Justin Denison, senior vice president of product strategy at Samsung, speaks during a launch event for the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 at the Hammerstein Ballroom, August 2, 2016 in New York City. (Photo : Getty Images/Drew Angerer)
The Galaxy Note 7 has been recalled on Friday after a series of battery combustion was reported. Samsung pulled the device from the stores in 10 countries including the U.S. and South Korea after two weeks the product has been launched.
Koh Dong-jin, president of Samsung's mobile business said that the customers who bought Galaxy Note 7 may swap for new smartphones in two weeks. He also apologized to the customers for the inconvenience, WKYT reported.
While Samsung confirmed 35 cases of battery combustion, there are no reports of any injuries caused by the device's problem. The company also stated that they cannot tell which smartphones, out of 2.5 million sold worldwide, may explode. One out of 42,000 units may have a faulty battery.
According to Donal Finegan, a chemical engineer at University College London, battery failures are rare. Just like other smartphones, Galaxy Note 7 uses lithium-ion batteries, and what makes these batteries so powerful also makes it easy to catch fire, added Finegan, as reported by Forbes.
The heating of the Note 7 begins within the battery itself. The problem with the smartphone's "battery management system" is one of the causes of combustion. That system is the one that monitors the electrical current and signals a chip inside the phone to stop charging once that battery is fully charged.
Once the system or the chip becomes faulty, this causes the battery to overcharge. Once overcharged, the battery may become unstable leading to combustion, Finegan explained.
Meanwhile, another Samsung device received complaints from the consumer, the Galaxy S7 Active. Reports say that the phone is supposed to be water-resistant but Samsung was not able to fulfill its promise.
However, Samsung stated that only few phones were affected and it was caused by manufacturing problem. The company promised to replace the devices under warranty but will not let the customers swap it to other models.
On the other hand, Samsung found that a battery cell that was made by one of their two battery suppliers caused the problem but Koh did not name the supplier. Galaxy Note 7 in China stays on the stores as its battery was made by a different supplier, according to the company.
