When it comes to exploding phones, the cause is nearly always down to the battery. In the case of the Galaxy Note 7, Samsung already confirmed that this was the case; worldwide, Galaxy Note 7 units were shipped out from a batch with bad batteries. Updates have gone out to inform users who own bad units, and to limit their charge capacity to help mitigate the danger of their continued operation as the official worldwide recall moves forward. In many territories, Samsung has new Galaxy Note 7 units at the ready and is set to resume sales soon. In South Korea, that date is set for September 28. South Korean officials, however, have a few things to say about the Galaxy Note 7 before sales resume.
For starters, they have already asked Samsung to extend the voluntary refund deadline to September 30, from September 19. Now, authorities want Samsung to put a few extra safety checks in place to ensure that the new Galaxy Note 7 units that consumers will be getting via the recall and be able to buy as of September 28th are actually safe. Samsung is being asked to conduct extensive safety checks on the batteries for the new units, and to x-ray the batteries. X-ray technology has been decried in the past as being damaging to electronics, but has been proven mostly safe, at least for lithium-ion batteries. X-ray imaging can clearly show a battery that is old, damaged, or in a dangerous state. Samsung, in the deal laid out with the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards, will have their third-party supplier scan batteries before they are shipped out.
While Samsung did not say exactly how many phones they are expecting the recall program to affect, they did say that they are preparing to work with local carriers and offer affected customers a mobile bill credit of 30,000 won, or about $27.21, for their troubles. Early reports indicated that about 429,000 Note 7 sales happened in South Korea alone before the formal recall took place, which could spell a big payout for Samsung on top of the roughly $5 billion the Galaxy Note 7 recall fiasco has reportedly already cost them.