New Replacement Safe Note 7 catches fire and explodes in China

[Breuklen]

From media reports, this is at least the fourth Note 7 to allegedly catch fire/explode in China. I believe this is the first from the "safe" Note 7s. There are several reports that the newer version overheats and the battery drains rapidly. A few friends/acquaintances have reported this. It's possible that there are additional problems with the Note 7 besides the potential for exploding batteries.

TBH, I wouldn't turn over the phone so quickly if I were him. I would want authorities to be involved, not a company that has every reason to hide a possibly serious problem.

 

[PraetorianGuard14]

Seems like these things pop up every time from random bloggers. Makes me suspicious.

Use a cheap charger, abuse your phone...BAM...phone meltdown. Publish pictures, get those clicks, and get that $$$!

I doubt Samsung's infrastructure is that bad to make the same manufacturing mistake twice.

 

[chyeo1979]

Unfortunately, every new bad report about Note 7 sinks Samsung deeper into the hole, regardless if it's true or fake. Normal consumers.will just take the title as it is

 

[Bbarbie]

If samsung dropped the ball on replacement note 7 also then even CPSC aka our government has dropped the ball so I doubt this explosion was legit. The wire looks more silver than white too unless it's all coating from the fire and some but I doubt .

 

[D13H4RD2L1V3]

TBH, I wouldn't turn over the phone so quickly if I were him. I would want authorities to be involved, not a company that has every reason to hide a possibly serious problem.

He ought to get someone to look into this. I hope he does, because I'm itching to know what's up as the details I got so far do seem rather sketchy.

 

[acentralist]

From media reports, this is at least the fourth Note 7 to allegedly catch fire/explode in China. I believe this is the first from the "safe" Note 7s. There are several reports that the newer version overheats and the battery drains rapidly. A few friends/acquaintances have reported this. It's possible that there are additional problems with the Note 7 besides the potential for exploding batteries.

TBH, I wouldn't turn over the phone so quickly if I were him. I would want authorities to be involved, not a company that has every reason to hide a possibly serious problem.

+1

 

[zipro]

Lots of phones burn, unfortunately. Might have had a faulty battery, or a faulty USB-C cable (which are known to cause fires once in a while, even very expensive ones) or he used a 3rd party charger.

 

[Mdm23]

And......the lies continue.

 

[Breuklen]

He ought to get someone to look into this. I hope he does, because I'm itching to know what's up as the details I got so far do seem rather sketchy.

What makes it sketchy? It's a new phone according to the documentation. What does he gain from lying? Especially during both a new phone and a laptop? Given the initial response to the exploding batteries last month, people said the same thing. I'll take a wait and see attitude.

 

[D13H4RD2L1V3]

What makes it sketchy? It's a new phone according to the documentation. What does he gain from lying? Especially during both a new phone and a laptop? Given the initial response to the exploding batteries last month, people said the same thing. I'll take a wait and see attitude.

Just how soon it happened and his initial response.

I'm not saying he's lying. I'm just somewhat suspicious. A phone catching fire within 24 hours is certainly something I'm interested in knowing more of.

But I can't draw a line until more facts come in. Expecting him to at least get someone else to take a look at it in the meantime. Especially curious to see the cable.

Only thing I can say right now is that something definitely caused the cells in the battery to rupture, causing it to inflate to the point of it catching fire. What that "something" is remains to be seen.

 

[recDNA]

I don't care if he used a Hasbro charger and Popeil fisherman usb c cable phone should have built in safety features preventing explosions. My Note 7 got extremely hot on VZW car charging cable so would it have served me right if it blew up. because I used a cheap 3rd party cable? And the notion that thjs is some big Apple conspiracy is just sad. Open your eyes but not in a VR with a Note 7 in it.

 

[PRGDR]

Oh and of course i would bet Apple would pay someone a few grand to say that.

I doubt it... (just in case, I am far from being an Apple fan).

 

[D13H4RD2L1V3]

I don't care if he used a Hasbro charger and Popeil fisherman usb c cable phone should have built in safety features preventing explosions. My Note 7 got extremely hot on VZW car charging cable so would it have served me right if it blew up. because I used a cheap 3rd party cable? And the notion that thjs is some big Apple conspiracy is just sad. Open your eyes but not in a VR with a Note 7 in it.

They do. The charging ports on phones are usually made to ensure that the device is as protected as possible from bad electrical flow and batteries also have their own protection circuit, consisting of a regulator and a thermal fuse.

While these safeties are usually made to be robust, there were cases where some rogue charger just went past all the safety gear.

Not saying that a faulty charger is the cause of this one, because unless someone goes to investigate, we may never know, but there were cases of this happening. Also keep in mind that I'm not blaming anyone for this, because there's no one to blame with the real info we currently have.

 

[note7s7edge]

I don't care if he used a Hasbro charger and Popeil fisherman usb c cable phone should have built in safety features preventing explosions. My Note 7 got extremely hot on VZW car charging cable so would it have served me right if it blew up. because I used a cheap 3rd party cable? And the notion that thjs is some big Apple conspiracy is just sad. Open your eyes but not in a VR with a Note 7 in it.

Exactly. It pains me when people blame the user for the manufacturers mistakes. Must be the cables; must be the charger. BS. Unless that charger was putting out a lot more than 5 volts, the phone shouldn't get damaged. Even if the voltage is too high, some fuse should blow up; the battery shouldn't explode.

 

[donm527]

I don't have any experience with usb-c cables but I would have thought being so "advanced" from micro-usb that, at the port on the phone, there should some engineering that would do the power regulating or cut off when power too high or even cut off when it doesn't like the cable.

Years of iphones, ipads, androids I think everyone will always experience having access to a ton of charge adapters laying around at home, work, traveling, friends house, etc that you will more than likely just plug in and use to charge or top off and not care what kind it is as long as the adapter is correct. This is silly if you have to worry be concerned about the adapter you are plugging into.

What if you use a courtesy charge station at the airport or office centers with their cords? Aftermarket car chargers? Wireless charge plates at Starbucks?

If the guy used a non-Samsung charger, I wouldn't put the blame on the charger/cable anyways... I would still say it's a phone problem if it can't handle after market cables.

I don't care if he used a Hasbro charger and Popeil fisherman usb c cable phone should have built in safety features preventing explosions. My Note 7 got extremely hot on VZW car charging cable so would it have served me right if it blew up. because I used a cheap 3rd party cable? And the notion that thjs is some big Apple conspiracy is just sad. Open your eyes but not in a VR with a Note 7 in it.

 

[Sapient]

I don't have any experience with usb-c cables but I would have thought being so "advanced" from micro-usb that, at the port on the phone, there should some engineering that would do the power regulating or cut off when power too high or even cut off when it doesn't like the cable.

Years of iphones, ipads, androids I think everyone will always experience having access to a ton of charge adapters laying around at home, work, traveling, friends house, etc that you will more than likely just plug in and use to charge or top off and not care what kind it is as long as the adapter is correct. This is silly if you have to worry be concerned about the adapter you are plugging into.

What if you use a courtesy charge station at the airport or office centers with their cords? Aftermarket car chargers? Wireless charge plates at Starbucks?

If the guy used a non-Samsung charger, I wouldn't put the blame on the charger/cable anyways... I would still say it's a phone problem if it can't handle after market cables.

This is well said. A phone that can't handle aftermarket chargers is a defective phone.

It is possible that this is an isolated case, a scam, or something else. There is no reason to simply assume it is though. We should just be watching to see how it unfolds. I do think it is a shame this guy won't let Samsung investigate.

 

[LeoRex]

Exactly. It pains me when people blame the user for the manufacturers mistakes. Must be the cables; must be the charger. BS. Unless that charger was putting out a lot more than 5 volts, the phone shouldn't get damaged. Even if the voltage is too high, some fuse should blow up; the battery shouldn't explode.

Actually, that is precisely what can happen. Keep in mind that the Note 7 moved to USB-C.... back when the 6P and 5X were released, there were plenty of issues with third party micro-C adapter cables... so much so that a Google engineer famously went on a one man quest to test as many of them as he could. Turns out that some of the cables can be downright dangerous... one killed all of his test equipment and it could have caused a fire had he not been there, testing, when it happened.

There are safeties in place in these devices, but they aren't completely foolproof. Given the wrong cable plugged into the wrong charger, you can end up pushing juice that's way to hot into that battery.... and those safeties can still fail.

That doesn't look like a stock charging cable, and that damage looks like the type of damage you would see if you plugged a phone into a bad charger/cable combo. Using up-to-spec gear was important back when we were all still using micro USB, and it is critical now that we are using USB-C. Problem is that a lot of the third party gear was completely hacked together and not even remotely safe....

 

[kabeeo]

iPhones burn all the time

https://mic.com/articles/142756/new-jersey-teen-s-i-phone-overheated-and-burned-through-a-notebook#.MbzFpQd4u

 

[D13H4RD2L1V3]

This is well said. A phone that can't handle aftermarket chargers is a defective phone.

It is possible that this is an isolated case, a scam, or something else. There is no reason to simply assume it is though. We should just be watching to see how it unfolds. I do think it is a shame this guy won't let Samsung investigate.

I do have to agree. It's too early to tell. Let's see how this unfolds.

On the topic of aftermarket chargers, it's not really that the phone can't handle all of them. Most can certainly handle third-party cables and wallwarts, as long as they are from reputable manufacturers, like the ones Benson Leung and Nathan K. recommend.

When we're talking about cheapskate wallwarts from the dollar store, I wouldn't bet on that, TBH.

 

[Mike Dee]

It's sad..... Too much drama with this phone. I wouldn't be able to sleep well at night with a Note 7 plugged in on my nightstand. Maybe if I used one of those charging bags that I have for the batteries that I use for my remote control helicopter. Helps snuff out the flames.