Samsung had earlier announced a recall of 2.5 million such devices across 10 countries. Its chairman, Elliot Kaye, blasted Samsung for trying to do the recall on its own, saying that anyone who believes that to be adequate “needs to have more than their phone checked”.
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Samsung’s woes with the Galaxy Note 7’s battery are far from done.
The federal agency says Note 7 users can get a free replacement from Samsung, their wireless carrier or the retail outlet where the bought the phone.
Samsung has received about 92 reports of batteries overheating in the US alone, according to the CPSC.
Meanwhile, U.S. aviation safety officials have taken the unusual step of warning airline passengers not to turn on or charge the phone during flights, and not to put them in checked bags. Regulators in Canada and Mexico also issued formal recalls on Thursday, affecting almost 22,000 devices in Canada and 11,600 in Mexico.
“To those of you who love the Note – the most loyal customers in our Samsung family – we appreciate your passion and your patience”. Enter that number at samsung.com/us/note7recall or call Samsung’s recall hotline at 1-844-365-6197.
One bright spark of a reader noted that some Note7 users might be using devices without SIM cards and Wi-Fi access, but that usage scenario would have to be extremely slim. The company announced that a software upgrade for Note 7 has been developed in such a way that it will limit the battery when it reaches 60 percent of capacity.
Yet if the Galaxy Note 7 issue triggers more concerns about safety issues with that and other smartphones in Samsung’s line, the firm may be looking at a much larger problem than it initially anticipated. Kaye said the South Korean company has now agreed to offer consumers the choice of a full refund or a replacement device. It appears that the restrictions have now got tighter after the CPSC recall, though there are still questions about how the authorities are going to monitor compliance with its order.
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1 million mobile phones will be included in the recall.
