SINGAPORE - The Samsung Galaxy Note7 exchange programme started on Friday (Sept 16), with thousands of customers turning up to swop their old devices for a new one.

At the Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre, 90 counters were set up for users to conduct the exchange.

When the doors opened at 1pm, there was a queue of around 50 people, but this quickly dissipated, as users had to make an appointment online beforehand.

The programme will run from 11am to 9pm on weekdays and 9am to 11pm on weekends, until Oct 2.

Customers The Straits Times spoke to said that the exchange process took between 45 minutes and two hours, depending on whether they needed to transfer data between their old and new phones.

So far, over 50 per cent of the thousands of Note7 users in Singapore have registered for the exchange programme.