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US carriers halt Samsung Note 7 sales and replacements

bbc.com

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Re: US carriers halt Samsung Note 7 sales and replacements

#91

Post by TeMPOraL »

kriro wrote: post #67
manojlds wrote: post #57

As someone outside the US, I first associated "US carriers" with US Aircraft Carriers. I thought this was about the navy banning Note 7 aboard the carriers, before sales and replacement brought me back to thinking this is about mobile carriers. In India we just call them mobile networks :) NLP and AI is tough, no wonder.

That was my initial association as well. I actually thought there was some sort of sea blockade to not let note 7s into the country. Then I thought that would be a bit too ridiculous and only then did my brain recognize the other meaning of carrier.

I immediately recognized the other meaning of the word, but I did let my imagination fly for a bit, picturing 2+ carrier groups blockading shipments of Note 7 phones...

Re: US carriers halt Samsung Note 7 sales and replacements

#92

Post by wallace_f »

hrrsn wrote: post #86
sho_hn wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LG has a top competitor out right now in the V20. Removable battery, MIL-spec drop proof, second wide angle rear camera, concert-capable stereo mics with manual controls, a second screen that's actually useful (it's located in what would otherwise be dead bezel next to the front camera, and shows e.g. notifications while fullscreen, or can be used as a taskbar), usable software (read: close to vanilla Android Nougat…

It's a sad state of affairs that a removable battery is now a headline feature. In the past I didn't care but these days I sure do.

Is it paranoid of me to associate the disappearance of removable batteries with our apparent steady steps towards an Orwellian future? Or no?

Re: US carriers halt Samsung Note 7 sales and replacements

#93

Post by simonh »

chipperyman573 wrote: post #62
simonh wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This is partially why I'm wary of devices with batteries which aren't easily removable. Why? It seems like the batteries burn out fast enough that it wouldn't be possible to safely remove one once it starts smoking. In any case doing so might save the phone - unlikely but it might - however now you have a completely naked ignited incendiary device lying on your carpet, rather than one enclosed in a protective case.…

I think he's saying that it's a lot easier to ship or give out a free replacement battery than recall an entire phone line and manage all the repairs.

But would that be a benefit in this situation? The new 'safe' phones supposedly had changes beyond just a new battery, so the phones would have had to go back anyway.

Re: US carriers halt Samsung Note 7 sales and replacements

#94

Post by throwanem »

_pmf_ wrote: post #60
thought_alarm wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mobile devices have been using custom-desgned batteries for the last 20+ years. In this case, the battery manufacturer couldn't meet these particular design constraints.

> Mobile devices have been using custom-desgned batteries for the last 20+ years. Most have just been differently packaged units containing the same type of cells.

In most laptops, until very recently, yes. But no one has made a cellphone big enough to hold even one 18650 in many years.

Re: US carriers halt Samsung Note 7 sales and replacements

#95

Post by nkobeissi »

I want to understand how this story makes sense, and I can't. If you put the facts together, they don't add up. First, here's the chronology.

1. Original Note 7 phones were blowing up, Samsung issued a recall.

2. Samsung released (suspiciously quickly) a new phone that used new batteries made by Amperex, which also provides batteries for the iPhone line. [A]

3. A report comes in of a post-recall, "safe" phone blowing up while not being connected to a charger and being turned off to be put in the owner's pocket. [B]

4. Another report of a "safe" phone blowing up while in the back pocket of its owner. [C]

5. Two more reports come in, both of a Note 7 blowing up overnight while their owners were asleep. [D,E]

Second, here's what I don't understand:

* We know the batteries are likely safe since they come from a reputed manufacturer also providing iPhones their batteries. Heck, even the initial battery manufacturer was Samsung itself, and Li-Ion batteries aren't exactly a new and unstudied technology.

* Even after the new batteries were put in use, the phones are still exploding even when not connected to a charger, as explicitly stated by reports [D] and [C], and as is likely the case for [B] and [E].

How are these phones blowing up when, in all likelihood, the batteries are safe and have been replaced, and the phone isn't even under heavy use at the time of the explosion? Maybe you could blame CPU heating or a faulty charging mechanism, but the phones were not charging or under heavy load. All they were doing was discharging at an idle rate. This is literally the state least likely to cause this kind of explosion.

Can anyone explain what I'm missing?

Sources:

[A] https://www.cnet.com/news/samsung-galaxy-note-7-explosion-ba...

[B] http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/5/13175000/samsung-galaxy-no...

[C] http://focustaiwan.tw/news/asoc/201610080009.aspx

[D] http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/9/13215728/samsung-galaxy-no...

[E] http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/9/13218730/samsung-galaxy-no...

Re: US carriers halt Samsung Note 7 sales and replacements

#96

Post by isp »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #90
eksemplar wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After 2 years my S2 became a slow unfunctional piece of dead tech. I tried resetting it through the Samsung tools, which didn't help, so I rooted it and tried different versions of basic android on it, which didn't help. At the same time I had two friends who were experiencing the same kinds of problems, who let me toy with their phones. It's completely anecdotal but three similar model phones breaking in exactly the…

To match an anecdote with an anecdote - I've been using S4 for 3 years, and then gave it to my brother (I've upgraded to S7 with contract renewal), who's been using it for the past year too. The phone is still going strong. Feels slow-ish today, true, but still better than some of the cheaper Android phones OOTB. I blame Android's continued bloat creep[0] for that slowdown though. My brother had S3 before, and so doe…

Wirth's law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirth%27s_law

Re: US carriers halt Samsung Note 7 sales and replacements

#97

Post by forthefuture »

wallace_f wrote: post #92
hrrsn wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a sad state of affairs that a removable battery is now a headline feature. In the past I didn't care but these days I sure do.

Is it paranoid of me to associate the disappearance of removable batteries with our apparent steady steps towards an Orwellian future? Or no?

Yes and no. It is paranoid because we're already about 20 years into our Orwellian future; it's no longer ahead of us.

Re: US carriers halt Samsung Note 7 sales and replacements

#98

Post by bengale »

nkobeissi wrote: post #95

I want to understand how this story makes sense, and I can't. If you put the facts together, they don't add up. First, here's the chronology. 1. Original Note 7 phones were blowing up, Samsung issued a recall. 2. Samsung released (suspiciously quickly) a new phone that used new batteries made by Amperex, which also provides batteries for the iPhone line. [A] 3. A report comes in of a post-recall, "safe" phone blowing…

From the articles I've seen it seems to be related to a slightly too small area for the battery, and causing it to sort of pinch.

Re: US carriers halt Samsung Note 7 sales and replacements

#99

Post by Steko »

2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #87
Steko wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't see why this particular iteration should all the sudden have problems with that. Well there's larger and there's a lot larger. This particular iteration increased the gap substantially. 3500 mAh (GN7) >> 3000 mAH (GN5) ~ 2950 mAH (i7+) > 2750 mAH (i6S+) Below article offers speculation either way: that both the design itself and push for larger batteries was at fault and/or that it is simply a manufacturing…

If you look at the ifixit tear down, the Samsung GN 7 battery also looks smaller than the iPhone 7 Plus battery. I can't imagine having a higher energy density is doing Samsung any favors. Could this be why Apple pushes so hard on the SoC front? It's technically easier to increase performance and reduce power consumption of your SoC than it is to improve the battery capacity safely?

> GN 7 battery also looks smaller than the iPhone 7 Plus battery

Could be, it definitely looks smaller in two dimensions. But it also looks thicker -- the i7 teardown doesn't show the thickness as clearly but it doesn't appear to have anything like the 'pouch' you can see on the GN 7 battery.

GN 7 battery:

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Samsung+Galaxy+Note7+Teardow...

iPhone 7+ battery:

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPhone+7+Plus+Teardown/67384...

Re: US carriers halt Samsung Note 7 sales and replacements

#100

Post by malka »

inimino wrote: post #73
CountSessine wrote: post #2

I doubt Samsung will try to find another sales channel for them in North America. Going back to the feature-phone era, one of their most important advantages over their handset competitors has been their loyalty to the big phone companies. Doing an end-run around them to sell directly to their customers seems...unseemly. So what happens to all of these Note 7's? Do they just get buried in a ditch somewhere? From read…

They are probably still frantically figuring out how to fix the problem and will eventually have a replacement replacement. Then they can refurbish the existing ones.

If I were a Note 7 user, I would not want a replacement, I would want a refund. Given that problem arised even with replaced Note 7, I would not take another chance with that model.
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