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The Galaxy Note FE (Fan Edition) completely sold out within two months of its market availability in Samsung’s home country, South Korean media reported on Friday, citing industry sources with knowledge of the device’s commercial performance. The refurbished variant of the now-discontinued Galaxy Note 7 originally debuted in the Far Eastern country in early July, with the Seoul-based original equipment manufacturer (OEM) releasing approximately 400,000 units priced at 699,600 won, which translates to around $620 and is about 40 percent cheaper than what the first version of the phablet was originally going for.
Apart from having a smaller 3,200mAh battery compared to the Galaxy Note 7 that shipped with a 3,500mAh cell, the device is identical to the original flagship which Samsung pulled from the market after numerous consumers started reporting that the smartphone is prone to combusting in a spontaneous manner. While some industry analysts were skeptical about the potential of the Galaxy Note FE due to the battery fiasco in which its predecessor was involved, consumers in Samsung’s home country were seemingly unphased by the company’s previous issues and welcomed the opportunity to purchase a nearly identical device at a significantly lower price point. The consumer electronics manufacturer previously said it isn’t planning on selling more Galaxy Note FE handsets in the country, suggesting that it’s now entirely focused on its other upcoming products.
The overwhelming success of the Galaxy Note FE bodes well for Samsung’s prospects in regards to the Galaxy Note 8, the successor to its discontinued phablet which the tech giant officially unveiled last month and is preparing to release on a worldwide level next Friday, September 15. The Galaxy Note 8 is an upgrade over its predecessor in most aspects, featuring the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 system-on-chip (SoC) and 6GB of RAM, in addition to shipping with 64GB of internal flash memory expandable via a microSD card slot by up to 256GB and running Android 7.1 Nougat out of the box. The phablet is already available for pre-orders in most parts of the world, with many industry watchers expecting it to become a massive commercial hit. Compared to the Galaxy Note 7, its successor will have a slightly larger battery whose capacity amounts to 3,300mAh and will feature a significantly more power-efficient system-on-chip in the form of the Snapdragon 835 and Exynos 8895, depending on the market.