14 DAY TRIAL // Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 exploding nightmare came to an end after the South Korean firm publicly recalled the model, but by the looks of things, the company still has to deal with a number of phones catching fire every once in a while across the world.
Once such an example is a Galaxy Note 4 which exploded in March 2017, causing severe injuries to a 5-year-old girl who was near the device left to charge.
The girl’s face and hand were burnt following the explosion, according to a report from GizChina, and the South Korean firm offered some $1,250 in order to help the family pay the medical bills.
But Feng Lingling, the father of the girl, says Samsung should pay a lot more for a phone that exploded and left his daughter disfigured, so he filed a lawsuit in the Xiqing District Court of Tianjin. The family is seeking disability compensation, and wants over $200,000 in damages.
Samsung hasn’t publicly commented on this lawsuit, but instead the company says that it wants more time to look into the complaint.
Feng Lingling says the South Korean firm continues selling smartphones despite knowing that they can burst into flames.
Exploding Samsung phones
The Galaxy Note 4 itself hasn’t been the subject of a global recall over exploding batteries, as only one model has until now been targeted by such a campaign.
The Note 7, which came with defective batteries suffering from overheating and posing an increased risk of fire, has been pulled from the market shortly after its launch after Samsung tried to replace faulty units with a second batch.
Since then, there were only isolated cases of phones bursting into flames, including models from other manufacturers, like Apple’s iPhone. No broad issue, however, has ever been confirmed for any other model.