Samsung has been gaining quite a bit of momentum in the past few years by continuing to fine tune and improve their smartphones generation after generation. They had a great opportunity to win over customers from their biggest competitor, Apple, who made the controversial decision to remove the 3.5 mm audio port from their latest flagship. Last month, however, Samsung experienced a significant setback with their latest and greatest phablet, the Galaxy Note 7, when owners of the device started to report safety issues. A portion of the Galaxy Note 7s that had been sold contained batteries that were unsafe, with some reports of them even exploding while charging.
Samsung was quick to act, accepting responsibility for the quality control oversight, and took steps to correct the problem. They stopped using batteries made by Samsung SDI, one of two manufacturers producing Galaxy Note 7 batteries, and they asked users to return the devices for free replacements. Software updates were also issued, which provided visual indicators to let users know whether their device was affected. Now that replacements have started being issued to customers, concerns over the dangerous batteries have begun to subside. Unfortunately, however, some of the replacement devices are now experiencing battery issues of their own. YTN, a South Korean TV news network, reports that some of the users of replacement Galaxy Note 7 devices are experiencing problems with battery drain, as well as issues with charging the devices in question. One user was unable to recharge his battery past ten percent after leaving it connected to a power source overnight, and when YTN tested his device, the battery life decreased by 26% in only 39 minutes.
At this rate, a fully charged battery would be depleted after only two and a half hours of use. So far, there have only been reports of battery drain and charging issues with replacement devices in South Korea, with units in other regions not yet showing any reported signs of defects. Samsung’s last few generations of smartphones have been quite popular, as they offer many unique and useful features, but the safety issues with their latest flagship have unfortunately hurt their reputation. Fortunately, this new issue seems to be isolated to South Korea, so hopefully it won’t affect replacement devices on a larger scale.