Why did Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones keep catching on fire? Tech giant reveals the truth behind tech world’s hottest controversy
THE MYSTERY behind the exploding Samsung phones has finally been explained.
Samsung say wonky batteries in the Galaxy Note 7 were to blame in a long awaited report which was published today.
Samsung was forced to scrap its Galaxy Note 7 smartphones in 2016 when customers complained that they were bursting into flames and airlines banned them over safety fears.
It recalled three million handsets after the dangerous defect appeared within weeks of its grand launch in August.
The manufacturer launched a vast inquiry into what was behind the problem that is expected to cost the company an estimate 5.3 billion dollars (£4.3 billion).
Around 700 Samsung engineers carried out tests on 200,000 handsets and 30,000 batteries that were charged and drained over several months.
Koh Dong-Jin, president of Samsung electronics mobile communications business told a press conference in Seoul: "We found that both fully assembled devices and batteries exhibited incidents at similar rates to those in the field.
"This indicated that the incidents were caused by the battery cell itself and we preceded to focus our investigation on the batteries."
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The company blamed faulty batteries widely believed to be its sister company Samsung SDI.
The probe found that the issue with the batteries from Samsung SDI was an irregularly sized battery which did not fit the phone properly which then caused overheating.
In the batteries made by Amperex Technology Ltd. the flaw centred on a manufacturing issue resulting from the quick ramp-up in production of replacement phones, according to the Wall Street Journal, who revealed the cause after sources leaked it last week.
#The recall fiasco has taken a major toll on the reputation of the world's largest smartphone maker, which has promised a "complete reform" of the firm's overall production and quality control process to prevent another crisis.
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