Galaxy Note7 fire reports in China turn out to be a hoax

Galaxy Note7 fire reports in China turn out to be a hoax. September. 20, 2016 07:20. by 김지현기자 jhk85@donga.com.

The recent reports in China on a fire-catching Galaxy Note7 have been found to be a hoax made by malicious consumers.

The Chinese media reported on Sunday that two users of the Galaxy Note7 uploaded photos of the smartphone and the receipt on China’s main portal Baidu as well as on Weibo, the country’s major social medial platform, claiming that their Galaxy Note7 smartphones caught fire while they were using the phone. One of them posted a photo of the smartphone whose screen was burned black and the body partly melted, claiming that he had bought the phone on Sept. 3 on Jingdong Mall, a Chinese e-commerce company, and that the screen turned black suddenly with vibration. The other user also argued that he had preordered a Galaxy Note7 on the same site, and that the phone caught fire on its own.

Samsung Electronics has only used China’s ATL batteries for its Galaxy Note7 smartphones sold in Chinese market, and it has been selling the products in the country since Sept. 1. After the reports were posted online, Samsung and ATL have conducted a thorough inspection on the allegedly defective products as the magnitude of the issue could be further exacerbated if the units sold in China are proved to have caught fire as well.

“We have analyzed the X-ray and CT images with Samsung Electronics, and it has been confirmed that the burn was caused by intentional damage, not a faulty battery,” said China’s battery maker ATL on Monday, a day after the inspection was launched. "Evidence was found that the phone was heated from outside."

It has been reported that Samsung Electronics and ATL exposed the collected phones to a heater, an induction range, an oven and other outside heat sources to reenact the accident. “If the fire occurred from an overheated battery, the combustion will only affect the battery. In the smartphones that we collected, other parts such as internal circuit and camera were also affected. The CT image concluded that the form of battery cells inside was maintained unlike the case of other smartphones which exploded from overheated batteries,” explained an official from Samsung Electronics.

Offering an exchange for a new phone for local consumers, Samsung Electronics saw its share prices closed at 1,558,000 won (1,390 U.S. dollars), up 2.03 percent from the previous trading day. Having shown a 4.23 percent rise in stock price last Tuesday, Samsung seems to be controlling the damage from the plummeting share prices in the wake of the massive recall of its Galaxy Note7 smartphones.