After the reports came in from the United States and South Korea, the South Korean electronics company has made a decision to allow customers to swap the potentially unsafe phone for a new one, as they have been unable to establish which ones were affected out of the 2.5 million models sold.
Advertisement
But the very qualities that make it such a useful form of battery technology also make the lithium-ion battery a fire risk.
Action Ambulance Service said medics in Winthrop awoke to the brand new phone exploding, triggering the fire alarm. The batteries reportedly exploded while charging and blame can not be placed on third party chargers, since reports have said that Samsung original chargers were used.
The batteries work by moving lithium particles between a negative and positive electrode to charge and discharge. Cheaper batteries also sometimes contain metallic particles that can cause a short circuit.
Samsung issued an official statement on Friday regarding the Galaxy Note 7. This could lead to the battery receiving too much current than what they are capable of. The protection circuit at the top of the battery controls the flow of electricity and the temperature of the lithium, while making sure the battery doesn’t overcharge and cause the lithium to heat up.
High-profile incidents aside, the lithium-ion battery market is large and growing. The airline explicitly warns passengers about this scenario in its safety video. The US Federal Aviation Authority are specifically concerned about spare batteries that have exposed terminals that could potentially short circuit through coming into contact with other metal in a bag.
The problems with airlines trying to do this in practice however would be significant.
Will you be upgrading your smart phone this year or will you wait until your old one totally fails? As a result of the massive Galaxy Note 7 recall, Samsung shares fell two percent in Seoul and having one percent of retraced on Friday. What’s unclear is just how many people are going to give up their Note 7 smartphones and move to another manufacturer’s device.
Advertisement
A statement from Samsung UK said: “We are now conducting a thorough inspection with our suppliers to identify possible affected batteries in the market”.
