Swapping out an explosive Samsung phone took 90 minutes in South Philly

First time he heard about the overheating issues and recall of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phone, Penrose Park resident Greg Sanders put off taking his unit back for a swap for a few weeks.

"I loved the phone and was hoping against hope the problem would just go away," he said Tuesday afternoon. "Mine only got slightly warm once."

But with Samsung's second recall and admission Tuesday morning that it was killing off this global flagship model, Sanders decided to race down and trade his replacement Note 7 for the slightly older Galaxy S7 Edge that very day.

"My wife was really pushing this time; just get rid of it, fast," said the 63-year-old heating contractor, interviewed outside the Best Buy store in South Philadelphia. "I just took a chance and came down to the store, without an appointment. There was no one ahead of me, and it still took almost 90 minutes to do the paperwork and transfer the contents of my old phone onto the new one. It's going to be crazy in here on the weekend."

Industry watchers including Neil Mawson of Strategy Analytics are predicting that Samsung's loss of face will benefit rivals such as Apple with its latest iPhone 7 series and Google with its new Pixel line, suggesting the non-effective "fix" of the Note 7 has allowed "a minor drama . . . to escalate into a major crisis of confidence."

But Sanders, a longtime user of Samsung phones "going back to the Galaxy 3 and then the Note 5," was resolute in sticking with the brand. "I've never been an Apple guy, and Samsung gives you more free apps."

He was not even put off by Samsung's piddling token of apology for his bother - $25 off, "just what they gave me the first time."

In truth, the Galaxy 7 Edge is "very close in features to the Note 7," he said, with the same processor and cameras, a slightly smaller edge-wrapping screen (5.5 inches versus 5.7 inches) and actually a slightly larger capacity battery - one that doesn't have a history of blowing up.

Sanders won't miss the Note 7's novel Iris eye recognition feature used to unlock the phone. "Never tried it, though I do like the fingerprint security feature."

But he was taken aback by the lack of an on-board stylus pen available on the Note but missing on the S7, "which comes in very handy in my work, jotting down parts numbers for heaters on the Samsung's screen when I'm not just snapping a photo of the label."

"Sorry my man. You can use an after-market stylus with the Galaxy 7 Edge but it won't be able to activate the same special features," a Samsung rep told Sanders in the store. "Other than that, we won't have anything for you until the Galaxy 8 series shows up in March of 2017."

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