Samsung Electronics Co. is ending production of its problematic Galaxy Note 7 smartphones, taking the drastic step of killing off a smartphone that became a major headache for the South Korean electronics maker.
After halting sales of the new versions of the large-screen smartphone that failed to fix exploding batteries, Samsung finally pulled the plug on a key product that was supposed to compete with Apple Inc.’s iPhones and other high-end smartphones during the U.S. holiday shopping season.
Production will stop, Samsung said in a statement Tuesday.
The only right decision.
Maybe now they’ll have a fire sale
Edited 2016-10-11 09:51 UTC
Good pun
Best comment ever!
I nominate that for Comment of the Week!
The Note 7 was a failure from the day its specs were known. It was supposed to be the most powerful Android phone ever, but in the end it was only a slightly larger twin of the S7 Edge.
Has karma anything to do with it? The much hated Knox, the bloated firmware…and you can’t remove anything. In order to do that you need root, and that invalidates the warranty.
I have moved to more “pure” android devices. A Huawei P9 Plus for now,hoping that I can afford a Google Pixel XL when it becomes available.
From all the people that used an S7 as a loner, they said the S7 sucks in comparison to the Note 7, even though the hardware specs are the same, the software in the Note 7 was the ‘Grace UX’ which is supposedly the replacement of touchwiz. I know I really like the new UI changes in it over my Note 4. Sadly, I’ll probably just get a full refund and go back to the Note 4, since there seriously isn’t another phone out there that even competes with the Note 7. Pixel isn’t a choice (no SD card slot or Stylus). Basically Samsung doesn’t have any competitors to the Note line, and that just sucks. Funny thing is, I thought the only negative the Note 7 has is an non-replaceable battery.. go figure that it’s the one thing that causes it to be recalled. Maybe they’ll learn for the Note 8 and make it replaceable?
“Maybe they’ll learn…”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY2k8_sSTsE
“I thought the only negative the Note 7 has is an non-replaceable battery..”
-Nobody needs a replaceable battery, by the time it dies, you’ve already bought the new phone version
Not this time, dies too fast. Indeed, suicide mode enabled by default. Or just the programmed obsolescence timer set too low as a production glitch perhaps ?
Edited 2016-10-11 15:59 UTC
Ha, when you pay 900 for any device, it should not dwindle to uselessness in anything less than 5 years. Not to mention the Note 7 is finally at the hardware point where it runs android/touchwiz smoothly.
One thing that drove me nuts about my Note 4 is that the keyboard would randomly freeze up. I love the Note 7, I just don’t see any other phones with the same usability. Makes me angry still that Microsoft killed off Nokia phones. Granted, they also went with ‘difficult to change batteries’ with the N9, but it was still the last phone that I felt was mine…
Oops, went full on rant there.
Agree, leech. Several suggestions by now about a deliberate contempt about Consumer satisfaction.
“…the N9, but it was still the last phone that I felt was mine… ” ??
To answer that question… get ntop on a router (or similar tool) and just see how much traffic Android is constantly sending outbound. Seriously, it’s frightening. Every Google and Apple device, and most other Android devices want you to save everything in the ‘cloud’. Your data at that point is no longer really yours, but shared to said company. I could control every aspect on my N9, can’t say the same for any Android device I’ve ‘owned’.
Years now considering going dark. Digital leviathans are the beloved mascots of Global Hegemonies. Incredibly hurt, whatever remains of dignity.
Is there a recall for customers who bought the phone SIM-free (aka not from carriers) globally?
Is there a refund scheme for those customers, or they have to exchange for another Samsung device?
—
Who would have thought that forcing an 1-cell battery to power a monster AMOLED screen and a power-hungry SoC and then packing that battery really close to said power-hungry (and hence really hot) SoC could lead to the battery overheating and to fire hazard problems? My Galaxy S3 has less of a monster AMOLED and has overheating issues since the day I bought it when you crank up the brightness. Meanwhile my old HTC EVO 3D with its humble less-power hungry LCD screen and plain dual core CPU, no overheating problems. Something about physics and the conservation of energy I guess…
Edited 2016-10-11 13:35 UTC
Why are you taking guesses at the cause of the problem when the root cause has already been identified? Hint: It has to do with the flow of current inside the battery, not the AMOLED, SoC, or too much heat build-up. The problem can be reproduced with just a battery and charger alone.
If you think you know more than the Samsung engineers, maybe you should apply to be one, or at least offer to help.
At least the brand is definitely not damaged. No way. No brand damage here. If anything, this is good for Samsung’s brand, right?
Oh yeah, it’s great for them. iPhone users now know Samsung makes Android phones.
Not permanently damaged, no. Nobody believes the Note 7 problems are signs of inherent problems with the company or its’ leadership. They can fully recover from this but it’s going to cost them. The Note 8 is going to have to be flawless. There’s a lot of confidence and reason to believe that will be the case.
Be careful, your butthurt premature sarcasm can easily have you looking like an idiot a little farther down the road. As you were told in previous posts, let’s re-examine this in 12 months and see who was right. Make sure you bring your fork with you as you’ll very likely be eating a lot of crow.
I’m just having fun. We’ll see what happens. The Edge is probably the best looking phone out there, which might help Samsung hang in there. They’re obviously going to lose users to other manufacturers, time will tell just how many.
Except if it was limited to just the battery they wouldn’t have scrapped the whole phone. Or is Samsung now incapable of producing a functioning battery?
Actually, they aren’t. Samsung never made batteries, and actually bought a company to try to alleviate that. The batteries in question were made by Samsung SDI, but Samsung SDI just bought the battery pack business of Magna International. In the meantime, Samsung is back to outsourcing their batteries again.
The Note 7 isn’t being scrapped because the whole phone has problems – it doesn’t, it’s to stop the bleeding of bad press. They made the decision after being consulted on how to best limit the impact. Their bottom line takes a hit but it’s a wise move in the long run. Kill the Note 7, put the Note 8 under a microscope to make sure it passes the test, bring it to market a little earlier. Coverage will shift from Note 7 warnings to Samsung & Note 8 praises.
If you fall, you stop and check what’s wrong with your foot or ankle. Don’t just spring up and keep running.
PR and Marketing really out of my field of view.
[But obvious is that Educated Press is waiting for a closure, not a spin-off].
There’s nothing left to figure out. They know what went wrong and they know how to prevent it from happening again. The problem is not hardware at this point, it’s perception. Thanks to the potential seriousness + the medias spin, people’s perception of the Note 7 is shot. All you hear is 2 million phones recalled worldwide coupled with pictures of a phone that exploded. What you don’t hear is that this has only happened to a small fraction of less than a single percent of the total phones sold. Sometimes it’s better to cut your loses and make up for it later. That’s the case here and it’s wise because if the actual numbers and true risk/odds haven’t been reported yet, they’re not going to be. The PR nightmare is worse than the actual problem (with the unfortunate exception of a small handful of people).
Unless you’re insider:
“…The Note 7 is still being dissected by tech experts for Samsung and the government.”
http://phys.org/news/2016-10-samsung-scraps-consumers.html
Forensics should include alternative OS and comm stacks.[But as extensively suggested by Blog contributors, Energy management looks suspiciously undone].
[Shouldn’t dismiss -so easily- hacking…]
No hack should be able to threshold catastrophic risk. Security should be full automate; pure hardware.
From what I can tell, this was the hottest product Samsung has ever made. Word on the street was, “It’s da bomb!”
Not sure what they are thinking.
“…this was the hottest product Samsung has ever made.”
Do you mean, literally?
You don’t sweep under the rug and go ahead to the next model. You plug an engineering sample class battery. You implement the necessary heat drains. You write the patches. Whatever necessary.
Then you go ahead and show to your loyal Consumers. This is a working Note 7. We were wrong at this, and that…
Any loyal still want it? it’s a mm bolder, a few grams heavier, metal on the back.
And you’ll have something exemplary to work against. At your next model.
Like ilovebeer mentioned, the issue is PR management is now worse than solving hardware problem at that point.
Hopefully this case will be a warning lesson for mobile manufacturers not providing an option to easily replace battery
Put pure HW energy management in between battery and assembly. With it’s own micro ‘black-box’. Then you’ll be able to cap risk level, and have a better idea about what’s happening, at a systemic level. A four bit CPU would do it.
Exploding batteries, coil whine under intensive load, overheating caused by poor cooling and minimalist design do sound familiar..
The more manufacturers will put mobile components on steroids just because it’s the future of computing the more problems like this will occur.
All phones can explode under certain circumstances. It’s all chemistry inside and expecting people to know this is just a terrible idea from the start.
Samsung did the right thing here.
The Note 8 might fall victim to its design flaw. Sh$t happens: http://fudzilla.com/news/41832-note-7-may-have-been-a-victim-of-its…
I truly feel sorry for Samsung. The only competitor to iPhone 7 plus – I guess iPhone 7s will be priced even higher considering the fact that the Note’s reputation is tarnished and it’s not exactly easy nowadays to introduce a new product line.
Now you’re trolling. Samsung’s success or lack there of hasn’t ever affected the price of an iPhone. Apple have always charged whatever the hell they felt like, and people paid. They don’t need to care about Samsung’s price.
I am indeed trolling: https://www.google.com/search?q=samsung+apple+market+share&tbm=nws
Like everyone else. Keep downvoting me.
I haven’t gotten any messages from T-Mobile or Samsung as of yet that there is a recall on the replacement phones.
I think they’re still investigating, they just stopped selling them to finish up with the investigation. My guess is it’ll resume if they find no fault, or they fix said fault (in which case they’ll replace the replacements). In any case, I can’t find a phone that I want outside of the Note 7….
Actually Samsung recalled the phone, however it was more a replacement at least here in the US. As of this morning, October 13, the CPSC has issued an official recall, with the recall number of 17-011.
Maybe discontinuing the device is their only option now, but other manufacturers have handled battery recalls better. Nvidia did a complete recall of all 1st gen Shield tablets after only a few fires. They were quick to inform people, sent a replacement out immediately and people could send their old units back easily.
“… the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and the Federal Aviation Administration announced Friday.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-14/samsung-note-7-ph…
Did I got this right?
Any bended, overheated, banged Li battery represent similar risk.
How do they separate the bad from the good? How do they know how many times my phone has banged the floor and disassembled, and keep going? apparently everything good?
My battery heats dangerously at 32% discharge. How could Anyone -but me- know?
Why the BAN goes only after the Note7’s? How much is this Gov. PR and not true work into the problem?