back to article RIP Samsung 'Death Note' 7

Samsung has confirmed it's killing off its troubled Galaxy Note 7 product altogether. In August, reports of fires caused by Note 7s in Korea caused Samsung to delay global shipments, but Samsung pressed ahead. The company issued a full recall in mid-September. But reports of replacement Note phones catching fire led to Samsung …

  1. Steve I

    Fortunately for Korean exports, sales are up at 'South Korean Fire Extinguisher and Smoke Detector Inc' (SKFESD are a wholly-owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics)

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Re. "Death Note"

    I really hope that they aren't going to be shredding these, when there are a lot of recyclable components? The OLED display represents most of the value here, and the MB can be reprogrammed and used for any number of applications such as small embedded computers or more likely reused for cheaper phones internally.

    Maybe some folks can come up with a cunning way to recycle the displays for some sort of wall screen, would look pretty neat if it works.

    Some joker suggested making an "invisible" car with the displays on the S4 mini as they have been showing up used recently; the flexible OLEDs used on the Note 7 are almost identical and share most of the characteristics so they could be handy for us DIYers. Samsung could actually make something out of this as one big criticism is that their displays are typically closed source and nearly impossible to get schematics or pinouts for.

    1. Titus Aduxass
      Pint

      Re: Re. "Death Note"

      "a cunning way to recycle the displays for some sort of wall screen"

      They could be recycled as a smoke screen presumably.

      1. eswan

        Re: Re. "Death Note"

        "a cunning way to recycle the displays for some sort of wall screen"

        A fire wall?

  3. Mage Silver badge

    Hmm

    Are they too thin?

    Is it a bending problem or bad design of charger HW?

    1. Dez Scotland

      Re: Hmm

      1. Too thin?

      Probably... there was a video online of a "bend test" in a lab where the handset exploded when the stress of bend ruptured the battery inside.

      2. Overheating whilst charging?

      500% more likely with Fast-Charge enabled. Fast-charge seems an insane invention / idea to me...

      I have fast-charge disabled in my Samsung S7 Edge

      - I don't need it, don't want it, don't trust it (and when I tried it once my handset got quite hot!)

      3. USB-C

      Apparently USB-C can carry a higher current for charging. This combined with Fast Charge seems like pushing your luck to me!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Hmm

        And here you see a good reason for Apple to be 'late' with features like fast charging...

  4. ColonelClaw

    I look forward with interest to see which far-away 3rd world market a bunch of these end up on in 6 month's time.

  5. King Jack

    Just repackage the phones as grenades and sell them to the US army. Sorted.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Alternatively, package them up with a pretty bow as a present to the Dear Leader in the North.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'll have one

    Gratis.

    1. Ru'

      Re: I'll have one

      Me too; I'll even pay for a few of them. By my reckoning the odds of a fire are pretty safe (and obviously I will not be taking it on a plane or anything critical).

  7. jms222

    But with the Chinese, as opposed to Samsung battery they're fine and they're selling there.

    The problem now is that the name is tainted.

  8. Richard Hewitt
    Coat

    ...and in other news

    ... Samsung are negotiating to buy the 'Fire' brand from Amazon.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: ...and in other news

      Yeah, that's probably not a brand Amazon is going to want to use if they ever decide to re-enter the phone market...

  9. heyrick Silver badge

    Maybe the financial impact of this

    Will give high up decision makers time to pause and reflect seriously on the trend of hardwiring batteries into devices filled with glue.

    Had the battery been replaceable...

    1. Darryl

      Re: Maybe the financial impact of this

      I think the trend of making phones slimmer and slimmer at all cost is the culprit here

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Maybe the financial impact of this

      If the battery was replaceable it wouldn't have prevented any of the fires, and while it would make the recall easier, when they shipped everyone new batteries and those STILL caught on fire Samsung's brand would be just as damaged.

      And that assumes that the batteries bore 100% of the responsibility for the problem, and there weren't other / contributing issues like problems in the charge controller.

  10. El_Fev

    If you listen carefully,,,

    You can hear Steve Jobs laughing his ass off

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Mushroom

      Re: If you listen carefully,,,

      He did say he was going to go thermonuclear on them. We just assumed he meant legally, rather than literally.

  11. Herby

    Fires from electronics...

    No I don't have a Galaxy Note 7. But...

    Incident #1: Many moons ago (in the 70's), I had a nice walkie-talkie for ham radio use. I put it in my pocket and the charging buttons on the bottom were a direct connection to the battery. Unfortunately I had a nice keychain that they came into contact with, and while no fire did get quite warm and melted some plastic. I don't remember if I was burned in the experience.

    Incident #2: Also in the 70's, I had packed a portable soldering iron (battery powered) in my suitcase at the last minute for a travel trip. While traveling down the freeway, we noticed a burning smell from the back seat. A few looks exchanged, and we come to the conclusion that the button used to energize the soldering iron had gotten compressed and turned on. The result was some scorched underwear that was hastily removed from the vicinity of the soldering iron in a mad hurry at 65 MPH on the freeway. Later versions of the soldering iron included a "lock" feature that prevented "accidental" depression of the button in question.

    Live and learn. Energy in lots of forms can start a fire.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Interesting NYT article on this

    Some researchers are suggesting that the batteries were not the problem or not the main problem.

    Also, that Samsung ordered its engineers to not use email to communicate about their work trying to determine the cause, due to fear of subpoena from regulators or lawsuits.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/12/business/international/samsung-galaxy-note7-terminated.html

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