Samsung to reveal cause of Note 7 explosions January 23

MANILA, Philippines – Samsung announced on Friday, January 20, they will be revealing the cause of the Galaxy Note 7 explosions on Monday, January 23. 

Reports of the Note 7 overheating and exploding surfaced shortly after the Note 7’s launch in August. The problem was big enough that Samsung had no choice but to perform a global recall of their flagship product in early September. The Korean tech giant launched an investigation afterwards, the findings of which will finally be unveiled next week. 

So far, the public only knows that it was a battery problem, but nothing concrete, specific, and final. Samsung Philippines said it was because of a “slight battery misalignment” just before the brand rolled out a new batch of supposedly safe Note 7 units, which also turned out to be faulty.

With the new units still exploding, this meant that the cause could have been entirely something else or that the misalignment was not effectively remedied. We’ll know for sure on Monday after what Samsung calls “several months of comprehensive investigations.” 

Samsung also said that in the same press conference, they will be announcing a “quality enhancement plan” and will be discussing new measures the company will be implementing moving forward from the incident. Other independent expert organizations will be revealing their findings too. 

Samsung’s findings, beyond the brand, will carry industry-wide implications. What can other phone manufacturers and battery suppliers do to ensure that this doesn’t happen again? What improvements do the current crop of mobile batteries need? 

You can catch the press conference on Samsung.com or at Samsung’s global newsroom site at 9 am, Philippine time, Monday, January 23. – Rappler.com