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 known 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) by way of its general design, energy, and, at the very least on the time, water resistance. I am positive there have been probably different IP68 waterproof handsets, however the Word 7 was the primary I encountered, and it was really game-changing. I’ve fond recollections of protecting the 5.7-inch “phablet” — which appears small by right this moment’s smartphone requirements — in water droplets at an area seaside to snap a couple of wet-looking images for my evaluation.

General, the Word 7 was a stellar telephone that, trying again, was means forward of its time. It felt like Android’s reply to the iPhone and mixed the most effective components of Samsung’s Galaxy S7 with the stylus-equipped Word 5. Certain, utilizing the iris scanner to log into the machine was removed from an ideal expertise, nevertheless it felt like one thing out of Mission Unattainable 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 superb time to look again at one of many greatest 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)

Digicam (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 stories surrounding Word 7 points trickling in very slowly. The telephone was formally launched in late August 2016, and only a few days later, stories began showing on Reddit, with customers posting photos and movies of the smartphone overheating, smoking, and, in some circumstances, catching hearth. As soon as the tech running a blog world began protecting the issue, a relentless stream of tales in regards to the difficulty, 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 world recall of the 2.5 million Note 7 devices bought to date, and provided to both refund or exchange the gadgets. Then, on September ninth, the US Shopper Product Security Fee obtained concerned and urged homeowners to cease utilizing the smartphone fully. On September fifteenth, the fee issued a proper recall.

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

Reddit / Crushader

Sadly for Samsung, substitute Word 7 gadgets nonetheless suffered from the identical difficulty, resulting in a telephone on a Southwest Airline flight smoking and the aircraft being evacuated. This resulted in US carriers 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 machine and cease utilizing it. In some areas, Samsung even deactivated service on Word 7 gadgets to encourage homeowners to return the machine.

I at all times 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 obtained was the Galaxy Word FE Fan Version, which launched in 2017 in particular areas, together with South Korea. In complete, the Word 7 fiasco value Samsung $5.3 billion all through 2017.

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What triggered the battery difficulty?

Samsung was initially reluctant to level to the supply definitively

Most assumed that the Galaxy Word 7’s woes had been in some way tied to a fault in its massive 3,500 mAh battery, which was huge 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 machine.

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

Samsung

Samsung recovered shockingly shortly from the controversy surrounding the Word 7’s battery points, with Galaxy Note 8 sales rebounding the subsequent yr in 2017. On a private word, everybody I do know who mentioned they’d by no means buy a Samsung machine once more after being pissed off with the Word 7 state of affairs purchased the subsequent Galaxy S collection machine or Word smartphone. Samsung has loads 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 machine 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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