Galaxy Note7, we conducted a thorough investigation and found a battery cell issue. Since our customers’ safety is an absolute priority at Samsung, we have delayed the sales of Galaxy Note 7 in India. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you. We are thankful for your patience and you can rest assured that we are working diligently to deliver your Galaxy Note 7 as soon as possible,” the company said on its website.
The issue came to light when multiple reports about battery explosion surfaced. Samsung was quick enough to delay the shipments for conducting quality-related tests. The company later acknowledged the battery issue found in the ones manufactured by Samsung’s SDI. Samsung has issued the global recall to replace the faulty batteries with new ones. However, it did not mention any time frame as to when the Galaxy Note 7 will start shipping again.
Samsung Galaxy Note 7 specifications
Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge have been the highly acclaimed smartphones, and the Galaxy Note 7 was launched to a lot of fanfare, where nearly everyone went ahead to call it the best Android device out there. Priced at Rs 59,990 in India, the phablet features a 5.7-inch QHD Super AMOLED dual-edged curved display with Corning Gorilla Glass 5. It is powered by Samsung’s Exynos 8890 64-bit octa-core processor paired with 4GB RAM. With 64GB onboard storage, a microSD card support for up to 256GB is also present. It is a hybrid SIM card slot, meaning you can either use two nano SIM cards or a SIM card and a microSD card, not both.
The Galaxy Note 7 also sorts a 12-megapixel rear camera of aperture f/1.7 with dual pixels technology, PDAF and dual LED flash. Up front a 5-megapixel selfie camera is also present. Armed with a 3,500mAh battery, connectivity options include USB Type-C port, 4G LTE with VoLTE voice calling support, Bluetooth 4.1, Wi-Fi 802.11ac and GPS.
Samsung Galaxy Note 7 features
The phablet also features IP68 certification for water and dust resistance, meaning you can submerge the Galaxy Note 7 under 1.5 meter of water for up to 30 minutes. For enhanced security, the Galaxy Note 7 includes both, a fingerprint scanner embedded into the home button as well as an iris scanner for biometric authentication. The S Pen stylus, which is the highlight of the Galaxy Note 7 is vastly improved too. Lastly, the phablet also features an always-on display, just like the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge.