Samsung has said that it’s investigating the issue that caused several Galaxy Note 7 units to overheat and catch fire, and that it’ll share its findings when the investigation is complete. In the mean time, an independent company has done some analysis of its own.
The engineers over at Instrumental recently got their hands on a Samsung Galaxy Note 7 with the goal of finding out why the devices overheated and why Samsung decided to scrap the phone. Instrumental CEO Anna Shedletsky explains that, after taking apart the Note 7, they determined that there was an issue with the design of the Note 7.
To be specific, Samsung didn’t give the Note 7’s battery enough room. When the battery charges and discharges, the lithium inside of it can cause the battery to swell, and Instrumental says that Samsung didn’t give the Note 7’s battery enough room to expand. Images also show that the battery had tight clearances around it.
Shedletsky goes on to suggest that even if the Note 7 hadn’t been recalled, the devices would’ve been slowly pushed apart by the battery’s swelling in a few years.
Samsung is unlikely to respond to this report, and so we’ll probably just have to wait for the company to release its findings to see what it says was the issue. Until then, this report from Instrumental is an interesting read that goes into some detail about the design of the Note 7 and cellphone batteries. You can check out the full report right here.