14 DAY TRIAL // Buyers have started receiving their Samsung Galaxy Note 7 replacements in various countries across the world, but more reports pointing to units that catch fire seem to surface regularly.
Today’s share of “exploding” units comes from China, where two different smartphones have reportedly burst into flames recently, with Samsung said to be investigating at least one of the cases.
Specifically, complaints of a Note 7 that caught fire reached the web during the weekend and AP claims that the owner has already been contacted by Samsung. The phone was purchased on September 1 from an online store and the owner complained that the device started to heat up and vibrate all of a sudden on Saturday before eventually catching fire.
Surprisingly, Samsung offered to refund the owner with the full value of the phone, but he refused. No other details on other talks between the two sides are available.
Another Note 7 burst into flames on Sunday when the owner was playing a game on it, but details on this are not only vague but also very sketchy. It appears that Samsung hasn’t yet started an investigation in this case and no other specifics about the phone are available.
Pre-production models
What’s also very important to know is that Note 7 units available in China are actually pre-production models that were shipped before the official launch in order to give consumers the chance to try them out.
These devices were produced between July 20 and August 5 and Samsung shipped them to stores to allow potential buyers to see them live, so they weren’t necessarily supposed to be sold to customers.
The firm has already issued a recall in China affecting 1,858 units that were produced for testing purposes, with sales in the country not to be affected because all units destined for the local market use safe batteries that aren’t impacted by the problems leading to some units catching fire.