Multiple investigations are currently underway

Oct 13, 2016 07:55 GMT  ·  By

Samsung has been relatively quiet about the whole Galaxy Note 7 situation, but the company did announce the steps that owners need to take in order to exchange their phones and it did say that incentives will be provided.

However, many are still wondering what exactly caused replacement Galaxy Note 7 smartphones to catch fire, especially since Samsung said that the battery flaw in original units was fixed.

Many investigations of the issue are currently being conducted. The CPSC is investigating the Southwest Airline incident in the US, while South Korean officials also launched an investigation of their own. Surely, Samsung is also conducting its own thorough investigation to find the problem.

There have been many theories circulating online, some saying that the phone’s design might be the one that generated the flaw. Others, however, suggest that tweaks to the fast charging feature might have left the smartphone vulnerable to overheating.

Samsung will share more information in the coming weeks

Samsung issued an official statement to Business Insider saying, "The replacement phones have batteries from a separate and different supplier than the original Note 7 devices. We’re currently conducting a thorough investigation, and it would be premature to speculate on outcomes. We will share more information in the coming weeks."

Samsung has been criticized for its slow response to retailers, carriers, and even investors who are anxious to know what caused the phones to catch fire. The statement does suggest that Samsung doesn’t wish to fuel speculations even further, without results from a thorough investigation. It also implies that the South Korean company doesn’t think the problem lies in the batteries manufactured by ATL.

During the first recall, Samsung said there was a problem with batteries manufactured by Samsung SDI and decided to replace the supplier with ATL. However, replacement Galaxy Note 7 units still overheated and caught fire, thus determining the South Korean company to discontinue production of the Note 7.

The South Korean company also stated for Motherboard that it would not repair, refurbish or resell Note 7 units ever again. Samsung intends to dispose of the Note 7 smartphones, but the representative didn’t disclose the exact procedure that it will conduct.