Samsung has officially acknowledged that some units of the recently released Galaxy Note 7 have exploded and burst into flame while charging with 24 confirmed cases around the world. The South Korean tech giant has ordered a global recall.
Korean media reports indicate that 35 cases of the Note 7 exploding while being charged up have been documented but only 24 were directly attributed to the so-called Batterygate. It appears that Samsung has no way of determining which units are afflicted by the issue described as modular glitch so the company arrived at a decision to recall all units shipped out so far.
Carriers and retail partners of Samsung have been advised to stop selling the phablet. According to BGR, around 2.5 million units have been delivered to sellers and more or less one million Note 7s have already been snapped out through official channels and even gray markets or online seller.
Samsung said it will be a total recall and the replacement process will start over the next two weeks, at the latest. The tech giant has assured that it is "working closely with our partners to ensure the replacement experience is as convenient and efficient as possible."
AT&T, for instance, is offering a full refund for early buyers of the Galaxy Note 7 in the United States while Sprint has announced that a temporary handset will be issued to subscribers while waiting for the replacement from Samsung, per a separate report by BGR.
But while waiting, the tech site has advised that users stop using the Note 7 for now to ensure their safety. Even as Samsung has maintained that only a few of the already circulating Galaxy Note 7 are likely affected by the battery glitch, it's a lot safer to return the phone immediately or put down the afflicted device.
For owners forced for now to keep using the phone, it is best not to charge the phone unattended as reports said that the Note 7 when charging seemed to overheat, explode and start a fire. The safest bet when charging is the use of the charger that came out of the box with the Galaxy Note 7.
The Galaxy Note 7 debuted in select markets just a few weeks back and touched down to critical acclaim. Early reviews concluded that Samsung has successfully built the best Android smartphone so far with some experts even declaring that Apple will have a tough time beating the jumbo-phone with its upcoming duo of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.