The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has always been vocal about its criticism of Samsung. This started when the South Korean tech giant didn’t immediately involve the CPSC when it first announced the recall of the Galaxy Note 7 due to battery issues. It’s been almost a year ago and now that the mobile industry is anticipating for the new Note 8, we’ve started to get curious about how the condition of the Note 8’s battery. We’re almost certain it will be of the highest quality now because of Samsung’s improved quality assurance protocols and 8-Point Battery Safety Check.
In an attempt to not waste the recalled units, Samsung decided to release refurbished Note 7 phones as the Galaxy Note Fan Edition (Note FE). It’s only available in Korea though and will not be released in the United States. We’ve pretty much covered the Note 7 fiasco and witnessed how the phone was recalled in different countries.
Millions of phones have been returned but there are still people who didn’t budge in giving their units back to Samsung or their mobile carriers. In the United States, the authorities want to make sure there will be no more explosion or overheating so the CPSC has just posted a related warning. Interestingly, this isn’t for the Note 7 but for the refurbished AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note 4 cellphones released by FedEx Supply Chain. These cellphone batteries are said to possibly “lead to fire and burn hazards”. We’re not sure why this recall alert was posted only now since the Note 4 is already an old model.
These are the batteries in refurbished Note 4 units. Listed on the warning is that the ‘cellphone battery can overheat, posing fire and burn hazards’. The CSPC is specific that this is only for those units “distributed as replacement phones through AT&T’s Insurance program only”. According to the post, both Samsung and FedEx discovered some of the recalled batteries were counterfeit and not from the original manufacturer which in this case, is Samsung.
SOURCE: CPSC