14 DAY TRIAL // Samsung announced the discontinuation of its latest flagship, the Galaxy Note 7, in October last year, and since then the company has been urging owners to return their devices immediately. Even so, about 100,000 Note 7 units are still unreturned in South Korea.
In order to convince holdouts to return their Galaxy Note 7 smartphones, which are prone to overheating and catching fire, Samsung announced that it would release a new update for Note 7 units in South Korea on January 9. The update would cap battery charge at 15%, thus forcing owners to return them, according to ZDNet.
15% battery would make the phone quite inconvenient since it would only offer a very limited time use. Late last year, Samsung pushed out similar updates in other markets, like Europe, where battery charge for Note 7 smartphones was limited to just 30%.
A similar measure was taken for unlocked Note 7 phones in the US as well. The software update reduced the chances of a Note 7 phone to overheat while charging.
Verizon to push out update to kill the Galaxy Note 7
Many US carriers announced they would release updates for the Galaxy Note 7 to block units from charging. When the battery reaches 0%, Note 7 owners will no longer be able to charge the phone. However, they can power the device on by connecting it to an external charger or a wall outlet.
Verizon is expected to push out the update on January 5. By mid-January, all major US carriers would have pushed out this software update to Galaxy Note 7 phones on their networks.
As for the cause of the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco, Samsung officials did reiterate during CES 2017 that the results of its investigation would be revealed “very soon.” Previous reports have indicated mid-January as the timeframe for when we will finally know what happened to the device, which could have been the best smartphone of last year if it weren’t for its proneness to catching fire.