A week ago, we called Samsung Electronics Philippines‘ hotline to ask when the tech giant will resume selling the Galaxy Note 7 in the country. They didn’t have an answer then, but this morning, a representative confirmed that it will only be in a few days’ time.

Three days, that is.

Starting October 1, Samsung will not only start replacing recalled, potentially explosive units (with a gift card worth P1,000 and a free screen protector for each replacement at that), they will also start selling deemed-safe Galaxy Note 7 phones at Samsung stores and authorized dealers nationwide.

No word on whether Globe Telecom and Smart Communications will join the “October 1 party,” but we’ve reached out to the two telcos’ executives to get some answers.

This development came amid reports that some consumers in South Korea had complained that their replacement smartphones are overheating or losing battery power while the devices are charging. In China, a man who had just received a new, supposed-to-be-safe Samsung Galaxy Note 7 got his fingers and Apple MacBook Pro burned when his phone caught fire because of the same battery issue.

Starting October 1, Samsung Electronics Philippines will not only start replacing recalled, potentially explosive units, they will also resume selling deemed-safe Galaxy Note 7 phones nationwide. This development came amid reports that some consumers had complained that their replacement smartphones are overheating or losing battery power while the devices are charging.

It doesn’t take a genius to note that if true, this could further damage not just the brand’s reputation, but Samsung’s bottom line and market share as well. As it stands, the world’s largest smartphone vendor has already sold at least 1 trillion won (about $913 million or P44 billion) of shares “in four technology companies to raise cash to pay for a recall expected to cost $1 billion,” according to The Independent.

They can’t afford another issue that will further aggravate the situation. Here’s hoping that those are just isolated incidents — and that the relaunch of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 in the Philippines will go smoothly.

Specs of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 (Price: P39,990)

• Fingerprint sensor
• Retina scanner
• Heart-rate monitor
• Stylus
• IP68-rated (dust- and water-resistant)
• 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display (1,440 x 2,560 resolution)
• Octa-core Exynos 8890 CPU
• 4GB RAM
• 64GB internal storage
• microSD card slot (up to 256GB)
• 12-megapixel rear camera with f/1.7 lens; optical image stabilization; LED flash
• 5-megapixel f/1.7 lens
• 3,500mAh battery with fast charging
• Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow

Samsung Galaxy Note 7 review by Marques Brownlee

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