It’s official: Samsung is issuing a recall for the Galaxy Note 7.
Samsung released a statement today saying that as of Sept. 1, there have been 35 cases reported of Note 7 units exploding or catching fire. After conducting and investigation into the issue, Samsung found that a battery made by one of its two suppliers had an issue that could cause it to catch fire.
The Galaxy Note 7 is being pulled from stores in 10 countries, including South Korea and the U.S., but not China because those devices use a different battery. Samsung has not found a way to determine which phones may have a faulty battery.
If you’ve already got a Galaxy Note 7, Samsung says that it will replace your current device with a new one. That process will take place over the coming weeks.
The Galaxy Note 7 is Samsung’s brand new flagship smartphone, and so a huge recall like this is a big deal. There have already been 2.5 million Note 7s sold globally, and now Samsung is issuing a recall and swapping out the faulty units for new ones.
It’ll be interesting to see how Samsung handles this recall and swapping out units for existing Note 7 users. Many people don’t have a second smartphone, so how will Samsung handle the exchange process? The company says that it’s “working closely with our partners to ensure the replacement experience is as convenient and efficient as possible,” so we’ll just have to wait and see.
