Samsung says US Galaxy S7 phones safe despite scattered incidents
Although the short-lived Galaxy Note 7 was plagued by battery fires, the Galaxy S7 line should be safe -- despite some rare incidents caused by damage, Samsung said in an unusual press release.
"Samsung stands behind the quality and safety of the Galaxy S7 family," the company publicly said. While saying there have been "no confirmed cases of internal battery failures" among over 10 million devices being used in the U.S., it acknowledged "a number of instances caused by severe external damage."
The company also remarked that it couldn't judge the cause of any incident without being able to examine a device.
The S7 and S7 Edge have been available since March, and the S7 Active was released in June. There have been periodic reports of the phones swelling up or exploding -- one lawsuit is underway, according to Fortune -- but the number of incidents is well below that of the Note 7.
Indeed Apple devices have periodically been subject to battery fires, though these have typically been blamed on issues like faulty third-party chargers.
On Sunday, Apple launched a replacement program to deal with iPhone 6s users experiencing sudden battery-related shutdowns.
"Samsung stands behind the quality and safety of the Galaxy S7 family," the company publicly said. While saying there have been "no confirmed cases of internal battery failures" among over 10 million devices being used in the U.S., it acknowledged "a number of instances caused by severe external damage."
The company also remarked that it couldn't judge the cause of any incident without being able to examine a device.
The S7 and S7 Edge have been available since March, and the S7 Active was released in June. There have been periodic reports of the phones swelling up or exploding -- one lawsuit is underway, according to Fortune -- but the number of incidents is well below that of the Note 7.
Indeed Apple devices have periodically been subject to battery fires, though these have typically been blamed on issues like faulty third-party chargers.
On Sunday, Apple launched a replacement program to deal with iPhone 6s users experiencing sudden battery-related shutdowns.
Comments
http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/09/28/government-agency-issues-warning-over-exploding-samsung-washing-machines
Wasn't there an article from some asswipe analyst that said the S7 was beating the iPhone 6S in sales in the US? 10 million sounds like a dismally small number for the biggest smartphone market in the world.
This is the same Samsung that was caught and fined for fake reviews\comments online... and yet you take these "scattered incidents" as fact rather than with a grain of salt....
http://www.theverge.com/2013/10/24/5023658/samsung-fined-340000-for-posting-negative-htc-reviews
Your furnace guy was probably in that same camp of folks saying that their Note 7 was fine and they would rather risk injury, or fire than own an iPhone.
Second, wouldn't it make sense that the technology a manufacturer has developed for charging their flagship line of devices, in this case phones and specifically Samsung's Galaxy line, would be utilized in their other premium phones? Surely Apple doesn't reinvent charging technology for each model of the iPhone, and surely they utilize the same tech in their iPads and iPod line. Same is likely true of Samsung. The tech they developed for charging the Galaxy line was likely used/adapted to the Note phones. In doing so, perhaps they pushed that tech a bit beyond its limits, resulting in the disaster that ensued. And that means the potential likely also exists in the entire Galaxy line, and sure enough, there have been incidents. The fact similar issues can occur in iPhones, when a third-party charger is used, suggests that Samsung is behind in Charger technology. That's bad news for all Android phones as the demands for the convenience of fast charging interact with the requirement for less compute energy efficient Android phones to have larger batteries. This is how a problem ignored for years by the Android camp, and addressed from the start by Apple, can come back to haunt.
On a related note, remember all those garbage hover boards with batteries catching fire? A local store in the mall sells them and have a large sign that states "Samsung Battery Inside". Imagine building your product with a Samsung battery (which would be superior quality compared to all the bargain brands) and then having Samsung have to issue a recall over something battery related.
The phones were dangerous. They put lives at risk.
Between phones that can burn your house down, or washing machines that can break your jaw....