ALERT: Explosion scare forces Samsung to recall 2.5 million smartphones ... Are you safe?

ALERT: Explosion scare forces Samsung to recall 2.5 million smartphones ... Are you safe?

Monday, September 05, 2016 by: Amy Goodrich

Tags: Samsung, recall, exploding phones

Samsung

(NaturalNews) The new Galaxy Note 7 had barely left the warehouse when the first reports appeared on social media of the device randomly exploding while it was charging.

One of the unlucky people who saw his shiny new $800 smartphone spontaneously burst into flames was Ariel Gonzalez. In a video posted on YouTube he shows his two week old charred Galaxy Note 7. According to Gonzalez, the phone caught fire shortly after the official Samsung charger was unplugged.

After other customer reports of exploding batteries and scorched phones, Samsung decided to recall millions of devices and halted sales of its Galaxy Note 7 phone until the issues have been resolved. The brand new Note 7 has been pulled from the shelves in 10 countries, including South Korea and the United States.

What's the issue?
After investigations into numerous incidents, Samsung found that a battery cell made by one of its two battery suppliers was causing the smartphone to catch fire. As reported by The Daily Mail, Koh Dong-jin, president of Samsung's mobile business refused to name the supplier.

He further noted that the faulty battery will cost the company so much money his heart aches. The recall comes at a terrible time for the company – just ahead of Apple's launch of the new iPhone.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Samsung reported that reservations and prepayments for the large-screen, waterproof Galaxy Note 7 were higher than for previous Galaxy phones. After a few slower years, and having to compete with Apple and Chinese brands, they had great hopes for the Galaxy Note 7.

After the reports of the exploding devices, Samsung's shares fell 2 percent, and only retraced less than 1 percent the following day.

However, Samsung says that the safety of their customers is of paramount concern – hence the decision to recall and replace all the affected phones. So far, Samsung has manufactured about 2.5 million Note 7s, and sold more than 1 million since the product's launch on August 19.

New shipments are under investigation and temporarily halted for quality control testing. Mr. Koh said that customers who already purchased a Note 7 will be able to swap their gadget for a safer version in about two weeks.

At the time of this writing there had been no reports of injuries related to the battery issues.

Is your phone safe?
At a press conference to announce the recall, Samsung confirmed 35 cases of the battery problem. On average, the fault in the battery affects only 24 in every 1 million phones. This averages to one exploding device for every 42,000 sold.

In China, Samsung went ahead with the release of the Galaxy Note 7 on September 1. As confirmed by Mr. Koh, the batteries used in the phones for the Chinese market all came from the non-faulty supplier.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Samsung isn't the first smartphone maker to run into safety issues. Earlier this year, Apple had to recall adapters sold in Europe and other regions due to safety issues. In 2013, a young woman was electrocuted to death after answering her iPhone while it was connected to a non-Apple charger. Nokia Corp. also had to recall some of its devices, after around 100 reports of electric shocks and batteries overheating.

So, no matter which device you purchase, you'd better be careful with it.

Sources for this article include:

TheSun.co.uk

WSJ.com

DailyMail.co.uk

YouTube.com

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/055195_Samsung_recall_exploding_phones.html#ixzz4JUCNs2EJ