Samsung tried shipping different batteries in the replacements but those still acted up. It's pretty unlikely replaceable battery which have done much.
No, it would ultimately have caused more fires with no way to blame them on anyone in particular. If we're going to treat batteries as safety-critical components, then it's counterproductive to encourage end users to replace them with the cheapest ones they can find.
Mobile phones with replaceable batteries aren't coming back, and good riddance.
Wouldn't a better solution be to just make sure dangerous batteries don't get sold? Just regulate them for safety like tons of other dangerous goods already are
After the first recall, when a few of the replacement phones caught fire again, Samsung couldn't even reproduce the issue in a lab. Regulation isn't going to prevent bad things from ever happening. You need a fallback plan.
So your solution is to say "no, only large companies are allowed to pick batteries". Well, the Note 7 seems to show how good an idea that is. Plenty of devices have replaceable batteries without them exploding, and if anything, a replaceable battery would let you say "hey, this battery is getting old, let's replace it" rather then continuing to use a device with an old, possibly failing battery.
Well, the Note 7 seems to show how good an idea that is.
Yes, as a matter of fact, that's exactly what the Note 7 debacle demonstrated. There was a quality problem that could cause fires. There was a single party who could be expected to take responsibility. Finally, there was a coordinated worldwide recall.
Problem solved, system working as intended. Sucks to be Samsung, of course, but the end result will be safer batteries for everyone.
Plenty of devices have replaceable batteries without them exploding, and if anything, a replaceable battery would let you say "hey, this battery is getting old, let's replace it" rather then continuing to use a device with an old, possibly failing battery.
Sorry, that's not going to happen. Get used to disappointment.
Or, the manufacturer of the batteries could recall them.
Also, plenty of phones have replaceable batteries, including new models, so I'll just keep buying them. Means I won't be buying Samsung, but that's just an extra bonus.
Yeah, it's sad. I'm fond of my Galaxy Note 4, and plan to keep it running as long as possible -- yes, the battery is replaceable, so I should be able to get a few years out of it -- but once it dies I won't want to buy another Samsung, and nobody else is making a phablet with a stylus.
Maybe some other manufacturer will see the opportunity Samsung has given them to break into this niche.
Well it would have likely solved the Note 7 recall, and any futures battery recalls. It would also allow a user to remove an unsafe battery so that it's not in use while waiting for a replacement.
I thought the problem with the note 7 was with the power controller, and not the batteries -- didn't phones continue catching fire after the first recall?
If the Note 7 hadn't been recalled then eventually many more would have probably caught fire. We'll never know what the cumulative failure rate would have been if the devices had been left in the field for years. Eventually people would have been killed.
The fraction of phones that caught on fire was similar to the fraction of hoverboards that caught on fire. Normal products with similar batteries have a much lower failure rate.
When you decide whether a risk is unacceptable, there are two parts to consider: the likelihood of the event, and the potential worst-case scenario should the event come to pass. .01% is a very low likelihood, but the worst case scenario that one of these phones maims the user is an extremely bad outcome. In this framework the recall is the most sensible thing to do.