Samsung, CPSC Say Galaxy Note 7 Owners Should Stop Using Them | Hacker News Reader

Samsung, CPSC Say Galaxy Note 7 Owners Should Stop Using Them

wsj.com

63 pointspetethomas38 comments

In fact, the lack of replaceable batteries is now becoming a consumer safety issue. Every city has a bomb squad who can isolate and destroy potentially explosive materials. This type of issue can be sorted out much more quickly, and much more safely, by having people turn in flawed lithium batteries to the local bomb squad.

Further, if the batteries were standard sizes then there would likely be replacement batteries readily available with a lower mAh rating that would work just fine, although with a lower lifetime.

In addition, if the batteries were standard sizes and replaceable, we could have a deposit on batteries of a few dollars. If you no longer need it, either turn it or hand it to the next street beggar that you see. Problem solved safely and quickly.

I'm all for replaceable batteries, but in practice I think they create more safety issues. Many users with old phones will choose the cheapest replacement available, and quality of it will likely be worse than of those shipped with branded phones.

Just look at any grocery store checkout aisle or pharmacy, and see dozens of standardized battery sizes, from AA to 9-volt, or literally dozens of sizes of button cell batteries.

If they were standardized, then rather than going to Amazon for the cheapest Chinese knockoff that mentions your phone, you'd go to the local Best Buy or whatever.

Unlikely to happen. It's one of the few places that phones can differentiate themselves so manufacturers are unlikely to want to lose that option to tinker with.

Given it's a clear safety issue they shouldn't be able to differentiate on that anymore than on the arsenic content in breakfast cereals.

I don't think you can claim that non-replaceable batteries are a clear safety issue, especially when the replacement market would be flooded with cheap junk hand grenades.

No need for arsenic, sugar content in cereal is an unregulated public safety issue http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/06/sugar-rush...

I'd appreciate it if someone with expertise can comment on why the market shifted to non-replaceable batteries. I know the suspicion that it's for planned obsolescence, but does someone really know?

My impression is that replaceable batteries limit the shapes, materials and engineering that can be used, reducing capacity while increasing weight and size. For example a replaceable battery must be safely handled by end users, shaped and placed so it can be easily removed, and its connection is limited to something quickly and easily utilized.

That's my impression too. I suspect it's mostly a matter of size and weight of the resulting phone.

This is one of the most rational arguments for replaceable batteries. Thank you for clearly explaining it.

It might happen that China realises this first and legislates, same like they did with chargers.

A good argument for having replaceable batteries is that this recall could be done by just sending new batteries to everyone. Now, they have to replace entire devices.

If they could have caught this in QA, they wouldn't have had to replace devices either.

I wonder if the aggregate cents saved per unit still amount to a profit despite a black swan like this. Based on how much they ship, and this only hurting a single product release I suspect it might

Or it would encourage people to keep using the defective battery as a spare or old-age replacement.

For the record, I'm nominally in favor of "replaceable batteries". But I also don't see how having to open a case makes a battery "non-replaceable", either. If I had to choose between easily-replaceable batteries or easier to open cases that didn't use snap-fit, I'd choose the latter.

I would note that opening the case in this instance requires high temperatures to soften up the adhesive, and might affect the water resistance of the device after replacement.

In addition to the back panel being glass, the above means that without the proper tools, I would not recommend self-service.

Well really I abbreviated my sentence.

... snap-fit, glue, welding, staples, rivets, plastic push-clips, and any other assembly mechanism which undoing causes the device to be structurally damaged, cosmetically damaged, or necessitates buying new non-standard fasteners for each open.

General point is that the battery itself isn't so special compared to opening the rest of the device. Even on my i9500 with a standard "removable battery", the plastic clips which hold on the back cover have started to break off because they must have been designed for 20 insertion cycles. We don't need a "modular smartphone", we simply need assholes to stop "designing" them as if they're disposable.

Self-threading plastic screws aren't bad as long as you always back-thread them when reassembling. Soft thread-lock as used on eg Thinkpads is about the borderline of acceptability, and that's only because if you open your device enough you aren't really worried about a screw loosening over time.

I bought a Shield tablet that had a battery related recall. Instead of replacing the device they simply shipped me a new one and asked nicely for me to toss the old one.

So...I now have two Shield tablets.

> "so...I now have two shield tablets"

One of each can explode any time and cause injuries to people around it. Totally worth $150...

since the problem wasn't them exploding, and the resolution they offered was to toss the old one in the municipal waste system...then no, they won't explode

An Anandtech article from last year claims that they were recalled for overheating issues, with the possibility of being a fire hazard: http://www.anandtech.com/show/9480/nvidia-initiates-safety-r...

Best Buy has an electronics recycling program.

No, it's an argument for better QA.

Specifications are also susceptible to QA.

  Issue #1234: Idiotic non-removable battery
  Phase found: Requirements
  ...

Is this the battery or charging interface? Was it just a bad USB-C implementation?

> Koh Dong-jin, chief of Samsung Electronics’ handset division, said on Sept. 2 that the Galaxy 7 incidents were caused by a flaw in the battery cell and had nothing to do with the phone itself.

So, the article answers that.

Don't know about who you responded to, but wsj is paywalled for me. I can read just a little over 4 lines.

You can search the title on Google and click to view the article from Google.

The little "cache" arrow doesn't show up, and clicking on the link itself has the same issue.

This is from a few months ago, but it seems to apply here (at least for me): http://digiday.com/publishers/wall-street-journal-paywall-go...

There's the web link below the link that is usually pretty reliable for getting through the pay wall. Though I've had it fail a couple times, mostly at work I think.

Yeah...the "web" link didn't work from work, and I tried Google manually when I got home. I tend to forget the little tricks, because a paywall article is usually an insta-close. I've got a few friends with Note 7's though, talking big about how it's not going to affect them.

It's not an uncommon problem, apparently. The Shield tablet from Nvidia had a recall for defective batteries.

Never buy the first batch of anything.

Same with Software or OSes. always wait for the first revision.

For OSes and other software, it's a much simpler "never buy.".

Does anyone have a non-paywall source?

Just click the "web" link at the top of this page, then click the article link via the resulting google search - this should get you past the paywall.

Why does that work?

A lot of sites let in traffic from Google so that their sites will be indexed and rank when people search for them.

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