The Note 7 battery issue is done - can we move on?


So, recently, Samsung had an issue with their Galaxy Note 7.  They thought they fixed it.  It still had issues.  They ended up recalling every last device (apparently 4% still remain out in the wild).

That has been the fodder of many many MANY sites going on to use such hyperbolic words as "EXPLODE" and "BLEW UP" and everything under the sun.

Throughout, I saw malignancy towards the South Korean company, and personally, I think it was ill placed on the company.

Yesterday, officially the company released their findings on what really went on there.  To get this figured out properly (because ensuring it never happens again is very important) they grabbed 200,000 phones and built a very cool testing room to put them through the simulated rigour of every day use.  About 700 staff were tasked with this very job.  They then also hired 3 extra companies to go and do independant research to make sure they came up with the same answers.  They did.

In my world, you need 3 things for an effective apology:
  1. Acknowledge the error (they did)
  2. Make restitution (they offered refunds and exchanges)
  3. Never do it again (we'll get to that)
In my mind, Samsung has gone through this scenario and done so in a very professional manner, and as such deserves our respect to say "forgiven" and let's move on.  (you can read their apology over on The Verge)

So let's take a look at the last step.  In order for Samsung to never do it again, they had to figure out what they did wrong.  Let's see what they found out (feel free to watch along)

The main deal here comes in from the fact that their manufacturer of the battery (both versions) had some defects.

In the first round of battery issues (batteries made by Samsung SDI, their spin off company) there was some irregularities in the production and essentially caused a bit of a short.

The second round of battery issues (made by Amperex)  came in because of some manufacturing defects, causing 'burrs' to poke through some of the insulation/tape to cause a short.

The first one, eep... sure, it sucks.  Just catastrophic that a second, issue, albeit technically different, looked exactly the same, ended up killing the device entirely.

The bright light at the end of this tunnel is that as part 3 of a good apology, being able to never do it again, is that they have now learned the issues.

They're now implementing a company wide battery check policy where they will now do an 8 point check on all batteries (including XRay and accelerated usage tests.

So, I think they've gone above and beyond what was really required of them and in my mind, are in a good position to regain public trust.

With that, I think we should drop any of the jokes out there.