Samsung is suspending the production of its Galaxy Note 7 flagship smartphone after multiple reports of replacement smartphones - those which were deemed safe by Samsung - started catching fire.
According to the Yonhap News Agency from Korea, Samsung is halting the production in cooperation with consumer safety regulators from South Korea, China and the US. A Samsung Plant in Vietnam which ships phones globally will be stopping further production. At present it's deemed to be a temporary suspension.
Galaxy Note 7 Recall
Just to give you an insight, Samsung had recalled the Galaxy Note 7 shortly after the phone went on sale worldwide due to it exploding while charging. The company swiftly moved to ship replacement units in less than a month but just last week reports started emerging on "safe" Note 7 devices catching fire. There have been 5 unconfirmed reports in the US alone last week, and there are bound to be plenty more.
The first reported incident was from a Southwest flight, where a switched off Note7 started smoking prompting the owner to drop the phone on the plane's carpet and causing an immediate evacuation of all personnel and passengers. Thankfully the plane was still at the gate and no one was hurt. Next reports emerged of a 13 year old girl feeling a strange burning sensation while using the Note 7 which eventually resulted in the same fate.
Things got murkier when Michael Klering from Nicholasville Kentucky reported that he woke up suddenly at 4am in the morning to find this room filled with smoke with a hissing sound emanating from somewhere near. He realized that both were originating from the Galaxy Note 7 which was a replacement unit he had been using for about a week. Later in the day Kreling began to feel ill and was admitted to the ER with acute bronchitis caused due to smoke inhalation.
Samsung responded quickly but Klering did not give the phone to them, instead he let the company X-Ray the device. This is where things turned very strange. Klering said he got a message from a Samsung rep which he wasn't meant to see, "Just now got this. I can try and slow him down if we think it will matter, or we just let him do what he keeps threatening to do and see if he does it."
This happened before the Southwest flight incident and Samsung allegedly did not inform customers that there was some issue with the replacement units.
Both the CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are looking into the reported cases in the US while the South Korean regulators are also looking into issues with replacement units which too apparently are prone to spontaneous combustion.
What should You do?
If you have a new or replacement Galaxy Note 7, all carriers in the US are offering to exchange the phone for any other Samsung smartphone or a smartphone from another manufacturer. You won't be able to get a replacement Note 7 atleast in the US for now. AT&T and T-Mobile have already stopped selling the phone and Sprint is expected to follow suit soon.
We would urge you to immediately stop using the Galaxy Note 7, no matter if it's a safe unit or not and get it exchanged for any other smartphone. The Note 7 is a flawed device, possibly from a design or engineering standpoint, and even if Samsung can fix it, the damage is done.
