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US carriers halt Samsung Note 7 sales and replacements

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131–139 of 139 posts

Re: US carriers halt Samsung Note 7 sales and replacements

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Samsung said in a statement last month that the issue of overheating was caused by a "rare" manufacturing error that resulted in the battery's "anode-to-cathode [negative and positive electrodes]" coming into contact. Looks like the fault is in the batteries, internal shorts are both uncommon and also extremely dangerous since they will essentially dissipate all the energy in the cell as heat and can't be stopped ext…

This is partially why I'm wary of devices with batteries which aren't easily removable... This argument is made all the time, but I don't understand it. If the batteries were removable, a large number of owners would eventually replace them with low-quality Chinese lithium batteries whose brand names contain the word "Fire" somewhere. The result will be, big surprise, more fires. The difference is that there won't be…

At least in replacing the battery, the user is (theoretically) making an informed decision/calculated risk that is in their own hands.

I suspect it's also a lot cheaper to recall/replace a handful of batteries than to recall/replace every single phone.

Re: US carriers halt Samsung Note 7 sales and replacements

#132
post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not in my experience. Years ago I had one device that did get burn in, but it faded over a couple of weeks back to a perfectly normal screen.

You just said that you had a device that got burn in and yet at the same time you are saying that it's not a problem. Waiting couple weeks to get burn in disappear does not sound like a "no problem" thing

Yes, burn in is not a problem. I've owned many OLED devices, and the only one to get any kind of burn in used older technology. It happened when I changed the settings so the screen would stay on when plugged in. It was barely visible. It went away quickly. All this FUD about burn-in seems like just a boogeyman created by a ill-informed people, expecially in 2016.

Re: US carriers halt Samsung Note 7 sales and replacements

#133
post #88
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that with a water bottle, you can immediately see it's some kind of liquid on the x-ray and disallow it during inspection, whereas the Note 7 isn't immediately apparent when inspected from afar. While I don't agree with the liquid ban, it's much easier to ban a liquid than it is to ban a specific model of a phone.

If the radio is on you can watch for the MAC address.

Yes I'd love for the TSA to invest in MAC address scanning devices..

Re: US carriers halt Samsung Note 7 sales and replacements

#134
post #9
post #4

I don't know how fatal this will be for Samsung next time they go out and sell phones; but people have got a taste of buying from a company that doesn't have any sales or customer rep centers easily accessible where people can go and complaint. I really hope it doesn't turn out to be fatal for them but I also hope it breaks the Samsung monopoly over Android and let brands like LG, HTC shine.

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…

LG has a bad reputation since G3, G4 and V10 with random bootloops.

http://www.androidauthority.com/lg-admits-g4-bootloop-proble...

http://www.androidauthority.com/lg-v10-bootloop-problem-7113...

Re: US carriers halt Samsung Note 7 sales and replacements

#135
post #134
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…

LG has a bad reputation since G3, G4 and V10 with random bootloops. http://www.androidauthority.com/lg-admits-g4-bootloop-proble... http://www.androidauthority.com/lg-v10-bootloop-problem-7113...

I started with an LG optimus on Virgin mobile, and loved that phone. I had an LG G3 and the girlfriend has one as well. I'm mixed about them.

On the one hand, the hard ware is great. I got them cheap refurbished and they have a good community. On the other it gets hot, like burning hot touch. I've been through three batteries since getting it. The boot loop on mine made me switch phones. The thing that is making me pause with them is the software. I'm not fond of the custimaztions, but I can live with them. What got me is getting a marshmallow security update nuked the phone. WiFi stopped working, any earphones in the jack always started "Ok Google" recognigtion. Cell Signal went to 2G, and the Home/Back/OpenApps buttons stopped working. It turned the phone into a brick. I finally got around to rolling back this weekend, which took several hours. This wasn't just me I saw similar complaints on XDA.

Re: US carriers halt Samsung Note 7 sales and replacements

#136
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So carry an empty bottle/tumbler/thermos and fill it up at the water fountain?

You're not allowed to do so, at least when I tried taking an empty bottle it was confiscated (Munich Airport, EDDM).

That's definitely not true for any airports in the US. Finally a category where US airport security is more sane.

Re: US carriers halt Samsung Note 7 sales and replacements

#137
post #115

I have Note 7, my first non-nexus device going back to the G1, and its a brilliant piece of technology. The screen is flawless, its blazing fast, and the stylus is great for notes on OneNote. I am pretty bummed out Samsung couldn't get their manufacturers to deliver on 100% quality and control. I can't think of what other device to get. The Pixel XL looks fine, but it lacks wireless charging, a 5.7" screen, and a sty…

I was initially annoyed by the removal of wireless charging from the Nexus 5X (I previously had a Nexus 5).

However, to be honest, wireless charging was always 1. flakey (placement had to be just right - often I'd check in the morning and it hadn't charged) and 2. super slow.

I'd much rather trade it off for super-fast charging (Pixel is meant to do 7 hours of battery life in 15 minutes), and the reversible (and standardised!) USB-C cable.

I've always preferred smaller phones, so the 5" and 5.5" screens are fine for me (although I'm obviously going for the standard Pixel at 5") - and stylus to me doesn't make sense on a smaller phone screen anyhow - I have a tablet for that.

Agree with you that Touchwiz is too much - I've always hated it and found it gimmicky and tacky - and it tends to bog down the phone over time, like a bad Windows install.

Re: US carriers halt Samsung Note 7 sales and replacements

#138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Do you mean, 'It is not paranoid because we're already there?'

Re: US carriers halt Samsung Note 7 sales and replacements

#139

Why did Note 7's have this problem? I assume the fault is entirely in the battery (?), so did Samsung change how the batteries were manufactured this year? Does the Note 7 have power demands that mean they can't go back to tried and tested battery manufacture? (Hoping there are EE's or manufacturing people here that might have some educated guesses)

Considering how easy it would be to turn batteries into time-fused bombs (that pass QA) with the tiniest of impurities in the manufacturing process, I sometimes wonder if the note 7 problems could be the visible part of Samsung trying to stand up to a protection racket. I guess it would not take that big of a network of infiltrators or blackmail-handles on factory floor workers distributed over a range of suppliers to go all "nice phones you have there, would be a shame if they burnt..." on a phone brand.

The weak point of this theory is that the risk/cost of going public about this kind of threat would not be terribly high, unlike e.g. in plain old hostage taking.

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