Samsung has been mostly mum about the issue since it announced in October that it was suspending production of the popular phablet (more than a month after the first cases were reported), but all the while Instrumental has been researching the battery boondoggle behind the scenes. at it found is that the batteries themselves weren’t faulty; rather, Samsung’s push to make the case as thin as possible likely comprised them: Instrumental lends some credence to the theory that Samsung’s drive to beat Apple in the thinness game contributed to the problem, speculating that the changes might have come late in development of the hset the “newest versions of the batteries might not have been tested with the same rigor as the first samples.” However, until Samsung releases some kind of an official statement, it’s hard to know for sure when the problem surfaced. For a multi-billion dollar recall, the company hasn’t been very forthcoming on what steps it is taking to rectify similar problems in future devices, despite repeated calls for transparency. The impact on you at home: ether you bought a Galaxy Note7 or not, the prospect of your phone spontaneously combusting is a scary one. Any light that can be shed on what caused the issue is certainly helpful, until Samsung releases an official statement, we’re going to have to rely on these sort of third-party investigations to get any insight into the matter. It’s somewhat reassuring that the Instrumental blames the case rather than the actual batteries, it’ll be interesting to see how the design of the Note8 (assuming there is one) is affected by these developments.
