Samsung Recalls 2.5 Million Note 7 Phones

[Bailey Guns]

I've had my Note 7 for about 2 weeks. I'm not much into phones but I was really starting to dig this thing. It's actually fun to use and has some great features. Mine came from Verizon. Now I have to give it up...temporarily.

Apparently there have been several instances (about 35 I think) of batteries catching fire while charging. So Samsung issued a recall.

I called Verizon to see how the recall works. Here are the options (from Verizon, anyway):

1. Return phone for refund.

2. Return phone and exchange for phone of your choice. No charges and credits issued where appropriate.

3. Return phone and exchange for phone of your choice. Exchange new phone for new Note 7 when available (est Sep 30).

4. Keep your Note 7 and take your chances.

So, I'm swapping mine for a new S7. I may or may not exchange that for a new Note 7 when released. Samsung is also issuing credits for accessories purchased for your flaming Note 7 that gets returned. Kind of a PITA but Verizon had my swap completed in about 5 mins...should have the S7 on Wed.

All kinds of info available online re: the recall.

Apple is happy.

[hurley842002]

Love my S7, did you get the standard or the Edge?

[roberth]

I just got an S7 after using a flip phone for years, these things are pretty awesome.

My phone doesn't heat up when charging, I've been checking it since I heard about this recall.

[Gunner]

I'm still using my note 7. I'll probably just waot till the new batches come out then exchange it. I really am not to worried about something happening.

Sent from my SM-N930T using Tapatalk

[alan0269]

[Rant1] Got my Note 7 on the 31st. I haven't noticed any heating up of the device when charging, but I don't know that I want to chance it either. I'll probably be switching it out for an S7 Edge today. Still torn if that's what i want to do, or keep it and exchange it in a week or two for another Note (Samsung claims they will be available in a week or so).

[hurley842002]

On another note, I don't know how some of you guys use such a large phone/phablet on a day to day, I looked at the edge and even that was a bit large. I do understand the benefits and for some of you, those likely outweigh the downside of a larger device.

[CS1983]

On another note, I don't know how some of you guys use such a large phone/phablet on a day to day, I looked at the edge and even that was a bit large. I do understand the benefits and for some of you, those likely outweigh the downside of a larger device.

I have an iPhone 6+; at the time I got it, it made more sense for me as I was able to download technical documents for referencing when on-call. Not having a tiny screen was helpful when looking at already small font. Now that my new job has no on-call and no phones allowed, it's just a bigger thing I carry around off work. If I stay in the .gov sector, I've thought of going to a cricket flip phone.

[Aloha_Shooter]

Gotta love a company that responds quickly to an emergency and in a way that's fair to the consumer. The Note 7 and even S7 are getting too big for my tastes. Even my S5 Active is bigger than I'd like it to be. What I'd really like would be something in the size factor of the S5 Active with its replaceable battery and micro-SD card port but with the onboard memory of the S7 series. I don't understand why Samsung released the S5 with the same 16 GB max memory as the S4, SD card or not. Still beats the heck out of the "cloud or nothing" iPhones for offboard storage.

[TheGrey]

I still have my Note 3. Neener, neener! ;)

[jscwerve]

I've had mine since the 17th. I wirelessly charge, so no heating/blowing up chances.

I love the phone and when they email me for the replacement, I'll just go exchange it.

35 instances out of over a million phones sold is a pretty low failure percentage for a consumer electronic. I'm not really worried about mine combusting.


As for the size question posed, I do a lot of remote desktop stuff from my phone and I use the stylus extensively. The larger screen translates directly into ease of use while trying to look at a full sized remote desktop on my phone. A tablet would work, but that doesn't fit in my pocket either.

[Aloha_Shooter]

Why do you say charging wirelessly eliminates the chances of blowing up/catching fire? Did you see something that diagnosed the fires to a problem with the USB port? Batteries heat when they charge. Just because you use induction instead of direct current to get the energy to the battery charging circuitry doesn't eliminate that; at the end of the day, the circuitry is going to convert that energy to current to recharge the battery and this is likely where the failure occurs as the charging circuitry fails to detect the battery is full and keeps pumping energy in.
Aside from that, your point about 35 out of over a million being a low failure rate is somewhat valid. The problem here is that the failure is a bit more catastrophic than the battery failing to charge or a screen cracking. These kinds of fires could result in some pretty nasty consequences for a phone left charging in a car or plane carry-on.

[Bailey Guns]

Love my S7, did you get the standard or the Edge?

Standard. Funny, but the "edge" thing is one of the few things about the Note 7 I didn't like. But, if I don't like it I can always get another Note 7 when they're released. As to the size issue, I like the size. For me, it's just about right. I use it mostly for work and I can get more info on the screen and actually see it.


I still have my Note 3. Neener, neener! ;)

I know. I gave the wife my "old" S5...that's still in perfect shape and working flawlessly. Great phone.

[hurley842002]

Funny, but the "edge" thing is one of the few things about the Note 7 I didn't like.

Yeah, prior to getting my S7, I checked out my brother's S7 Edge, and I would constantly fat finger the thing, and activate the edge, not for me.

[brutal]

Gotta love a company that responds quickly to an emergency and in a way that's fair to the consumer. The Note 7 and even S7 are getting too big for my tastes. Even my S5 Active is bigger than I'd like it to be. What I'd really like would be something in the size factor of the S5 Active with its replaceable battery and micro-SD card port but with the onboard memory of the S7 series. I don't understand why Samsung released the S5 with the same 16 GB max memory as the S4, SD card or not. Still beats the heck out of the "cloud or nothing" iPhones for offboard storage.

The only thing that bugs me about the (verizon) S5 is the constant struggle to keep enough internal memory free for unmovable and app updates (downloads often fail). I have to constantly move updated apps that were already moved to SD and clear cache, etc.

? My Verizon S4 had 32GB internal memory.

It appears you can now get the S5 with 32GB for a fee based no contract phone. I got mine on a $0 upgrade.

[hurley842002]

Gotta love a company that responds quickly to an emergency and in a way that's fair to the consumer. The Note 7 and even S7 are getting too big for my tastes. Even my S5 Active is bigger than I'd like it to be. What I'd really like would be something in the size factor of the S5 Active with its replaceable battery and micro-SD card port but with the onboard memory of the S7 series. I don't understand why Samsung released the S5 with the same 16 GB max memory as the S4, SD card or not. Still beats the heck out of the "cloud or nothing" iPhones for offboard storage.

I had an S5 prior to Samsung "selling out" in the storage department, and I don't recall my S7 being any bigger than the S5, I suppose I'd have to do a side by side to get an accurate recollection. Samsung hit it out of the park with the S7 IMO, if it had removable battery it would be even better, but then I suppose it would be the same "cheapy" plastic backing as previous phones, and would be much harder to make water resistant.

[Aloha_Shooter]

I had an S5 prior to Samsung "selling out" in the storage department, and I don't recall my S7 being any bigger than the S5, I suppose I'd have to do a side by side to get an accurate recollection. Samsung hit it out of the park with the S7 IMO, if it had removable battery it would be even better, but then I suppose it would be the same "cheapy" plastic backing as previous phones, and would be much harder to make water resistant.

Yeah, now that you mention it, the S7 is just marginally bigger than the S5 (REALLY marginally) but it's a creep that I don't need. They didn't need to sacrifice the replaceable battery to make it water resistant, my S5 Active has both, but I think the move to conformable batteries is how they get more energy density so they can get more mAh and keep the package thin. In any event, I just can't see paying the extra money to "upgrade" my phone again after only 2 years -- but then I'm a cheap bastage.

[Gman]

I'm still using my note 7. I'll probably just waot till the new batches come out then exchange it. I really am not to worried about something happening.
This is what we're doing.

I think this is one of the problems being one of the first USB C phones on the market. USB C can carry up to 100 watts at 20 volts. There are a bunch of crappy USB C cables that aren't pinned out correctly which can fry components. All of the photos I've seen of blown-up Note 7s are using non-standard cables and/or chargers.

I have a 7 Edge and I really like it. I don't give up much in screen size (5.5" vs 5.7") to the Note 7 but the overall size is smaller.

[hurley842002]

Yeah, now that you mention it, the S7 is just marginally bigger than the S5 (REALLY marginally) but it's a creep that I don't need. They didn't need to sacrifice the replaceable battery to make it water resistant, my S5 Active has both, but I think the move to conformable batteries is how they get more energy density so they can get more mAh and keep the package thin. In any event, I just can't see paying the extra money to "upgrade" my phone again after only 2 years -- but then I'm a cheap bastage.
I don't blame you for not wanting to upgrade, the S5 is a great phone, and other than me being a smart phone junkie, I really had no reason to ditch the S5, i'll likely get my wife and S5 as she wants to move back to Android from iPhone.

[TFOGGER]

I still have my Note 3. Neener, neener! ;)

Still using my S3, although I've noticed that SOMETHING is suddenly killing the battery and generating a lot of heat in the process. I've begun removing apps one by one to find the culprit. The tinfoil hat part of me wants to believe it's some sort of silent "update" that Samsung sends to their older phones to frustrate customers into buying new ones...

[brutal]

Still using my S3, although I've noticed that SOMETHING is suddenly killing the battery and generating a lot of heat in the process. I've begun removing apps one by one to find the culprit. The tinfoil hat part of me wants to believe it's some sort of silent "update" that Samsung sends to their older phones to frustrate customers into buying new ones...

If you put lots of media on an SD card, the scan service will tear it up.

Various fixes, like a blank .nomedia file in the first directory that may or may not work depending on the kernel level.

I had to install an app killer (rooted) on my S4 to get it to stop at one point. Backcountry Navigator (million tiles) scan was killing it.

Frustrating.

We're all Android and prefer it, but my other gripe is battery management. My TabPro 8.4 (not rooted) is just plain stupid and will drain quickly when sitting unused/sleep. I guess Google is keeping it up all night spying on me. We have a single apple device here, an iPad mini I won, that can sit for weeks and still has a charge.

[TFOGGER]

If you put lots of media on an SD card, the scan service will tear it up.

Various fixes, like a blank .nomedia file in the first directory that may or may not work depending on the kernel level.

I had to install an app killer (rooted) on my S4 to get it to stop at one point. Backcountry Navigator (million tiles) scan was killing it.

Frustrating.

We're all Android and prefer it, but my other gripe is battery management. My TabPro 8.4 (not rooted) is just plain stupid and will drain quickly when sitting unused/sleep. I guess Google is keeping it up all night spying on me. We have a single apple device here, an iPad mini I won, that can sit for weeks and still has a charge.

No SD card installed, but I haven't rooted the phone either to kill all the "native" apps and bullshit that run at startup. I suppose I should do that some time.