Published in Mobiles

Is the Note 7 overheating a conspiracy?

by on20 September 2016


Are all these "exploding" Note 7 cases real?

A recent case in China has suddenly made the case of the “exploding” Galaxy Note 7s look like a conspiracy.

Samsung moved quickly to recall the Note 7 after there were several cases of the Note catching fire. Until now Samsung has believed that the problem was caused by a faulty battery. But since the initial cases others have shown up which indicate that something else is happening here.

The Chinese online financial magazine Caixin cited an internet user's report that their Note 7 phone, bought from JD.com had caught fire in what appeared to be the first report in China of a fire involving the handset. The story was picked up by the Tame Apple Press.

But Samsung said that it was clear that the damage to this product was caused by external heating.

Battery maker Amperex said separately one of its batteries was in the Note 7 phone in question, but added its joint investigation with Samsung determined the incident was not directly linked to a battery made by the China-based firm.

"According to the burn marks on the sample, we surmise that the source of the heating comes from outside the battery, and it's very likely that there was an external factor causing the heating problem," the battery maker said in a statement.

It looked like the phone had been placed in an induction oven or a fan heater.

Samsung last week announced a recall of 1,858 Note 7 phones in China but those devices were products distributed before the official 1 September launch. The company said the phones sold later used batteries different from those in reported fires.

All this is fast becoming a mess and some of it is caused by the way that the phone problem is being reported by the US press which carelessly uses the words “explosions” and “fires” when none of these have been reported.

However, the Chinese case indicates that there might be something else going on here. The Note 7 was clearly a better product than the iPhone 7 and was selling millions the week before the Apple launch. The iPhone had been written off as a poor joke before the recall. Then reports started to come in of the Note catching fire. Now we know of at least one case where one of these was put in an oven before the press gets their paws on the story.

Samsung itself, which has done all the right things so far, is starting to get antsy, and we can’t say we blame it. The US government acted swifter than it had in other situations to ban the Note 7 where ever it could, something the Korean government muttered about being US protectionism. It is now beings sued in the US over a case where one of the phones caught fire. The only winner out of this is Apple who can now see its awful iPhone 7 obtaining market supremacy.

Last modified on 20 September 2016
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