We’re finally going to learn what caused the unprecedented Galaxy Note 7 recall last year. Samsung confirmed that it’ll announce the results of its investigation on Monday, just as rumored a few days ago. A new report also indicates that Samsung will primarily blame the batteries inside the Galaxy Note 7 for overheating and exploding.
Samsung on Friday announced that it’ll hold a press conference in Seoul, South Korea on January 23rd at 10:00 AM local time — that’s 8:00 PM EST, January 22nd in the States. The company said the full press conference will be live streamed globally at www.samsung.com/galaxy.
Soon after that, The Wall Street Journal followed up with a report that says Samsung will largely blame the Galaxy Note 7’s batteries in the report.
The Galaxy Note 7 had batteries made by Samsung SDI and Amperex Technology Ltd. The first Galaxy Note 7 explosions concerned phablets packing Samsung SDI batteries that were sold all over the world except for China, where the phone employed ATL batteries.
After the first recall, Samsung dropped Samsung SDI from its supply line and used only ATL batteries on all its phones. But then, these batteries started overheating and exploding as well.
Samsung’s report will apparently conclude that the Samsung SDI batteries did not fit in the phone properly and that’s what caused explosions.
The ATL batteries, meanwhile, were affected by a manufacturing issue resulting from the quick ramp-up in production of replacement phones, The Journal notes. That’s somewhat of a strange conclusion, considering that at the time, Samsung kept trying to assure the public that consumer safety and product quality are its top concerns.
The report says that Samsung already met with officials in Washington to discuss the findings of its report, and these officials responded positively to the presentation.
Furthermore, the company created an eight-step process to prevent similar battery problems in the future. The new policy includes more testing, inspections, and manufacturing quality assurances.
Samsung employed engineers and senior executives in its investigation, but also outside counsel. US companies UL LLC and Exponent Inc. examined batteries, while German-based TUV Rheinland looked at supply chain issues.
