Battery Fault ‘Caused’ Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Explosions

Samsung’s investigation into what caused the catastrophic Galaxy Note 7 safety failures has found a battery fault was chiefly responsible for some of the smartphones catching fire, according to Reuters‘s sources.

At the time, Samsung was quick to issue a recall of around 2.5 million of the phablets – which had been initially well received by industry experts – following reports of the exploding batteries and promised to replace faulty devices.

Battery fault

The company will be keen to rebuild consumer confidence ahead of a slightly-delayed Galaxy S8 launch in April and providing a detailed explanation of exactly what went wrong with the Note 7 will be vital to that goal.

Along with the reputational damage inflicted by the Note 7 fallout, Samsung’s Q3 2016 profit and revenue also took a significant hit and a repeat of the episode could be the final straw for consumers.

Bryan Ma, Singapore-based analyst for researcher IDC said Samsung has “got to make sure they come clean and they’ve got to reassure buyers as to why this won’t happen again.”

The source suggested that full results of the investigation will probably be announced next week before the company reveals its latest financial report, with Samsung already predicting that Q4 2016 was its best quarter in three years.

If accurate, it would mark an amazing recovery for the company from what became a very public episode where the Note 7 was even banned from commercial flights by US aviation regulators.

One US service was delayed and nearly diverted due to a false alarm that one of the smartphones was on board, shortly before Samsung issued a software update which essentially bricked any Note 7 handsets that had not been returned to the company.

What do you know about mobiles past and present? Try our quiz and find out!