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Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Catches Fire: Galaxy Note 7 All Over Again?

A Samsung Galaxy Note 9 unit burst into flames inside a woman’s purse, bringing back memories of the Galaxy Note 7 exploding battery fiasco that stretched from 2016 to 2017.
It is too early to say that the Galaxy Note 9 is suffering from the same quality issues that plagued the Galaxy Note 7, but it should be very concerning for Samsung to have its latest flagship device linked with the failed smartphone.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Bursts Into Flames

Real estate agent Diane Chung from Long Island, New York claimed in a lawsuit against Samsung that she suffered a “traumatic” experience when her Galaxy Note 9 suddenly burst into flames inside her purse.
Chung was riding in an elevator just after midnight last Sept. 3 when she felt her brand new Galaxy Note 9 getting “extremely hot” while using it. She placed it in her purse, but then heard a “whistling and screeching sound,” followed by thick smoke. Chung placed her bag on the elevator floor and tried to remove its contents, burning her fingers as she grabbed the smoking Galaxy Note 9.
The woman started to become “extremely panicked,” as she was alone in the elevator. She pressed the elevator buttons while the thick smoke was making it hard for her to see. Fortunately, the elevator reached the lobby, where she kicked the Galaxy Note 9 out of the lift. The smartphone kept burning, until a helpful man wrapped it around a piece of cloth and dropped it in water.

Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Exploding Batteries

A Samsung spokesman said that the company has not received any reports of similar incidents involving the Galaxy Note 9, which should be good news for now. The company certainly does not want a repeat of the Galaxy Note 7 debacle, which plagued the company for a year starting in 2016.
Samsung lost billions of dollars due to the Galaxy Note 7 exploding battery issue, with the company’s investigation revealing that two different battery manufacturers came with two different flaws. Samsung implemented new safety standards to make sure that the debacle will never happen again, and started working on developing solid-state batteries to replace the problematic lithium-ion batteries.
Record-breaking Galaxy Note 8 preorders revealed that Samsung fans already forgot about the Galaxy Note 7 fiasco after a year. However, apparently, all it takes is one Samsung smartphone catching fire to bring up all these memories.
Hopefully, the Galaxy Note 9 that caught fire was a fluke, and that the situation will not devolve into the smartphone following the flaming footsteps of the Galaxy Note 7.

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Galaxy Note 9 battery overheats, smokes out, now subject of lawsuit

A New York woman has launched a lawsuit against Samsung after her Galaxy Note 9 “became extremely hot” and began emitting thick smoke. The issue, which the company says is the only one reported, has triggered memories of the battery explosions in dozens of Galaxy Note 7 devices.The New York Post reports Diane Chung was riding the elevator up to her apartment in Bayside, Queens, when her phone became too warm to use. After putting it in her bag, “she heard a whistling and screeching sound, and she noticed thick smoke,” court papers claim. She had burned her fingers trying to retrieve the phone and it, along with the other contents of her bag, poured onto the floor.

Alone in the elevator, Chung became “extremely panicked” and began pressing buttons before the car stopped at the lobby. She kicked the device out of the cabin and a passerby helped douse the device with water.

The plaintiff claims that Samsung should have known that the Note 9 was “defective” and seeks damages and a sales injunction on the phone.

The 4,000mAh cell on the Galaxy Note 9 is the largest to be featured on the Note series of devices. It follows the 3,300mAh battery on the Note 8, which has had few reports of thermal overrun malfunctions, and the 3,500mAh unit on the Note 7, of which more than 2.5 million devices have been recalled. Independent analysis points to a design flaw as the cause while the chaebol’s internal investigation found poor battery manufacturing as the primary culprit.

Samsung has since heavily promoted that it has a multi-stage battery check process for all of its devices. A spokesperson told the Post that the company has “not received any reports of similar incidents involving a Galaxy Note9 device and we are investigating the matter.”