Concerns about the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 are at an all-time high with the news that one of the afflicted devices exploded in a 6-year-old boy’s hands in Brooklyn, burning him and sending him to hospital.
Meanwhile, the company has instated a voluntary exchange program for Canadian customers, but has not yet issued an official recall in partnership with the government (though it has released a joint statement with Health Canada), and has also nixed the idea of remotely deactivating the phone.
The official recall may be coming soon, however, considering Recode‘s recent report that the company is now working towards an official American recall with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Samsung has put the blame for the battery issue squarely on its affiliate Samsung SDI, which it says produced the faulty battery units.
For those that love the device despite its serious flaw– after all, it was a critical darling when first launched– replacement handsets are now in the process of being shipped and are expected to arrive within the next few weeks. Those shipments will likely contain phones that have batteries supplied by key Apple partner ATL, rather than SDI batteries.
To verify that the battery inside is safe, the boxes of the new devices will be marked with a sticker with a blue ‘S,’ and there will be a small black square on the barcode sticker.
For unboxed devices, the company also plans to launch an IMEI database tool where customers can type in their phone’s IMEI number to check if it’s an original Note 7, or a replacement.
Update 9/12/16: Samsung and Health Canada have now officially recalled the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 in Canada.
Related: Samsung Canada is working with Health Canada to complete Note 7 recall
[source]Samsung Australia[/source] [via]The Verge, Ars Technica[/via]
