Samsung's investigation into what caused some Galaxy Note7 smartphones to catch fire has concluded that the battery was the main reason, according to sources who spoke to Reuters on Monday.

Rumors had suggested Samsung pushed suppliers to meet tighter deadlines for an earlier launch in order to beat the iPhone 7, leading to critical oversights that led to some batteries catching fire. A person familiar with the matter told the news outlet today that Samsung was able to replicate the fires during its investigation and that the cause could not be explained by hardware design or software-related matters.

Samsung Galaxy Note 7
The source said that the official results of the investigation will be announced on January 23, one day before the company announces its Q4 earnings. Samsung is also expected to announce new measures it is taking to prevent similar problems in future devices, the person said. Samsung declined to comment.

Samsung issued a Galaxy Note7 recall in September, and permanently discontinued the smartphone in October after some replacement devices also caught fire. Samsung urged customers to return their Note7's at once, and in December began seeding a software update to prevent unreturned devices from charging. The phone remains banned on all U.S. flights as a precaution.

galaxy s8 concept

Concept for the Galaxy S8 (Image: Steel Drake/Behance)

Following the debacle – said to have cost the company $5.2 billion – Samsung must now regain consumer trust, starting with the launch of its flagship Galaxy S8 in the Spring. The phone is rumored to include a 4K Super AMOLED edge-to-edge display, a home button embedded in the display, and a digital AI assistant called "Bixby".

Top Rated Comments

testcard Avatar
106 months ago
The battery? Who would have thought?
Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)
adamneer Avatar
106 months ago
And all this time I assumed it was the S-Pen.
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Elijen Avatar
106 months ago
Check the stats on note 7 related deaths to gun related deaths . Talk about making a huge issue out of nothing. Some people's hatred of apples competitirs is so selfish on these forums .
Just because it does not kill as many people as guns doesn't mean it's safe.
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
69Mustang Avatar
106 months ago
...and a digital AI assistant called "Bixby"
You won't like it when it's angry.:mad:

+1 for those who get this reference:D
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
keysofanxiety Avatar
106 months ago
There are many people who are still using their note 7
Yep. A prime example of stubborness, selfishness, and stupidity. No phone is worth risking your life over; but risking others' safety, or your children's, is completely wrong.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Jsameds Avatar
106 months ago
The actual irony is that there have been more iPhone related battery incidents than Note 7 by some margin.

And there have been 0 deaths due to note 7........its killed 0.... so stats wise, its a non event
That's not ironic, it's just a misunderstanding of facts and statistics on your part.

You'll also find the vast majority of iPhone related battery incidents are caused by external factors, such as damage to the phone, dodgy repairs and dodgy 3rd party accessories. The rest are just background noise from Li-Ion defect rates.

The difference with the Note 7 is there was something fundamentally wrong with the phone itself.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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