Exchanged Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Phones Face Fresh Battery Complaints

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Samsung's exploding battery recall just seems to be getting worse and worse. It seems that some people are getting fresh replacement phones with batteries that overheat and lose battery life extremely fast. :(

Fresh reports of overheating and batteries losing life quickly have surfaced for new Samsung Galaxy Note 7 units after exchange for the handsets began earlier on Monday in South Korea following its recall, according to South Korean broadcaster YTN. YTN interviewed multiple customers who received new phones and complained that the phones' batteries quickly drained and overheated. But there have been no reported fires or explosions, unlike with the initial batches of the Note 7.
 
Good, I have had awful battery life with Samsung phones for a while. From the GS3 to the GS5. Its the reason I went iPhone6S Plus to be honest. Samsung needs to get their battery life back to a decent place.
 
Have my replacement, if anything battery life is even better. Story is specific to phones sold in South Korea.
 
My samsung galaxy s goes weeks without needing to be charged. Granted I barely use it but still. Old school getting it done.
 
I don't know Samsung owners complain when they could just replace their battery. Oh wait, you can't do that on those phones. Sucks to be you.
 
bluesynk said:
Have my replacement, if anything battery life is even better. Story is specific to phones sold in South Korea.
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Battery is much batter. I'm still on 33% after watching tons of video and music from a full charge in the morning. The original phone wouldn't last 3 hours.
Let the non-owners of the phone keep spreading bs. N7 is the best phone on the market.
 
They tried to get there batteries to a decent place. And BOOM! So now they drain fast again.
 
How did they suddenly forget how to build stuff with LiION batteries? Did all the other models they make stop working right?
 
I wonder if it's cheap third party chargers causing this issue? Seems like the simplest explanation.
 
Fucks sake when will a company actually INCREASE battery size and stop shrinking it every time we get a slight improvement. Everyone bitches about battery. 2 days on one battery for a slightly thicker device? Sold. I hate range anxiety and when I carry a battery charger it's 2x the size of the damn phone anyway ffs.

Fucking incompetent marketing/engineering and management. LISTEN TO US YOU FUCKS.
 
2 days is not even close to enough for me to not charge my phone on a daily basis, I need to the phone to have at least 7 days, which none of the smarts are capable of doing. I grew a habit of charging my phone every day, even if the battery is 90% full at the end of the day.

I have resigned myself that, as long as the battery lasts for a full day of use, it's good enough, power packs are coming small enough that they are smaller than phones now (EG Zenpower).

I am far more miffed about smartphones engaging in spec wars that benefits no one, EG high resolution screens. 1080p is pretty much perfect for smartphone, anything higher is a complete waste of time and performance, since I use my smart as a portable gaming device, which means lower the resolution, the better.
 
{NG}Fidel said:
Good, I have had awful battery life with Samsung phones for a while. From the GS3 to the GS5. Its the reason I went iPhone6S Plus to be honest. Samsung needs to get their battery life back to a decent place.
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My S3 battery was fine. Under normal use (checking emails, few phone calls, etc) it usually had enough to get through the day, which was as good or better than most phone back them. Even after 3 years of use, it still lasted most the day, unless I spent a few hours watching HD movies or playing games.

My Note 4 is much better, it can last all day even if I spend a few hours watching HD movies or playing games :D
 
chenw said:
2 days is not even close to enough for me
I am far more miffed about smartphones engaging in spec wars that benefits no one, EG high resolution screens. 1080p is pretty much perfect for smartphone, anything higher is a complete waste of time and performance,
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Agreed.

I'd rather have a phone with decent specs, a good/excellent camera, 1080p resolution, SD card slot (for Music, movies and picture taking), water resistance (just in case) and a large enough battery to get me through 2 average days, or one very busy day. And of course a decent price.

The Note 4 was the closest I found early this year. Good size, but more screen resolution than I need. Battery normally lasts most the day, it has an SD slot, good camera, and price was reasonable since it was last years model. (few hundred less then the S6/Note 5 at the time)
 
xX_Jack_Carver_Xx said:
How did they suddenly forget how to build stuff with LiION batteries? Did all the other models they make stop working right?
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That was the same thing I was wondering. What exactly did they change that caused every other phone to be fine but suddenly they are exploding or not lasting as long. I would have expected it to the be pretty much the same as previous batteries not something massively different.
 
DukenukemX said:
I don't know Samsung owners complain when they could just replace their battery. Oh wait, you can't do that on those phones. Sucks to be you.
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True, and most phones anyway.
That one was a bad decision.. eliminating the headphone jack (but still having it with an adapter) is a good one, that I expect to see all around.
I do hope the use doesnt go away, just an adapter, like Apple just did now ('courage' bullshit aside).
 
I have no intention of switching from Note 4 as such. Replaceable battery is a great thing.
 
I'm on Note 4 for now. At the moment the only phone I would replace it with is LG V10 H961n. Replaceable battery, Excellent to brilliant camera system. Support for the latest Micro SD's and an awesome headphone amp for a phone. And a big high res screen comparable to Samsungs best.
However, I'm still going to wait a while.
When it comes to the battery problem. I want to know which charger has been used in each of the "faulty" cases. Cheap knock-off chargers can destroy any phone-battery. What is special with this is that there were a couple of cases where the battery spectacularly failed. I kind of doubt that beyond that the failure rate is above expected with a market flooded with sub-par chargers (some of which is NOT within spec and not complying with safety regulations no matter what the labels say).
 
N4CR said:
Fucks sake when will a company actually INCREASE battery size and stop shrinking it every time we get a slight improvement. Everyone bitches about battery. 2 days on one battery for a slightly thicker device? Sold. I hate range anxiety and when I carry a battery charger it's 2x the size of the damn phone anyway ffs.

Fucking incompetent marketing/engineering and management. LISTEN TO US YOU FUCKS.
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I'm not sure if you realized this, but companies stopped listening to their customers decades ago. (around the same time as the invention of pre-recorded TV commercials)

It's far more profitable to just buy whatever cheap crap China is making, and spend the rest of the budget convincing people to buy that crap, than it is to actually listen to the customers and give them what they want.

If Samsung thought they could get away with it, they would build an expiration date into the phone to make it stop working entirely after a specific date, just to make you buy the latest phone.

This is also why the cell phone manufacturers were so willing to be complicit in the "free phone with 2-year contract" scam that the carriers were doing, because it meant that people would replace their phones every 2 years.
 
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sir-gold said:
I'm not sure if you realized this, but companies stopped listening to their customers decades ago. (around the same time as the invention of pre-recorded TV commercials)

It's far more profitable to just buy whatever cheap crap China is making, and spend the rest of the budget convincing people to buy that crap, than it is to actually listen to the customers and give them what they want.

If Samsung thought they could get away with it, they would build an expiration date into the phone to make it stop working entirely after a specific date, just to make you buy the latest phone.

This is also why the cell phone manufacturers were so willing to be complicit in the "free phone with 2-year contract" scam that the carriers were doing, because it meant that people would replace their phones every 2 years.
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SAY IT ISN'T SO!!
 
sir-gold said:
I'm not sure if you realized this, but companies stopped listening to their customers decades ago. (around the same time as the invention of pre-recorded TV commercials)

It's far more profitable to just buy whatever cheap crap China is making, and spend the rest of the budget convincing people to buy that crap, than it is to actually listen to the customers and give them what they want.

If Samsung thought they could get away with it, they would build an expiration date into the phone to make it stop working entirely after a specific date, just to make you buy the latest phone.

This is also why the cell phone manufacturers were so willing to be complicit in the "free phone with 2-year contract" scam that the carriers were doing, because it meant that people would replace their phones every 2 years.
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This issue is more complicated that that sir-gold, for the battery that's made isn't by some contracted Chinese firm, but rather Samsung's own inhouse SDI subsidiary that's building these battery packs in China.
We are talking about a very, very serious procedural defect that's happening under one's own roof, and Samsung actually places invoice order from one department (phones) to another (battery) when they make things.

I know that end consumers shouldn't and wouldn't think of this problem in this dimension, but I want to point out that Samsung is facing an even more serious mistake than cost-cutting by sourcing to the lowest bidder here.
 
westrock2000 said:
Without consulting the Internet, I thought I heard impurities in the battery was the issue.
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It's a manufacturing defect that made the cathode and anode plate coming too close to each other, leading to potential to short and well, blow up. Samsung SDI accounts for 11% of global lithium battery market, with more than 60% of all Samsung phones using their own inhouse batteries. Apple for one actually contracts different firms to handle the cell and the module package assembly separately, while Samsung typically does it under the same roof.
 
Good.

Soldered batteries are a stupid design decision that needs to die in a fire. Keep the problems and recalls rolling. Perhaps in another year or so if this keeps up there will be phones on the market I can buy again.
 
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Dekoth-E- said:
Good.

Soldered batteries are a stupid design decision that needs to die in a fire. Keep the problems and recalls rolling. Perhaps in another year or so if this keeps up there will be phones on the market I can buy again.
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Had Samsung stuck to having removable battery, then this recall need not have been so costly and bearing such dangerous consequence to all users.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
Good.

Soldered batteries are a stupid design decision that needs to die in a fire. Keep the problems and recalls rolling. Perhaps in another year or so if this keeps up there will be phones on the market I can buy again.
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Only works if company in question is actually convinced the costs outweigh the benefits.

As long as other companies do not have faulty batteries, they will continue to use soldered batteries until they themselves experience this kind of battery problem and wipe out their hard earned money.

I am not even convinced that the battery problem would cause SS to return to removable batteries, the CO's would probably find other things to blame (like the actual battery, not the design decision).

Until, of course, this happens again to SS later down the line, or the unlikely event that governments demand phone makers to make removable batteries.
 
chenw said:
Only works if company in question is actually convinced the costs outweigh the benefits.

As long as other companies do not have faulty batteries, they will continue to use soldered batteries until they themselves experience this kind of battery problem and wipe out their hard earned money.

I am not even convinced that the battery problem would cause SS to return to removable batteries, the CO's would probably find other things to blame (like the actual battery, not the design decision).

Until, of course, this happens again to SS later down the line, or the unlikely event that governments demand phone makers to make removable batteries.
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chenw, I just posted that what's to blame is dead serious, as in actual manufacturing process defect by Samsung's own SDI. There will be a horribly vicious blame game within the conglomerate for this recall wiped out 25 billion dollars on paper and 1 billion + from the coffers, with civil suits to kick in and plague the company for years.
 
chenw said:
Only works if company in question is actually convinced the costs outweigh the benefits.

As long as other companies do not have faulty batteries, they will continue to use soldered batteries until they themselves experience this kind of battery problem and wipe out their hard earned money.

I am not even convinced that the battery problem would cause SS to return to removable batteries, the CO's would probably find other things to blame (like the actual battery, not the design decision).

Until, of course, this happens again to SS later down the line, or the unlikely event that governments demand phone makers to make removable batteries.
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Will one incident? No. I want to see as many incidents like this as possible until this design decision ceases being the only option. Had that battery been removable this wouldn't be an entire $800 phone recall, it would be a $10 battery replacement. That is why I am so adamantly opposed to unibody soldered battery designs. If there is a problem (and there often are with lipo's) it is significantly harder to replace a soldered in battery. It also eliminates the customers ability to buy a new one when they get a poor performing battery due to defect or just age. These batteries are universally shit after 18 months.
 
Sure, if SS learns that this Note 7 recall has been so costly for them that they reverted back to replaceable batteries, all the merrier for all of us, and probably the most ideal result.

That being said, I don't want more faulty batteries to be the catalyst for replaceable batteries, because that might actually lead to shittier battery QC since it'll be cheaper for the company in question to replace than entire new phones.

The way I see it, using more faulty batteries as a precursor to reverting removeable battery design is akin to wanting more innocent people die from drunk driving so the government will actually do something to toughen up the laws, while completely ignoring some of the more important underlying issues.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
Will one incident? No. I want to see as many incidents like this as possible until this design decision ceases being the only option. Had that battery been removable this wouldn't be an entire $800 phone recall, it would be a $10 battery replacement. That is why I am so adamantly opposed to unibody soldered battery designs. If there is a problem (and there often are with lipo's) it is significantly harder to replace a soldered in battery. It also eliminates the customers ability to buy a new one when they get a poor performing battery due to defect or just age. These batteries are universally shit after 18 months.
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Honestly, this was a ticking time bomb that's just waiting for a mass recall to serve as the wake-up call for the entire industry. It hit Samsung, but it's bound to have happened eventually.

chenw said:
Sure, if SS learns that this Note 7 recall has been so costly for them that they reverted back to replaceable batteries, all the merrier for all of us, and probably the most ideal result.

That being said, I don't want more faulty batteries to be the catalyst for replaceable batteries, because that might actually lead to shittier battery QC since it'll be cheaper for the company in question to replace than entire new phones.

The way I see it, using more faulty batteries as a precursor to reverting removeable battery design is akin to wanting more innocent people die from drunk driving so the government will actually do something to toughen up the laws, while completely ignoring some of the more important underlying issues.
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But we couldn't address the issue of limited capacity of battery and rising expectation in handheld, can we? We are reaching a plateau with regards to smartphone, but it doesn't change the fact that the industry wants to keep this upgrade cycle and reduce the number of serviceable parts as much as possible.
 
I must admit, replaceable batteries has never been a consideration of mine, since my last couple of phones, the batteries usually lasted long enough that I could go on a full week (or even longer) without needing to swap out a battery before I can get to a place to charge it (using a 'dumb' phone when I was serving), or the battery is so bad that I would be carrying the spare battery everywhere I go, and a powerpack is more useful to me in that regard than a spare battery would because at least the powerpack is both shareable and not tied to the phone.

I only expect that my phone to run for 1 day with 'normal' useage, my average smartphone use is far below the average user because I have limited opportunities to use it (I even rarely run a battery down to 50% after full charge, and this is coming from a phone 2 years from its MFG date). I don't expect phones to run any longer than that because to me, it didn't matter to me if it can run 1 or 2 days, as I would charge the phone to full everyday out of pure habit.

So in my usage, replaceable battery is much less of a concern than batteries not exploding, especially since during my weekday, my phone is completely out of my sight for more than half a day.

During the last decade, I have had couple of Li-ION operated devices breaking long before their batteries started to be a problem, so I have come to assume that, if the battery dies after a couple of years, the device doesn't have much left.
 
chenw said:
I must admit, replaceable batteries has never been a consideration of mine, since my last couple of phones, the batteries usually lasted long enough that I could go on a full week (or even longer) without needing to swap out a battery before I can get to a place to charge it (using a 'dumb' phone when I was serving), or the battery is so bad that I would be carrying the spare battery everywhere I go, and a powerpack is more useful to me in that regard than a spare battery would because at least the powerpack is both shareable and not tied to the phone.

I only expect that my phone to run for 1 day with 'normal' useage, my average smartphone use is far below the average user because I have limited opportunities to use it (I even rarely run a battery down to 50% after full charge, and this is coming from a phone 2 years from its MFG date). I don't expect phones to run any longer than that because to me, it didn't matter to me if it can run 1 or 2 days, as I would charge the phone to full everyday out of pure habit.

So in my usage, replaceable battery is much less of a concern than batteries not exploding, especially since during my weekday, my phone is completely out of my sight for more than half a day.

During the last decade, I have had couple of Li-ION operated devices breaking long before their batteries started to be a problem, so I have come to assume that, if the battery dies after a couple of years, the device doesn't have much left.
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This makes me wonder why on earth you even have a smart phone. If this is accurate, you are paying a ton of money for something you aren't getting much use out of.

If I don't have access to a charger I can kill my battery before noon.
 
I got a smartphone because my MP3 was giving me out on me, and the phone I got wasn't exactly expensive either ($300 for the phone and the tablet dock).

You are right about me not using much of the phone, the phone I have right now is in fact my very first smartphone, and I didn't want to buy one because I'd have so little use out of it, but since my MP3 player was showing its age, and the fact that a lot of MP3 I saw were either cheap looking or as expensive as phones, I just got a phone instead.

You sound like your day job requires you to use the phone a lot, so your needs are vastly different to mine.
 
sir-gold said:
I'm not sure if you realized this, but companies stopped listening to their customers decades ago. (around the same time as the invention of pre-recorded TV commercials)
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You're right on all points. The one company I work closely with is the exact opposite - we build stuff to customer specifications. Guess I forgot this doesn't apply to 99.99999999999999% of companies out there. It's funny because when such companies approach the community (part of my work) and ask what they want - these usually sell well as it's what people are prepared to lay $ out for.

If I was oneplus, I'd be making two versions. One with standard 'barely lasts a day' BS 'battery' like everything else and a thicker one (3mm thicker) with a two-three day battery. hell maybe even a 5mm version for a full week for the warriors if enough interest. Thing is, as long as you have a gap for the camera, you have a huge back panel area to take advantage of with modern designs.
 
chenw said:
I got a smartphone because my MP3 was giving me out on me, and the phone I got wasn't exactly expensive either ($300 for the phone and the tablet dock).

You are right about me not using much of the phone, the phone I have right now is in fact my very first smartphone, and I didn't want to buy one because I'd have so little use out of it, but since my MP3 player was showing its age, and the fact that a lot of MP3 I saw were either cheap looking or as expensive as phones, I just got a phone instead.

You sound like your day job requires you to use the phone a lot, so your needs are vastly different to mine.
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Just wanted to establish that you don't in fact have any real use for a smart phone and that your battery usage is irrelevant to the conversation.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
Just wanted to establish that you don't in fact have any real use for a smart phone and that your battery usage is irrelevant to the conversation.
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I never said it was.

I was replying specifically to the part that you preferred to have more batteries incidents (and possible cause some genuine casualty) if it meant that smartphone companies would revert to the old removable battery design (assuming that the former leads to the latter).

I for one would never trade safety for convenience, which you don't seem to hold in the same regard.

But regardless, my views seem to be deemed irrelavant in this conversation, and therefore I will now bow out of news section completely, as apparently the news section isn't suitable for actual discussion
 
N4CR said:
Fucks sake when will a company actually INCREASE battery size and stop shrinking it every time we get a slight improvement. Everyone bitches about battery. 2 days on one battery for a slightly thicker device? Sold. I hate range anxiety and when I carry a battery charger it's 2x the size of the damn phone anyway ffs.

Fucking incompetent marketing/engineering and management. LISTEN TO US YOU FUCKS.
Click to expand...

For me, its not even battery life, I am a bigger boy at 6'3", and have hands to match, but for me, holding some of the newer phones is a PIA. iPhone 6? With its rounded edges and pretty thin body? Good God, always feels like its slipping and I have nothing to hold on to. I often put cases on phones, not for actual protection, but so it gives more bulk to hold on to. However, even if that was not the case, having extra battery life in devices they are putting more and more powerful CPU/GPUs in for doing more, but not giving battery life to support it, is stupid.
 
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