As the issues around Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 charging and battery continue, it looks like the Korean smartphone manufacturer will be taking more direct action to prevent more devices bursting into flames advising they will be capping the phones ability to charge at 60% of capacity.
At present Samsung’s home market of South Korea is the only country confirmed to be received the update which will commence rolling out via an OTA update from September 20 at 10 AM local time. There is no word if this program will roll out beyond the borders of South Korea but after repeated warnings to users to stop using the phone have seemingly failed – we hope it will.
AT 60% it should stop the device lasting a full day for all but the lightest users, and perhaps drive the few people who “didn’t know” there was an issue back to their place of purchase to complain, at which point more informed people can advise them of the issue.
Limiting the charging capacity will be a good first step in reducing the number of fires, however, it won’t stop “hardcore” users who will just leave the device plugged in while using it, which in itself will still present an issue.
We have reached out to Samsung Australia to ask if there are any known plans to roll this out here following the replacement program commencing on the 21st of September.
We shouldn’t need to say this by now but, STOP using your Galaxy Note 7.
What do you think of Samsung’s plan to use an OTA to reduce the chance of fires?
