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Samsung's Galaxy Note 8 has broken presale records despite last year's disaster

Samsung's Galaxy Note 8 has broken presale records despite last year's disaster

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Photo by James Bareham / The Verge

The Note brand is still going strong despite Samsung recalling and discontinuing Note 7 devices last year for battery explosions. The company announced that more customers in the US have preordered the Note 8 than any other Notes it has ever sold in previous years during the same time period.

At a conference in Korea where Samsung announced the Note 8’s release in its home country, Samsung’s mobile chief DJ Koh said it received 650,000 preorders within five days across the 40 countries it first launched in — 2.5 times faster than the Note 7. Samsung has not publicly announced the number for US-only presales.

Note 8 preorders went live in the US on August 24th and the device is one of Samsung’s most expensive smartphones to date, starting at $930. It’s unapologetically pricey, though Samsung did attempt to offset that price tag with some presale offers. Preorders before September 24th are eligible for a choice of a Gear 360 camera or a wireless charging bundle, and Note 7 owners were offered a steep discount if they traded in their current device for the Note 8. Carriers like T-Mobile have also offered their own deals, enticing customers to sign up for a new line and to get a full rebate on a second Note 8.

Judging by how popular Note 7s were last year before everything went down, it seems that little has deterred Note fans from upgrading — not even the price tag. Samsung also did not comment on how Note 8 preorders compared to its Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus launches from earlier this year.

Update September 12th 9:40AM ET: This article has been updated with exact preorder number publicly shared by Samsung.