Bittersweet Vindication

[toenail_flicker]

GOOD LUCK!!!!! GOOD LUCK again... third time is always the charm! Aloha!

When I was ready to upgrade my N3 I went to look at the N5 and decided not to go with it for several reasons:

1. No removeable battery
2. No SD card
3 Glass back

I went with the N4 and have loved it from day 1. That said, when the N7 came out with all the goodies being offered I decided to try it and if it really wasn't for me I'd return it. The SD was back in the N7 and I was extremely pleased. The model I looked at in the Sprint store had a plastic back for display so I missed the fact that it had a glass back. As for the battery, I was hopeful, but still concerned since since it can't be replaced easily.

When the N5 came out I pointed out the things above as concerns and was flamed terribly. Now the SD is back and now there's the recall on the N7 because of a battery. I've had my phone exactly 3.5 days and just finished setup yesterday. Anyone want to guess how long it takes Sammy to go back to a removable battery?

Samsung Galaxy Note7 Sales Suspended at Sprint | Sprint Newsroom
https://news.samsung.com/global/statement-on-galaxy-note7

So after all my trepidation, it really sucks to be right about my concerns buying the N7. I've had it exactly 3.5 days and just finished setting it up perfectly.

 

[dlcpa]

I have the original Note 2 and I was having trouble with GPS and maps so I decided it's now time for a change. I was going to buy an LG v20 until I saw that they were going to put in a permanent battery. What is the purpose with these sleek phones when you put a big rubber protective case around them? I'd rather have a sleek girlfriend.

So I drove over to MobilSource in Boca Raton and picked up a beautiful Note 4 for $250. I love this phone and I can't imagine why I would have to spend an additional three times that amount for a new phone and wondered what it would do for me. Yes I am sure newer cameras are better but how much better and I have a Nikon that takes incredible pictures if I really need them. Yes , the new note 7 has 4 gigabytes of RAM, and probably should be 6 , but the three gigabytes are enough. Speed, I'm was getting 120mb per second using SpeedTest (Okla) on the Note 4 , yet speed these days is more a function of the tie ups & congestion at the Target sites then it is of the phone or your Wi-Fi.

We've all been convinced that getting the newest and sleekest phone is something we must do. These prices are absolutely ridiculous and then after paying close to $1,000 for new phone you need insurance and insurance cost another $8 a month or $96 a year. So in two years you we're paying $1,200 for a phone and if something happens to it we have to pay another $299 to get a new one.

I'm not a gamer and what I do is really simple but I have a lot of apps and Facebook and Facebook Messenger eats the life out of memory, as do some of the programs. But as long as that's taken care of, I'm okay especially after I buy that big rubber protective case that will protect my phone in case it drops. What are the people who have those sexy Sleek glass phones doing? Do they not get protective cases? One of the women I spoke to you yesterday at AT&T had the new Note 7 and she said it was great and she loved it, that was before she found out that it's getting recalled. So she had a transparent case for her phone so that you could see how gorgeous it was but it wasn't sleek anymore. I think spending $1,200 for a phone and then spending another $1,200 a year for service is a bit out of whack. Especially from companies that either left the United States or are foreign companies. We are paying them too much money and my $250 Galaxy Note 4 just fits perfectly in my life.

If the Note 7 comes out with a changeable battery, the Note 4 will still be fine as the Note 2 was fine for 4 years.

 

[LeoRex]

There is zero information that points to the fact that the battery is fixed as the source of the problem. Most everything points to an issue with one of the subcontractors who were tasked with building the battery packs and it could have just as easily been a removable battery as it was a fixed.

And while it is true that had this phone had a removable battery, it would have made the recall easier, it wouldn't have prevented it.

 

[piinkRainbowz]

Just buy an lg device. You'll be waiting forever.

 

[toenail_flicker]

There is zero information that points to the fact that the battery is fixed as the source of the problem. Most everything points to an issue with one of the subcontractors who were tasked with building the battery packs and it could have just as easily been a removable battery as it was a fixed.

And while it is true that had this phone had a removable battery, it would have made the recall easier, it wouldn't have prevented it.

Agreed, but in all likelihood, all you would have had to do is request a new battery. No trip to the store, or waiting in line, or resetting up a new phone, and on and on... At least Sprint is doing it right IMO.

Samsung Galaxy Note7 Sales Suspended at Sprint | Sprint Newsroom

 

[toenail_flicker]

Just buy an lg device. You'll be waiting forever.

Definitely won't do that. I know what the brand LG used to be - Gold Star. I've owned their products and may I say... never again. No offense to anyone that owns and loves them, but no, not for me. jmo

 

[toenail_flicker]

Just buy an lg device. You'll be waiting forever.

And not for the free, temporary exchange, I won't be.

 

[LeoRex]

Agreed, but in all likelihood, all you would have had to do is request a new battery. No trip to the store, or waiting in line, or resetting up a new phone, and on and on..

You would still have to wait... If that was the case, Samsung might have very well been forced to recall every battery, in a Note or not, off the market. So there most likely would have been no replacements available initially and you would have had to wait for a replacement to be manufactured and been made available by whatever channel was deemed fit... you and a few million other owners. Whether you return just the battery, or the whole phone around it, is academic at that point.

 

[Nitro211K]

You would still have to wait... If that was the case, Samsung might have very well been forced to recall every battery, in a Note or not, off the market. So there most likely would have been no replacements available initially and you would have had to wait for a replacement to be manufactured and been made available by whatever channel was deemed fit... you and a few million other owners. Whether you return just the battery, or the whole phone around it, is academic at that point.

I don't know about that, if there was a removable battery, I would have went to Amazon and got an Anker or any after market battery to last me until Samsung figures out their issues. So no it is not an academic point at all. I will not buy another Samsung device until they bring back removable battery...I will ride my Note 4 to the grave until that happens, and then pull out my back up Note 4 that I bought. So if Sammy wants me to upgrade then Note 8 (or Note 9 if they lose count again) better have a removable battery.

 

[dlcpa]

There is zero information that points to the fact that the battery is fixed as the source of the problem. Most everything points to an issue with one of the subcontractors who were tasked with building the battery packs and it could have just as easily been a removable battery as it was a fixed.

And while it is true that had this phone had a removable battery, it would have made the recall easier, it wouldn't have prevented it.

I've had two batteries expand almost ready to explode but when I took them out to charge them I saw that they were bellying and getting thicker, plus they stop fitting. A fixed battery just EXPLODES as it gets larger and larger. Removables are constantly changed out so it's unlikely it ever gets to that point.

The reasons are numerous but bad design is a big part. Also, you could have a catastrophe like the wrong servers being accessed constantly all day long like they were for the MS Exchange and Outlook Accounts. I bought an LG V10 and in 6 hours of no use the battery would die and the phone would be HOT. It was the MS Exchange accounts. LG gave me the right server addresses and the battery was fine. Can you imagine that they sat on that information, Samsung too. I believe that fried my Note 2. Batteries are a canary in the mine.

Dlcpa

 

[natehoy]

You would still have to wait... If that was the case, Samsung might have very well been forced to recall every battery, in a Note or not, off the market. So there most likely would have been no replacements available initially and you would have had to wait for a replacement to be manufactured and been made available by whatever channel was deemed fit... you and a few million other owners. Whether you return just the battery, or the whole phone around it, is academic at that point.

Well, here's the thing, though. According to several stories, the estimated number of actual defective batteries is about 24 per million phones. Given a stated manufacturing figure of 2.5 million phones, we're talking (rounding up) 75 phones affected.

If consumers had some way of, I dunno, ripping the back off their phone and reading a printed serial number off the battery, then typing that serial number into a web page and finding out if they had to pop down to their nearest carrier store or Samsung reseller for a free replacement battery out of stock, and fewer than 75 people actually had to do so.... it just feels like that would be a somewhat smaller deal than recalling 2.4 million units.

To be fair to Samsung, there is no way they could have predicted that a small number of batteries would go bad and as a result of consumers not being able to identify those batteries, they'd have to recall an entire product line for what is really an incredibly minor number of defective units.

On the other hand, this is just one of the many ways in which a user-visible and user-replaceable battery is better for both the manufacturer and the consumer. Warranty replacements for bad battery life = replace the battery first ($10 cost as opposed to hundreds of dollars in cost).

Sealing the battery in does force planned obsolescence (but, heck, so does not releasing new OS releases - cough - AT&T Note 4 - cough), and makes water resistance a little tougher of a nut to crack. So there are those factors to consider.

But think of what this is going to cost Samsung - all in lieu of replacing fewer than 75 batteries.

 

[nahoku]

The problem is that Samsung must not know which phones have which battery... so they have to recall all phones. I would think that records might tell them which phones, by serial number, would have the defective manufactured cells. Obviously Samsung must not have this information on record. To recall all phones is simply massive... all for a non-removable battery. Samsung will actually have more to worry about than just replacing the phones... they'll also have to compensate vendors who put in the extra work to do the exchanges. They should also compensate current Note 7 owners who have to deal with this. And, if other carriers are going to follow Sprint, Samsung will probably have to pay for those interim phones too in some manner. What a major hassle for all involved. Not to worry though, Samsung will sue the battery manufacture and recover the money.

What's going to happen later with the "returned" phones? Refurbish them? Trash them? Can't sell refurbished phones as brand new. Well, I can only hope they don't! We'll probably see a lot of cheaper refurbished Note 7's down the line... maybe a couple million!!!

Kudo's to Samsung for doing what they should do in this instance. Now if they can only wake up and...

 

[LeoRex]

Most likely the phones will be examined and recycled... Never resold.

It's a mess, certainly, but to simplify matters by pinning it on the fact that the battery is fixed just isn't the case.

 

[nahoku]

but to simplify matters by pinning it on the fact that the battery is fixed just isn't the case.

It actually is the case. I'm not saying that a removable/replaceable battery cannot have the same failure. I'm simply inferring that if it was removable/replaceable, Samsung wouldn't have to recall the "entire" phone... which, unfortunately, is what must be done because the battery is fixed. It's a mute point regardless.

 

[GtoJon]

I think I'll keep my perfect Note 4 for another year

Cheers, Jon

 

[nahoku]

Otherwise with a recently acquired second Note 4

Where'd you buy your second Note?

 

[natehoy]

It's a mess, certainly, but to simplify matters by pinning it on the fact that the battery is fixed just isn't the case.

Bad batteries happen. In this case, a small lot of fewer than 100 of them for a manufacturing run of over 2 million. That's actually an excellent quality control rate.

Unfortunately, the issue boils down to the simple fact that the Samsung doesn't know which of their 2.4 million phones the 75 or so bad batteries went into. The odds that you, as an individual Note 7 holder, have a defective battery are well under 1 in 200,000. But there is no way for you as a consumer (or Samsung as the manufacturer) to know if you got a bad one other than knowing the serial number of a battery you cannot get at without voiding your warranty.

The only point a number of us are trying to make is simply this - had Samsung made that battery user-accessible, it would have been a trivial effort to simply ask everyone to type the battery serial number onto a web site, and ask owners of the defective batteries to please report to a carrier or Samsung store immediately for a free replacement battery.

Since there are fewer than 100 of them, odds are you would need 1-2 replacement batteries at each retail outlet to perform the exchange, and the exchange would be as simple as "I'll take the old battery, please, here's your new one, let's boot your phone back up, there we go - you have a lovely day!" 5 minutes in the store and out, and this "recall" would have been a complete and utter non-event.

I'm really hoping they think long and hard about why they sealed the battery into the Note line starting with the 5, and give some careful consideration to making the battery in the 8 accessible again. It would have literally saved them tens of millions of dollars this go-round if they had done it with the Note 7.

 

[indysteve9]

I have the original Note 2 and I was having trouble with GPS and maps so I decided it's now time for a change. I was going to buy an LG v20 until I saw that they were going to put in a permanent battery. What is the purpose with these sleek phones when you put a big rubber protective case around them? I'd rather have a sleek girlfriend.

So I drove over to MobilSource in Boca Raton and picked up a beautiful Note 4 for $250. I love this phone and I can't imagine why I would have to spend an additional three times that amount for a new phone and wondered what it would do for me. Yes I am sure newer cameras are better but how much better and I have a Nikon that takes incredible pictures if I really need them. Yes , the new note 7 has 4 gigabytes of RAM, and probably should be 6 , but the three gigabytes are enough. Speed, I'm was getting 120mb per second using SpeedTest (Okla) on the Note 4 , yet speed these days is more a function of the tie ups & congestion at the Target sites then it is of the phone or your Wi-Fi.

We've all been convinced that getting the newest and sleekest phone is something we must do. These prices are absolutely ridiculous and then after paying close to $1,000 for new phone you need insurance and insurance cost another $8 a month or $96 a year. So in two years you we're paying $1,200 for a phone and if something happens to it we have to pay another $299 to get a new one.

I'm not a gamer and what I do is really simple but I have a lot of apps and Facebook and Facebook Messenger eats the life out of memory, as do some of the programs. But as long as that's taken care of, I'm okay especially after I buy that big rubber protective case that will protect my phone in case it drops. What are the people who have those sexy Sleek glass phones doing? Do they not get protective cases? One of the women I spoke to you yesterday at AT&T had the new Note 7 and she said it was great and she loved it, that was before she found out that it's getting recalled. So she had a transparent case for her phone so that you could see how gorgeous it was but it wasn't sleek anymore. I think spending $1,200 for a phone and then spending another $1,200 a year for service is a bit out of whack. Especially from companies that either left the United States or are foreign companies. We are paying them too much money and my $250 Galaxy Note 4 just fits perfectly in my life.

If the Note 7 comes out with a changeable battery, the Note 4 will still be fine as the Note 2 was fine for 4 years.

Well said and exactly my sentiments too.

 

[nahoku]

I've been following the Note 7 problems too. Sad. Some of the users have already doomed the success of the phone due to this recall... I tend to agree that sales will suffer greatly after the dust settles... especially with iPhone users who were thinking of switching over.

Samsung did the right thing by recalling and advising not using the phone... now if only some Note 7 users who are still using the phone can wise up and follow what's recommended. It was clear to me that the battery could be defective at any time and not only during charging. Right now, even with the phone turned off, current is still running in the phone. People who have them sitting in their dressers while awaiting the recall/return would be wise to store them in a safer place... like in a pot outside in the garage, or some other safer place... maybe buried underground... not kidding!

I really hope this pushes Samsung back to user-replaceable batteries,

Yes, and get rid of the edge or offer a flat screen version, remove the glass back too while they're at it. I find it so sad that so many people have already cracked their screens. Sure, they dropped it, one from 2" onto plastic, one from bumping against a desk... I mean c'mon, the fragility appears ridiculous! I think some current owners will return the phone just due to the GG5 being so fragile on the edges... the recall will give them an out.

 

[rtwright68]

I have the original Note 2 and I was having trouble with GPS and maps so I decided it's now time for a change. I was going to buy an LG v20 until I saw that they were going to put in a permanent battery. What is the purpose with these sleek phones when you put a big rubber protective case around them? I'd rather have a sleek girlfriend.

So I drove over to MobilSource in Boca Raton and picked up a beautiful Note 4 for $250. I love this phone and I can't imagine why I would have to spend an additional three times that amount for a new phone and wondered what it would do for me. Yes I am sure newer cameras are better but how much better and I have a Nikon that takes incredible pictures if I really need them. Yes , the new note 7 has 4 gigabytes of RAM, and probably should be 6 , but the three gigabytes are enough. Speed, I'm was getting 120mb per second using SpeedTest (Okla) on the Note 4 , yet speed these days is more a function of the tie ups & congestion at the Target sites then it is of the phone or your Wi-Fi.

We've all been convinced that getting the newest and sleekest phone is something we must do. These prices are absolutely ridiculous and then after paying close to $1,000 for new phone you need insurance and insurance cost another $8 a month or $96 a year. So in two years you we're paying $1,200 for a phone and if something happens to it we have to pay another $299 to get a new one.

I'm not a gamer and what I do is really simple but I have a lot of apps and Facebook and Facebook Messenger eats the life out of memory, as do some of the programs. But as long as that's taken care of, I'm okay especially after I buy that big rubber protective case that will protect my phone in case it drops. What are the people who have those sexy Sleek glass phones doing? Do they not get protective cases? One of the women I spoke to you yesterday at AT&T had the new Note 7 and she said it was great and she loved it, that was before she found out that it's getting recalled. So she had a transparent case for her phone so that you could see how gorgeous it was but it wasn't sleek anymore. I think spending $1,200 for a phone and then spending another $1,200 a year for service is a bit out of whack. Especially from companies that either left the United States or are foreign companies. We are paying them too much money and my $250 Galaxy Note 4 just fits perfectly in my life.

If the Note 7 comes out with a changeable battery, the Note 4 will still be fine as the Note 2 was fine for 4 years.

I feel the exact same way. Bought a Note7 at launch, after the recall returned it for a 7Edge (which I didn't like), and just bought a new Note4 for 1/3 the cost of a Note7. Yes, its older, but the Note4 will do exactly what I want it to do, as long as MM continues to work ok.