Samsung to recall phones after explosion claims

Reports of new Samsung phone bursting into flames & filling room with chemical-smelling smoke. Faulty battery in less than 0.1% of phones, investigation finds.

MOBILE PHONES

Samsung to recall phones after explosion claims

2/09/2016
AP News Agency

After several reports of Samsung's newly released Galaxy Note 7 bursting into flames, Samsung has suspended sales of the new phone.

Samsung's investigation of explosion claims found batteries were at fault, according to South Korea's Yonhap News.

SHIPMENTS DELAYED AFTER AUGUST 19TH LAUNCH

Samsung launched the Note 7 on Aug 19 in some markets, including South Korea and the US.

Shipments were delayed in South Korea this week for extra quality-control testing after reports that batteries of some of the jumbo smartphones exploded while they were being charged.

PHONE BURST INTO FLAMES IN BED FILLING BEDROOM WITH SMOKE

South Korean high-school teacher Park Soo-Jung said she rushed to buy the Galaxy Note 7, pre- ordering and then activating it on Aug 19, its official launch date.

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.

Ms Park said she's having second thoughts about buying another newly released tech gadget, especially after losing all her personal data stored in the destroyed Note 7.

OFFER OF $269 IN COMPENSATION, NOT ACCEPTED

An employee of a Samsung service centre in Busan who visited Ms Park's school to retrieve the scorched phone confirmed that her Galaxy Note 7 caught fire and said the sample was sent to the company's headquarters.

Ms Park said Samsung offered her a full refund and compensation of 300,000 won ($269). She did not accept the compensation.

"If the exploded phone in flame was near my head, I would not have been able to write this post,'' she said in a popular online forum on Thursday, where she shared a photo of the scorched Note 7 and described dousing the burning phone with water.

OTHER EXPLOSIONS REPORTED

Yonhap News said five or six explosions were reported by consumers, including Park's case, citing pictures and reports of severely damaged phones shared in local online communities, social media and YouTube. Other photos and accounts, other than Park's, could not be immediately verified.

There were no confirmed reports of any injuries.

"Every year, there have been accidents of battery explosions but it is the first time that six or seven cases happened within such a short period after the launch of a new product,'' said Ha Joon-doo, an analyst at Shinhan Investment Corp.

BATTERY AT FAULT, DISCUSSING HOW TO RESOLVE ISSUE

Citing an unnamed company official, Yonhap said Samsung's investigation has found that faulty batteries have caused phones to catch fire.

It said Samsung estimates that the number of Galaxy Note 7 phones with the faulty battery accounts for "less than 0.1%'' of the products in the market.

It is unusual for Samsung to confirm a delay in sales of a device, and rare for it to cite a quality issue.

Samsung is discussing how to resolve the issue with Verizon and its other partners, the official told Yonhap.

SK Telecom, South Korea's largest mobile carrier, said about 400,000 units of the Galaxy Note 7 were estimated to have been sold in South Korea.

GALAXY NOTE 7

The Galaxy Note 7 smartphone is the latest iteration of Samsung's Note series that feature a giant screen and a stylus and usually inherit designs and features of the Galaxy S series that debut in the spring. Samsung also added an iris scanner to the Note 7, which lets users unlock the phone by detecting patterns in the eyes.

Even before the issue of battery explosions emerged, supplies of the phone were not keeping up with higher-than-expected demand for the smartphone.

Samsung beat expectations with stellar earnings in the latest quarter and its stock price was at a record high before news emerged of the Note 7's battery problems.

The company's shares rose 0.8% early Friday after falling 2% the day before.

Despite the investigation in South Korea, Samsung went ahead with its scheduled launch Thursday of the Galaxy Note 7 in China.

Company officials did not reply to questions about how Samsung determined which phones are deemed safe and which require further testing.

It did not say if those phones are different from the ones sold in South Korea.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/world/1076785/report-samsung-to-recall-phones-after-explosion-claims

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37242687

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/1076832/samsung-suspends-galaxy-note-7-sales-after-battery-explosions

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