Well it turns out those new Note 7s aren't just for exchanges; they're also for new sales.
Right on the heels of the announcement that 500,000 brand new Galaxy Note 7s have arrived in the U.S. for customer exchanges, Verizon and Sprint have started offering up the new phones for sale. Verizon's page places a larage notice on the product page indicating that these are new "safe" units, while Sprint simply picked up where it left off with no notice.
The return of sales on the same day that Samsung flooded carrier and retail channels with devices for exchange is a bit odd, considering how small of a percentage of Note 7 owners — reportedly below 20% — had already exchanged their recalled phones. 500,000 phones is a lot of inventory to have out there, and surely there are more on the way to replenish the full 1 million recalled, but it's surprising that Samsung (or the U.S. CPSC) would allow sales to resume when there are still recalled and potentially dangerous Note 7s out there waiting to be exchanged.
Nonetheless, if you've been waiting these past three weeks to order your Note 7 for the first time, or perhaps got a full refund for your initial Note 7 purchase and were waiting to buy a fresh one, Verizon and Sprint have you covered. We expect T-Mobile and AT&T to hop on the bandwagon soon as well.
