Samsung is offering detailed plans for how you’ll be able to tell the difference between a faulty Note7 or one that’s safe to use.
Big blue S
The company says the new barcode features a white sticker with a large, blue “S” at the top right corner and a small, black square on the bottom. If your Note7 box has the big blue "S", it should be safe.
Samsung Look for the new label on the safe versions of the Galaxy Note7.
Check your IMEI
A Samsung recall site also has a tool to lookup a phone’s IMEI number so you can certify that a new phone is safe. You probably don’t need to double check if you’ve been an issued an official recall by Samsung, but this will be important later on as people begin to resell and trade around devices.
Green status bar
What's more, Samsung has confirmed to ZDNet that the new, safe Note7 units will feature a green battery icon in the status bar, instead of the usual white.
What about refurbished phones?
We’ve also yet to hear what Samsung plans to do with the glut of phones it’s bound to receive since the recall extends to every single Note7 purchased. The company said the problem is with the battery itself. The following statement from Ars Technica says, “Based on our investigation, we have learned that there was an issue within the battery cell. An overheating of the battery cell occurred when the anode-to-cathode came into contact which is a very rare manufacturing process error.”
So it’s possible there could be some massive fire sale later on of refurbished models, but we haven’t had any indication of how that will turn out, or how you'll be able to tell if a refurbished phone is safe.
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