A year after Samsung recalled and eventually discontinued the Galaxy Note 7 after several of the devices’ batteries overheated and exploded or caught fire, the tech company is prepping the release of its next version of the smartphone, the Galaxy Note 8.
In an attempt to avoid a similarly fiery smartphone debacle, Samsung says it has increased scrutiny of the new device’s batteries ahead of its expected September launch.
Changing The Process
Samsung reiterated it commitment to safety today in the announcement of the new Galaxy Note 8, revealing that it has taken extra steps to ensure the device and its battery are safe.
Samsung says that it has “re-assessed every step of the smartphone manufacturing process” and put the new phone through its “8-point battery safety check.”
These checks, the company notes on its website, include “putting our batteries through extreme testing, inside and out, followed by careful inspection by X-ray and the human eye to ensure highest quality.”
According to Samsung, the eight-point safety check entails a durability test, charge/discharge tests, visual inspections, tests of batter leakage, x-ray tests, an accelerated usage test, a disassembling test, and a voltage test.
Additionally, the company says it has invited a team of experts from academia and research centers to provide it with “objective analysis to ensure the safety of the battery.”
Samsung has, for the first time, enlisted the assistance of product safety consultant Underwriters Laboratories to conduct additional tests of the phone’s batteries.
The tech company and UL say they have been working closely to make meaningful advancements with smartphone tests.
“As a result, the Note8 has successfully completed a rigorous series of device and battery safety compatibility test protocols,” Sajeev Jesudas, President, UL International, said in a statement. “We look forward to maintaining our strategic relationship with Samsung to help ensure device safety for all consumers.”
New & Improved
In the end, Samsung tells The New York Times it believes the new tests and other upgrades to the phone have made it unlikely to explode.
“Samsung pursues innovation, and we stumbled,” Justin Denison, head of product strategy for Samsung, tells the Times. “We accepted it, we learned from it, we’ve applied processes and we’ve had quite a bit of success in recovering from that.”
Despite the previous issues with the Note 7, Samsung believes customers will welcome the new Note 8 with open arms.
In fact, Denison tell the Times that Samsung’s own surveys of Galaxy Note 7 owners found that eight of 10 described their previous phone with the word “love.”
This finding was echoed by some third-party firms that found that 64% of 1,000 individuals still consider Samsung products to be reliable, with 27% saying they would purchase the Note 8.
by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist
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