Unsurprisingly, this whole exploding battery fiasco hasn’t really panned out all that well for Samsung. The Galaxy Note7 was an exceptional phone that ticked all the boxes, except it also ticked the box for spontaneous combustion. The good news is that if you were unlucky enough to have purchased and subsequently returned the Note7, you could be able to score an incredible deal on the yet-unannounced Samsung Galaxy Note 8. As in 50% off. As in half price. For real.

Of course, this comes with some serious caveats. First, you must have purchased a Galaxy Note7 in the first place. Then, you must have returned it to Samsung so they could completely destroy it, since even the replacement phones started blowing up. You’ll also have to have swapped the Note7 for either a Galaxy S7 or S7 edge. And finally, you’ll need to live in South Korea.

That last stipulation is probably going to eliminate most of you, though it’s possible that Samsung may extend the offer to other markets too.

Reuters translated a statement that Samsung issued (in Korean) earlier today:

Samsung said customers who trade in their Note 7 phone for either a flat-screen or curved-screen version of the Galaxy S7 can trade up for a Galaxy S8 or Note 8 smartphone launching next year through an upgrade program.

There are at least a couple of important points we need to glean from that, assuming that the Reuters translation is spot-on. First, as mentioned, you’ll need to have to have traded in your Note 7 already. Second, you’ll need to “trade up” to the Galaxy S8 or the Note 8 next year. Presumably, this means you’ll be giving up your S7 or S7 edge in order to get the 50% discount on the Note 8. In effect, you’ll be getting a trade-in value of about $400 or so.

Users in the upgrade program will need to pay only half the price of a Galaxy S7 device, rather than the full amount, before exchanging to the S8 or the Note 8, Samsung said.

If that is indeed the case, I’m not entirely convinced this is such an incredible deal. You could just as easily flip your Galaxy S7 edge on eBay or Craigslist for that much, but I suppose this is far more convenient and you can feel a little more comfortable with the transaction.

Via Reuters

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