If confirmed, the reports would deepen Samsung Electronics’s growing woes with the problem-plagued smartphones. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a recall notice of the devices on September 15.
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After Canada and the United States, Samsung has now launched its Galaxy Note7 exchange program in the UK as well, allowing customers to get their faulty Note7 units replaced with a safer one.
Going forward, Samsung is rolling out safer Galaxy Note 7 devices with a square symbol on the packaging of the box to indicate a newer and safer model. However, a supplier to Samsung said yesterday that its battery does not appear to have caused a Galaxy Note 7 smartphone to ignite in China, according to Reuters. The man said that the Samsung phone started to heat up and vibrate late Saturday night, then exploded and emitted black smoke. That account gave no contact information for the user or details of where the person lives, but he showed photos of the damaged phone and its serial number. “To help users easily understand if they have a new device and use their new Galaxy Note7 with confidence, the company has introduced a green battery icon that has been included in three specific software changes”, the company said in a statement.
The exchange programme follows Samsung’s decision earlier this month to stop sales and shipments of the 5.7-inch Note 7 phablet, after reports of some batteries overheating and catching fire.
A statement issued by Samsung on September 14 said that the tech giant would recall 1,858 phones from China, a fraction of the total number in the country. Samsung immediately halted the sales of Galaxy Note 7 due to the faulty batteries which brought the phones on fire.
“For customers who already have Galaxy Note 7 devices we now ask that you power down your device and return to using your previous phone”, the firm said.
But some people on Chinese social media expressed skepticism.
It turns out there are a few simple ways to find out.
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Samsung said it “is fully confident that the battery issue has been completely resolved in the replacement Note7 devices that will be available to customers in Ireland from this week”.
