Around 16,000 new Galaxy Note 7 smartphones were put into service here Wednesday, an indication that the Samsung device is still popular among local consumers despite the global recall incident.

The nation's three major mobile carriers -- SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp. -- resumed activating phablets sold in pre-orders last month.

Roughly 16,000 units were put into service across the country, apparently a good sales record for a new smartphone model marketed in South Korea.

"Consumers seem to have no special antipathy toward the Galaxy Note 7," a mobile phone seller said. "They seem rather insensitive to the recall case."

Samsung Electronics Co. began the sale of its new flagship phablet on Aug. 19 amid keen public interest especially in its iris-reading feature.

But sales were suspended on Sept. 2 due to reports of some handsets catching fire while charging.

Samsung immediately announced a plan for the global recall of all devices sold.

The recall is proceeding relatively smoothly. Some 23,000 units were exchanged in South Korea on Wednesday alone, bringing the number of exchanges to 73 percent of the total.

Samsung and the mobile phone service firms have offered coupons for Samsung Pay mall and other incentives for the buyers of Galaxy Note 7s in a special promotion.

More than 400,000 phablets were sold via pre-orders, and 20-30 percent of those have yet to be activated.

The ordinary sale of the new phablets will resume on Saturday.

"Some 20,000 units are expected to be sold a day once the sale restarts," another smartphone dealer said. (Yonhap)