New Galaxy Note 7 Overheats, Loses Power When Charging

Just when you, or more likely Samsung, thought the nightmare will soon be over, new specters threaten to prolong the Korean manufacturer's suffering. In South Korea, where it had first started the replacements of defective Galaxy Note 7 models, there are growing reports that the placements, while not exploding, do still overheat. They even claim that the smartphone continues to lose power even while plugged in for charging, forcing Samsung to delay restarting the sales of the seemingly cursed phablet.

All hell broke lose when multiple reports of exploding Galaxy Note 7's came in, leading to Samsung halting sales and issuing voluntary recalls of the smartphone. The problem was traced to "rare manufacturing flaw" in the battery, which was unofficially attributed to Samsung's own Samsung SDI business unit. Samsung refused to confirm rumors that it was ditching Samsung SDI batteries, and these latest reports might hint that it might not have indeed.

The incidents, however, seem to be localized in South Korea, or at least that's all the Samsung is confirming for now. Owners of supposedly fixed Galaxy Note 7 units are reporting problematic battery performance with their devices, ranging from draining even while charging to overheating. Given how the whole exploding fiasco was related to overheating batteries, there is no small amount of concern in these new incidents.

Samsung has opted to push back resuming sales of the Galaxy Note 7 to October 1. Officially, it was to give the remaining 200,000 owners to take their device in for a replacement. Unofficially, it might also be investigating these reports, which hopefully won't blow up again, figuratively, of course.

SOURCE: Wall Street Journal