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Samsung tries to ease fears after new reports of phone fires

Possibly to help address the confusion, on Monday Samsung released a new site where users can upload information about their phone and determine if it is safe to use.

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The burning Galaxy Note 7 is singeing Samsung with consumers. And according to mobile analytics company Apteligent, “the usage rate of the phone among existing users has been nearly the exact same since the day of the recall”.

A Chinese social media user posted messages on Sunday saying a friend’s Galaxy Note 7 caught fire over the weekend, and included photos of the damaged phone. Samsung has said it has sold 2.5 million phones equipped with the suspect batteries. A report on VentureBeat by Evan Blass has revealed that sales of the Note 7 in the United States might only resume come 21st of October.

Last week, Samsung belatedly recalled 1,858 Note 7 phones in China from a different batch that had been distributed before general sales began.

“Our absolute priority is the safety of our customers – that’s why we are asking all Galaxy Note 7 customers to act now and exchange today”, said the company’s UK Mobile VP Conor Pierce.

Samsung says that there have been almost 100 reports of overheating Galaxy Note 7 units in the United States, which includes 26 reports of the Note 7s burning their owners.

Samsung also confirmed that it is rolling out a software update to original Note 7 devices that will limit the charging level to 60 per cent and make it impossible for the battery to overheat.

Samsung has begun replacing the Galaxy Note7 with a battery manufacturing standard after a battery cell issue was reported earlier this month.

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This is the latest phase of its costly recall, said the largest maker of smartphones in the world, which stopped the rollout worldwide of its new flagship smartphone on September 2 after initial reports of the handset catching on fire. The success of the recall is seen as crucial to Samsung retaining brand loyalty and preventing customers defecting to arch-rival Apple’s new iPhone 7 or cheaper Chinese-made models.

Time to trade in your Note7