A report published by South Korean publication Hankyung said Samsung is actually preparing to refurbish the handsets and sell them on.

Apparently, Samsung has opted for the refurb-and-resell approach in an effort to recoup some of the profits that it lost during the much-publicized global recall process.

It will also minimize the potential environmental damage of dealing with millions of unsaleable devices, which will help it to avoid a hefty fine.

The story may not be true. Samsung said in October that it would "safely dispose of" every Note7.

But an independent probe by the South Korean government corroborated Samsung's assessment, and affirmed that aside from the battery issue, the design of the Galaxy Note7 was otherwise sound.

This means the company could be sitting on 2.5 million units which it could refurbish with non-flaming batteries.

The report claims that Samsung will reuse "core components", but that each handset will have a new case, and a smaller battery. While the Galaxy Note7 originally shipped with a 3,500mAh battery, the refurbished models are expected to have battery capacity in the region of 3,000mAh to 3,200mAh. We said at the time that the size of the battery in such a confined space was most likely to cause the problem.

Unfortunately, they will not be available in Europe or North America. This is a shame because it was still a damn nice phone. Apparently the firm is believed to be limiting availability to emerging markets such as India and Vietnam, although it may also resell them in its home market of South Korea.