Samsung reportedly finds batteries were to blame for Note7 fires

This is what happens when you force feed a battery to your phone

We reported earlier today that Samsung is due to hold a special event in three days, where it will reveal its findings from an investigation into what exactly went wrong with the Galaxy Note7, why the smartphones started catching fire, and what the company will do to make sure this doesn’t happen again. While that’s still Samsung’s official plan, it looks like some journalists at the Wall Street Journal have already gotten wind of the information contained in the report.

According to their knowledge, Samsung will surprise no one on Monday, when it will announce that the batteries in its Note7 smartphones were to blame for the issues encountered. According to the company’s investigation, which hired three outside companies to look at different productions aspects, irregularly-sized batteries that did not fit well into the phone were the cause of the fires and explosions. This echoes earlier rumors from engineers outside the company.

The batteries inside of the Note7 devices were manufactured by Samsung SDI or the China-based ATL company. Originally, Samsung thought its own batteries were the only ones with a flaw, so it recalled all those devices, while it ramped up production of ATL batteries. Unfortunately, this ramp up in production seems to have caused additional issues that resulted in ATL batteries also catching fire and posing a risk. It's unclear for now as to what exactly these secondary issues were.

Samsung executives met with regulators in Washington to report on their findings and explain the eight-step process they put in place to make sure this doesn’t happen again. Reportedly, that plan is mostly based on more testing, more inspections, and better manufacturing-quality assurances.

Samsung is believed to have lost about $5 billion due to the Note7 fiasco, though the company is still expected to announce very high profits next week. The company is also involved in a giant political scandal in its home country, all as it looks forward to the future and its next generation of devices.

Source: Wall Street Journal