The Samsung Galaxy Note 7, which once looked to be one of the most promising smartphones of the year, is now no longer available to consumers due to its fatal flaw – a battery that was potentially explosive, putting the devices and their users at risk of physical harm. The issue was promptly addressed by Samsung and replacement devices were issued quickly, however, even some of the replacement devices turned out to have similar issues. In the end, Samsung had no choice but to discontinue the Galaxy Note 7, taking major losses and losing customers to competing brands.
Initially, Samsung had narrowed down the issue to a specific brand of battery used on some of their devices. Batteries made by Samsung SDI, the company responsible for manufacturing the batteries that were originally determined to be at fault, ceased to be used in the production of the Galaxy Note 7, and Samsung instead redirected all battery production to the second of their two battery manufacturing partners, ATL. Unfortunately, as it turns out, the ATL batteries were plagued with similar problems. Now, there are reports that Samsung may be planning to partner with another company to produce batteries used inside their smartphones, competitor LG. While Samsung is currently the most popular and well-known vendor of Android devices, LG has made quite a name for itself with recent smartphones, such as the LG V20, which features a narrow secondary display at the top for notifications and frequent tasks, and the LG G5, which offers customization through modularity. With both Samsung SDI and ATL producing batteries for the Galaxy Note 7 that have proven to be unsafe, the company is considering using LG for the production of the batteries that will be used on Samsung’s next flagship device, which will presumably be named the Galaxy S8.
At this point, Samsung engineers are continuing to investigate what factors may have caused the batteries to overheat and explode, but at the time of this writing, no specific cause has been identified conclusively. Regardless of which battery manufacturer Samsung ultimately decides to partner with, it will be absolutely critical for them to ensure the next year’s devices are safe. It won’t be easy to earn back the trust of consumers and regain the momentum that they had prior to the Galaxy Note 7 safety issues. In order to win them next year, they will have to not only introduce a stellar smartphone, but also ensure customers that their devices are safe, so finding the right partner could be the key to recovering from this major setback.