Samsung Electronics refused comment on the report on Friday.
Advertisement
Samsung said it had confirmed 35 instances of Note 7s catching fire or exploding.
Samsung said it would voluntarily replace all current Note 7 devices “over coming weeks”, but has not yet announced the procedure for current owners.
The company was due to hold a news conference later Friday about the findings of its investigation and plans for the Galaxy Note 7.
The person, who declined to be identified as the deliberations were not yet finalised, said the firm had not decided specifics such as the timeline for a potential recall or how many phones could be affected.
“There haven’t been any instances of this happening to Spark customers, or in fact in New Zealand, but because of that Samsung have begun a voluntary recall of the product”.
The Samsung Certified Pre-Owned store is now live and it boasts of a huge selection of handsets from the vast Galaxy line along with the only non-smartphone offering, the VR9000 POWERbot Cleaning Robot Vacuum.
It did not elaborate on any problems it may have found with the gadget, which was launched in South Korea and other markets on August 19 and has been generally well-received by critics.
On the Note 7, after complaints surfaced online, Samsung found that a battery cell made by one of its two battery suppliers caused the phone to catch fire.
The 34-year-old living in the port city of Busan said by email that she was bruised when she rushed out of bed after her phone burst into flames, filling her bedroom with smoke smelling of chemicals.
“I had thought of getting a Galaxy Note 7 when it first came out, but seeing all the bad things that have happened, I don’t think I will”.
Samsung has said it aimed for the Note 7 to maintain strong sales momentum in the second half of the year against stiffening competition from the likes of Apple Inc, which is widely expected to release its latest iPhone next week. Company officials did not reply to questions about how Samsung determined which phones are deemed safe and which require further testing. There have been no reports of injuries related to the problem. Samsung also added an iris scanner to the Note 7, which lets users unlock the phone by detecting patterns in the eyes.
You can learn more about the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 recall here.
Advertisement
Even before the issue of battery explosions emerged, supplies were not keeping up with higher-than-expected demand for the smartphone.
