Update: Samsung has announced that Galaxy Note 7 replacements will be in stores Wednesday, September 21.
Just in case you’ve been clutching the Galaxy Note 7 (with heat-resistant oven mitts), the Samsung’s potentially explosive smartphone has officially been recalled in the US.
It just transitioned from a voluntary recall to a mandatory one, with the US government’s Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issuing a deathknell about its hazardous lithium-ion battery.
Today’s recall involves approximately one million Note 7 handsets sold, of which Samsung is said to have received 92 reports of batteries overheating, according to the CPSC.
Worse, there were a total of 26 reports of burns and 55 reports of property damage, including fires in cars and garages among these incidents.
What to do now
If you haven’t already exchanged or sought a refund for your Galaxy Note 7 – purchased before September 15 – you should stop using it and power it down “immediately,” warns the CPSC.
From there, contact your wireless carrier or retail store. In the US, this means AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, US Cellular or Best Buy. You can also contact Samsung directly.
You’ll a new Galaxy Note 7 for free with a different battery, or get a refund. There’s also a chance to pick up a replacement device instead, like the Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge.
A great phone, except for the exploding battery
This is a huge blow to Samsung. The Note 7 represented its third major phone launch in 2016, following the success of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge.
It could cost the company $1 billion, according to one estimate. The initially “handful” of overheating incidents soon blossomed, causing aviation agencies and metro services to either ban or warn against their use.
Samsung in turn has slowly been trying to ween users off of the Note 7, doing everything including limiting the battery to 60% with a software update.
It hasn’t worked, with a rebound in Samsung Galaxy Note 7 usage even after the voluntary recall began. We’ll have more on the new version of the phablet when it gets into consumers hands.
Source: techradar.com
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This actually changes nothing and is nothing but a formality as Samsung moved to right this problem long before the bumbling bureaucrats possibly could.
That said, it was a necessary step for when it comes time to crack down on those stubborn types who refuse to swap their phones. Now Samsung or the carriers don't have to risk backlash/lawsuits from disabling devices if the CPSC gives the go ahead.