Just a few weeks after shipping the first Galaxy Note 7 smartphones, Samsung is issuing a recall. The company will voluntarily replace any of the 2.5 million phones that have been sold so far.
The move comes in response to reports that some Galaxy Note 7 phones were catching fire due to battery problems.
Samsung says 35 cases have bee reported so far and that the company is conducting an inspection. That’s a pretty small number of phones compared with the millions sold to date, so it’s possible that not all Galaxy Note 7 units have faulty batteries. But if you don’t want to run the risk of having a phone catch fire in you pants pocket, it might not be a bad idea to keep an eye out for Samsung’s instructions for how to return your phone.
The company says it will lay out plans for the voluntary recall program in the coming weeks.
Update: Samsung has announced details for its exchange program in the US. Customers can exchange a Galaxy Note 7 for either a new Galaxy Note 7 or for a Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge smartphone (and get a refund for the difference in price between the two phones).
Customers who participate in the exchange program will also get a $25 bill credit from select carriers.
To start the process, you can either contact the retailer that sold you the pone or cal 1-800-SAMSUNG.
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Ruh-roh
Brad, post says Galaxy S7 in many places, where it should say Galaxy Note 7!
Is this because of the batteries or because they are trying to force Quickcharge 2.0/3.0 on the USB-C connection which is actually not allowed via the USB-C spec?
Per another report Samsung says it’s related to one unnamed supplier of batteries. So apparently not.
“The company says it will lay out plans for the voluntary recall program in the coming weeks.” In the coming weeks, so I assume people with torched phones do without until this “voluntary recall program” is put in place.
Lord I hope not!
Too bad there isn’t some sort of technology that would allow the owner of a phone to open its case, determine the manufacturer and lot number of a battery and simply get a new battery if the battery supplied was defective. Oh wait, every smartphone I’ve ever owned has had that feature, and Samsung wasn’t even considered during my last purchase process because it didn’t.
Every oem has that database. Releasing it is a lawsuit risk.
Right, so Samsung is going to replace all 2.5M phones because they have the information on which phones are defective, but think it’s too risky to use the information. Not to mention even if they for some reason didn’t want to use that information, they could just send everyone a new battery, and it would still be cheaper/easier than replacing every phone. But that’s not even what I’m talking about. I’m talking about people who have bought the phone being able to use it without concern. I’m talking about people who have bought the phone being able to easily get it fixed without returning the phone. Samsung went through this with the S4, and provided a simple means of letting owners test their batteries and get replacements. When they announced the S5 they claimed that manufacturing processes had improved. I called BS on that back then, and today’s news proves… Read more »
@Kary – You’re missing the point…
Removing ANY way for a user (or even a qualified service center) to replace a built-in battery is at the Core of Design for Planned-Obsolescence (DPO). Samsung will defend this practice to-the-end! Even if it means completely replacing all defective devices sold to date on this production run. The reason is: DPO is Extremely Profitable in the long-run. The sooner your battery degrades (or even Fails) once you are out of the Warranty period – the sooner you will buy a new device.
That’s certainly true of household kitchen appliances. They are clearly being designed to fail, and then be expensive/not worth it to repair.
Well I guess I am waiting on a replacement now. My Note 7 does not even get slightly warm when charging, I have been using the quick charger than came with it with no issues at home, and I have 3 separate brands of aftermarket USB C cables I have used to sync and charge other places (cars and the like) and it has been fine. No heat at all compared to my old phone. Bought only known good cables as tested by the Google guy and bought a few to make sure I could have options if I did not like one for some reason but they have all been fine. Wireless charger at work on my desk and one cabled one there in my tech bench area but I rarely use them as a full day of use without charging I still have 50 percent charge left. One… Read more »