Samsung has already killed off the Galaxy Note 7 in the wake of an explosion scandal and arguably botched recall, but some users simply won’t get rid of the defective phones. Some statistics put the number of Galaxy Note 7 units still out in the wild at around 1 million globally. Samsung has made many efforts to get Galaxy Note 7s out of peoples’ hands and off the streets, but since the users physically possess the devices, the decision is ultimately in their hands, unless owning a Note 7 becomes illegal. One of the ways that Samsung has been encouraging Note 7 owners to turn in their devices and participate in the mass recall is by shortening their battery life, which doubles as a safety measure. Updates have gone out in multiple territories already that limit the Galaxy Note 7’s battery charge to only 60%, and it seems that such a patch is now finally making its way to the land that the Galaxy Note 7 came from, South Korea.
Updates have already gone out to warn users of flight bans and recalls, so lowering the possible battery life is essentially the last straw, short of outlawing the phone as mentioned above, or remotely bricking the phones outright. While a custom ROM or flashing an earlier firmware with updates disabled would fix these woes for those users who truly want to roll the dice, the safety issues and inconveniences still remain. Underclocking and undervolting the phone’s processor are not possible on the stock firmware and could possibly help with the possibility of an explosion, but they are no guarantee.
Those who have stuck with the stock firmware or a fairly close derivative have found it a bit more difficult to crack the phone open and install something else after the 60% update dropped in their particular territory. People in South Korea who still have the device on a fairly unmodified system software can expect the mandatory update to drop and cut their battery life nearly in half on October 29, at 2 AM local time. From then on, the phone will not be able to charge beyond 60%, making it a little bit safer and far less appealing to keep despite Samsung’s pleas to return the phones.