Samsung announces Galaxy S8 upgrade program for Korean Note 7 owners

Consumers haven’t been particularly pleased at the way that Samsung has handled the Galaxy Note 7 recall, but the manufacturer is hoping to appease its customers with a new upgrade program for those returning their handset. However the deal is only heading to South Korea, at least for the time being.

Samsung’s new program gives customers the option to exchange their Note 7 for a new Galaxy S7 or S7 edge at a reduced cost, as long as they upgrade to a Galaxy S8 smartphone or a Note 8 next year. As an added bonus, those who already exchanged their handset after the October 11th sales halt can retroactively apply to join to program.

Note 7 owners will only have to pay half the price of their new Galaxy, which can be paid for over a 12 month instalment plan, until they exchange (yet again) the replacement S7 for one of next year’s flagships. At which point, customers pay the remaining balance up to the full cost of the Galaxy S8, which can be spread over another 12 months.

Of course, we don’t know an awful lot about Samsung’s next generation flagships yet, so it’s not necessarily an easy choice to essentially pre-order and start paying for a phone months in advance. However, the Samsung faithful may see this as an opportunity to secure themselves an S8 edge order ahead of the February or March unveiling. Samsung says this program is designed to make it easier to buy a Galaxy S8 or Note 8 next year, but the company is no doubt hoping to stop customers jumping over to its competitors too.

We’re not entirely sure about the fate of the Note 8, as reports had been suggesting that Samsung may only produce one flagship next year. Although that now doesn’t seem to be the case, according to this latest announcement from South Korea. It’s also possible that the Note name may change next year, to disassociate future products from this messy recall.

Samsung expects that the announcement of this program will help complete with South Korean recall by the end of November, and the offer will end on November 30th. Unfortunately we don’t have a date for when Samsung will be rolling out this option to the rest of the world, but the company is expected to make an announcements about similar programs in other countries.