The Galaxy Word 7 was forward of its time, even wh...

Again in 2016, I gave Samsung’s ill-fated Galaxy Note 7 a glowing review and referred to as it the “finest large-sized phablet smartphone” I had ever used.

It was a monumental leap over the Galaxy Word 5 (there wasn’t a Galaxy Word 6) when it comes to its general design, energy, and, at the least on the time, water resistance. I am positive there have been probably different IP68 water resistant handsets, however the Word 7 was the primary I encountered, and it was really game-changing. I’ve fond reminiscences of masking the 5.7-inch “phablet” — which appears small by immediately’s smartphone requirements — in water droplets at a neighborhood seashore to snap a couple of wet-looking pictures for my assessment.

General, the Word 7 was a stellar cellphone that, wanting again, was manner forward of its time. It felt like Android’s reply to the iPhone and mixed the perfect components of Samsung’s Galaxy S7 with the stylus-equipped Word 5. Certain, utilizing the iris scanner to log into the system was removed from an ideal expertise, however it felt like one thing out of Mission Inconceivable on the time. Even its digicam efficiency was effectively forward of different Android gadgets because of its 12-megapixel rear-facing shooter with optical picture stabilization.

Sadly, the Galaxy Word 7’s life was reduce brief following widespread, doubtlessly harmful battery points. With the Galaxy S25’s launch looming on the horizon, now is a good time to look again at one of many largest blunders in Samsung’s smartphone historical past.

Samsung Galaxy Word 7

SoC

Exynos 8890 Octa

Show

5.7in, 2560 x 1440 pixels, Tremendous AMOLED

Storage

64GB

Battery

3500mAh

Working System

Android 6.0.1 (Marshmellow)

Digital camera (Rear, Entrance)

12MP rear; 5MP entrance

Increase

An explosive smartphone

The calamity of missteps surrounding the Galaxy Word 7’s recall was one thing to behold

Samsung / Pocket-lint

I vaguely keep in mind reviews surrounding Word 7 points trickling in very slowly. The cellphone was formally launched in late August 2016, and only a few days later, reviews began showing on Reddit, with customers posting photographs and movies of the smartphone overheating, smoking, and, in some instances, catching fireplace. As soon as the tech running a blog world began masking the issue, a relentless stream of tales in regards to the subject, together with an incident involving a six-year-old boy that was burned by the phone, had been revealed. At one level forward of Samsung’s official recall of the Word 7, a number of airways worldwide went as far as to outright ban the Galaxy Note 7 from planes.

By September 2nd, Samsung launched a voluntary international recall of the 2.5 million Note 7 devices bought up to now, and provided to both refund or change the gadgets. Then, on September ninth, the US Shopper Product Security Fee bought concerned and urged homeowners to cease utilizing the smartphone totally. On September fifteenth, the fee issued a proper recall.

It sounds foolish now, however I used to be reluctant to provide my Word 7 assessment unit again and stored delaying returning my system (I actually favored it that a lot, and I did not expertise any points with it — at the least not but). Samsung Canada finally despatched a consultant to retrieve the smartphone from me (I nonetheless have the cellphone’s field in my storage someplace, although — possibly it’s going to be a collector’s merchandise sometime?)

Reddit / Crushader

Sadly for Samsung, alternative Word 7 gadgets nonetheless suffered from the identical subject, resulting in a cellphone on a Southwest Airline flight smoking and the airplane being evacuated. This resulted in US carriers now not issuing Word 7 replacements, which was a giant blow to Samsung. Lastly, on October eleventh, the corporate formally stopped promoting the Word 7 worldwide, emphasizing that every one homeowners ought to energy down the system and cease utilizing it. In some areas, Samsung even deactivated service on Word 7 gadgets to encourage homeowners to return the system.

I all the time assumed the Galaxy Word 7 would make a triumphant return in some unspecified time in the future, however that by no means actually occurred. The closest factor we bought was the Galaxy Word FE Fan Version, which launched in 2017 in particular areas, together with South Korea. In whole, the Word 7 fiasco value Samsung $5.3 billion all through 2017.

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What prompted the battery subject?

Samsung was initially reluctant to level to the supply definitively

Most assumed that the Galaxy Word 7’s woes had been by some means tied to a fault in its giant 3,500 mAh battery, which was large by 2016 smartphone requirements. A number of months after the obligatory recall, Koh Dong-jin, Samsung’s then-mobile division president, placed the blame on its battery provider (which was probably Samsung SDI), citing the cell’s compact design, skinny separators, and general excessive power density. Following the corporate’s very prolonged investigation into the issue, Samsung decided there wasn’t sufficient area within the Galaxy Word 7’s battery space to accommodate its electrodes, resulting in the overheating points that plagued the system.

Whereas the tech big blamed its battery division, Samsung additionally admitted that it “offered the goal for the battery specs for the modern Word 7, and we’re taking accountability for our failure to finally establish and confirm the problems arising out of battery design and manufacturing.”

Samsung

Samsung recovered shockingly rapidly from the controversy surrounding the Word 7’s battery points, with Galaxy Note 8 sales rebounding the subsequent 12 months in 2017. On a private be aware, everybody I do know who stated they’d by no means buy a Samsung system once more after being pissed off with the Word 7 state of affairs purchased the subsequent Galaxy S collection system or Word smartphone. Samsung has a number of hardcore followers who stand by the corporate, even by means of one thing as controversial as this.

The Galaxy Word line obtained a number of extra releases, culminating in 2021’s Galaxy Note 20, the ultimate system within the stylus-focused line. Nevertheless, Word options can nonetheless be present in gadgets just like the Galaxy S24 Extremely, together with the now iconic S Pen.

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