Sometime in the coming month, Samsung users will have some definite answers as to the cause of last year’s Galaxy Note 7 smartphone fires.
Samsung is set to announce this month the results of an investigation that the South Korean company launched back in October to investigate all aspects of the smartphone model, said Reuters. The goal was to determine the factor or factors that led to the critical battery failure.
Back in September, Samsung announced the recall of 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7 Phones when it was discovered the phone’s battery unit could overheat and catch fire. In the recalled exploders batch was a phone that sent its owner to the hospital with smoke inhalation injuries.
In October, it was found that at least four of the replacement Note 7 phones had also caught on fire. One phone ignited moments before the airplane it was on left the ground, leading to a U.S. Transportation Department ban of the smartphone model on all flights or in checked baggage.
Samsung announced back in October of this year that the tech giant would permanently pull the Galaxy Note 7 phone from the market. Samsung estimated a $5.1 billion hit to profits over three quarters after halting Note 7 sales. The company’s U.S. unit is facing a proposed class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of three former Galaxy Note 7 owners representing the Samsung customers who experienced phone troubles.
In mid-December, Samsung rolled out a software update designed to prevent Galaxy Note 7 devices in the U.S. from charging, effectively eliminating the troubled smartphone model’s ability to function as mobile devices.