Last week, we reported about a curious phenomenon taking place around Samsung’s recently released Note 7 line of smartphones. What was curious is that some of these handsets had developed a talent for spontaneous combustion.
Some Note 7 devices were recorded as exploding when their batteries became too strenuously taxed, caught fire and decimated the rest of the device. This is particularly worrisome for users of the Samsung Gear VR, which literally straps the device directly onto a consumer’s face. Oculus issued a warning over email and on Twitter about the battery concerns.
Samsung Note7 owners: please don’t use with Gear VR until yours is replaced. Contact Samsung with q’s. https://t.co/OJL5z2dI9x
— Oculus (@oculus) September 4, 2016
In response to these complaints, Samsung issued a full recall of all 2.5 million Note 7 smartphones shipped since the initial roll out last month. The cost to the Korean electronics giant could be as high as $1 billion, according to a firm quoted by Bloomberg.
Cases of exploding smartphones were limited to overseas for the most part, but today that is all beginning to change. U.S.-based Reddit user Brodesto posted the above image of a friend’s damaged smartphone onto the content aggregation site just under 20 hours ago. Since then, XDA-Developers has a report of a house fire being fought in North Carolina. The blaze was said to be started when an unattended, charging Note 7 malfunctioned and set fire to an attached garage.
Stories such as these may continue to crop up if Note 7 users do not take advantage of the recall offered by Samsung. A solution to this situation may be on the table but it remains an elective one. Consumers still have to make the decision to actually pack up and ship back their Note 7, a hassle that many will likely avoid.
Now that these U.S.-based Note 7 incidents have been recorded, Western hemisphere owners should no longer feel invincible to the dangers of this epidemic. If you or someone you know owns a Note 7, it is highly recommended that you take advantage of this recall even if your phone has not yet exhibited any problems.
At $1 billion this will certainly be a costly saga for Samsung to endure, but if consumers refuse to take the necessary precautions, it could be an even costlier one for them.
