Earlier today, we reported that Sprint users could get replacement devices for their “safe” Note 7s. Following reports of what was supposed to be a “safe” Note 7 exploding on Southwest Airlines, AndroidPolice is reporting that all four major US carriers (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint) have now elected to exchange safe Note 7s for any other phones they have in stock.
Samsung and the CPSC (Consumer Product Safty Commission) are still looking into the incident, but according to a report from The Verge, Brian Green’s Note 7 that exploded on the Southwest flight was a replacement device. The phone had both a green battery and a black square on its box that Samsung was using to identify its safe devices. Green claims that he powered down the device while it had 80% battery when asked to do so by the flight crew. Shortly after powering the phone down, he noticed his device was smoking. The Verge was able to run Green’s IMEI through Samsung’s recall eligibility checker to see the status of the phone, but it returned the “Great News” response associated with non-affected devices.
While Green’s phone could very well be a one-off defective device with a damaged battery, these reports are not helping Samsung while they try to repair their damaged reputation. There is still no verdict on the CPSC’s investigation into Green’s device, but we should have an answer soon.
What’s has gone wrong with Samsung? It seems they have not solved the Note 7’s explosion problem until now.