Authorities In Korea Order Samsung To X-Ray New Galaxy Note 7 Batteries

Samsung has now shipped out some replacement devices for recalled Galaxy Note 7 phones, with enough new phones to replace maybe half of the 1 million phones sold in the United States so far. Meanwhile, in Samsung’s home country of South Korea, the government has a relatively low-tech way to check the battery status of the high-tech phones: Samsung X-ray the batteries.

The manufacturing defect causing phones to overheat, sometimes causing fires and explosions, has somehow put the batteries’ negative and positive poles in contact, leading to extra power that causes the heat and fires.

According to sales numbers that Reuters saw, fewer than 500,000 of the phone had sold in South Korea before the company halted sales and recalled the devices in every country where it had been sold so far.

An order from the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards requires Samsung to require its battery supplier in turn to check new Note 7 batteries with an X-Ray, and for Samsung to inspect some new phones itself.

The most recent phone shipments are supposed to be reserved for the owners of defective devices. In South Korea, new phones for people who don’t already own the Galaxy Note 7 will go on sale next Wednesday, Sept. 28.

South Korea orders battery safety measures for Samsung Note 7 [Reuters]

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