Older Samsung Phones Are Blowing Up (phonearena.com) 57
An anonymous reader shares a report: In case you follow the smartphone industry, particularly on YouTube and Twitter, you'd know that there have been recent reports of Samsung phones that are ... "blowing up", or at least about to. Of course, to most, that'd probably bring immediate Galaxy Note 7 flashbacks - we all remember when Samsung's 2016 flagship phone became the subject of universal entry checks, jokes, and legitimate fires. Despite trying, in the end Samsung wasn't able to handle the Note 7 battery crisis. The company recalled the defective phones and released a fresh batch of Note 7s (after having changed its battery supplier). The issues persisted, and the Note 7 was eventually officially discontinued less than two months after its official launch. But this time, the case is slightly different... The recently reported battery issues seem to be affecting any Samsung phone (as recent as 18 months old) that isn't used/charged regularly. Simply put, you could have a Samsung phone that's been sitting in a drawer for some time (without having been charged). This device could then suddenly start expanding and might eventually start looking like it was split in half due to a bloated battery. At this point, the cell would be expanding further and further until it's taken care of or... not (which could lead to an explosion or/and a fire). Popular YouTuber Arun did a video on this late last month and has corroborated his account with several other people.
make an bigger phone with an battery door (Score:3)
make an bigger phone with an battery door
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A removable battery is an issue because giving the consumer a way to definitively disable the phone means the government can't track you. :)
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Government hell, advertising networks can't track you. And they pay well for the data.
Re:make an bigger phone with an battery door (Score:4, Insightful)
I guess it's mainly a matter of planned obsolescence. If a battery is hard to replace, you're more inclined to buy a new phone.
My S9+ did this (Score:4, Interesting)
Over year ago it bloated up faster than a trouser snake and detonated. Personally, I took it as an assassination attempt ;).
They sent me a special box to ship it back to a factory site in Texas, and swapped it out there for another S9+ timebomb... I learned just how little I actually use my phone, waiting a month for the replacement, too.
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Over year ago it bloated up faster than a trouser snake and detonated. Personally, I took it as an assassination attempt ;).
They sent me a special box to ship it back to a factory site in Texas, and swapped it out there for another S9+ timebomb... I learned just how little I actually use my phone, waiting a month for the replacement, too.
If you have problems with your trouser snake prematurely exploding then I can prescribe medication for that. Just look up Doctor Whang in any phonebook. /s
Ditch Samsung (Score:5, Insightful)
What blows me away are the little things that Samsung doesn't do. The Motorola keeps the screen on when a face is in front of the camera. It automatically adjusts the screen brightness due to ambient conditions. It's even 5G!
I don't understand why Samsung phones are so highly regarded.
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What blows me away are the little things that Samsung doesn't do. The Motorola keeps the screen on when a face is in front of the camera. It automatically adjusts the screen brightness due to ambient conditions. It's even 5G!
I'm not defending Samsung, only accuracy, but those are all features present with Samsung.
I don't understand why Samsung phones are so highly regarded.
I hate their customer service, and prefer avoiding them myself, but they absolutely make some of the best Android phones. As for issues like this one, they're far from alone in having problems.
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I'm not defending Samsung, only accuracy, but those are all features present with Samsung.
I remember them being available on their flagship models 10 years ago. However, my last 3 phones couldn't do those things. I suspect Samsung considers those features to be premium, and only activates them on the newly released flagship. Buy last year's model, and you're out of luck.
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I have always bought "last year's models" from Samsung. I think maybe you didn't look very hard in Settings. "Keep screen on while viewing" is under Advanced features | Motions and gestures. "Adaptive brightness" is under Display.
As far as this battery "issue" is concerned, if you're not going to maintain the a lithium-ion battery through periodic charging, you should dispose of it responsibly. I have 3 older Samsung Galaxy phones -- a 4S, a 6S+. and an 8S tucked away in a drawer, along with an old 8-1/2" T
Re:Ditch Samsung (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't understand why Samsung phones are so highly regarded.
It's fashionable to be a contrarian? "I hate apple, I'll just go for the bigger / "less evil," cheaper competitor!"
I was put off Samsung by the Galaxies that were issued to me, and a Samsung microwave my vintage-1973 house came with. Brand new 2011 microwave, 3 visits in 6 months by the serviceperson because a relay in the power supply somehwere kept arcing itself out (and tripping the breaker it was on most of the times, too) It ended up on the curb, and I replaced it with a Maytag. This was 2011.
With the galaxies the first thing I noticed was all the colors were off. I use the same background image in all my phones, and when I see one looking like an acid trip (galaxy) and one looking exactly as it should (iphone) that raised an eyebrow. Then there was the shocking horribleness of the Samsung-flavored android. It just made me appreciate my iphone more. And here we are almost 10 years after that experience, and I still prefer iphone.
Naw man. I'll stick to apple. Even tho my 5s also died the puffy-battery-death. But at least it didn't explode.
This is why choice is a good thing, and those who want everyone to have / use the same thing as everyone else are barking mad.
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Samsung positioned itself as the cool alternative to Apple, which it portrayed as being for middle aged people. They had ad campaigns about it for years.
Some of their phones are actually good too. Good performance, minimal alterations to Android and top tier cameras. Well, their cameras are similar to Apple's, tuned for "post to Instagram ready" results rather than accuracy.
Maybe you needed to change the settings on yours. For years they have had the best screens on the market with their own OLED panels. Th
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They were all Galaxies, 3, 5 and 6I think? And out of the box so obnoxious I forwarded the number to my own phone - always some kind of iphone - and didn't spend much time hacking around trying to find settings. If I can't figure a phone out in 15 minutes the defaults are derp... which seems to be the case here, if they're turned to "Acid Trip" mode.
I know TVs on sales displays are usually tuned to be as garish as possible, because BRIGHT AND LOUD SELLS! See? You probably jumped to that sentence first.
W
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I don't remember how The S3 came out of the box, it was a long time ago... This is an example of one of the Samsung ads for the S3, where they imply the iPhone is for older people who don't really understand phones:
https://youtu.be/i9Ozw3NLpEw [youtu.be]
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Samsung positioned itself as the cool alternative to Apple, which it portrayed as being for middle aged people.
Clearly that didn’t work well for them, given that 87% of US teens now use an iPhone: https://www.howtogeek.com/7783... [howtogeek.com]
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The US market is dominated by Apple for some reason, but in Europe, Japan, and of course Korea, Samsung does a lot better with the teenage crowd.
Maybe US teens crave conformity. I've heard that school there can be pretty brutal for anyone who doesn't "fit in".
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I don't understand why Samsung phones are so highly regarded.
It's fashionable to be a contrarian? "I hate apple, I'll just go for the bigger / "less evil," cheaper competitor!"
In my case, it's more a matter of personal taste and preference. My first smartphone was an iPhone 4S. It didn't take long for the novelty to wear thin, at which point I started being irritated by a number of things, like the file system being hidden from the user. I kept it for a year, after which I was eligible for a low-cost upgrade, and got the Samsung Galaxy S4. That was 10 years ago, and I'm still a Samsung user, though they've jacked up the prices for their flagship phones to the point where my next
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LG phones were better. Headphone jacks, and removable batteries until the g6.
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The phone is nice, a glass case and oled Display. But now it is not looking like a good purchase. So what brand to try next if this new battery doesn't work out?
Is it really just Samsung phones, or popularity? (Score:2)
The article, such as it is, briefly addresses it but other than anecdotes from some people it doesn't really seem to address it. I've had several old non-Samsung phones also bloat up when left sitting, and a couple Samsungs not. Is this actually something unique to Samsung or just a function of them being such a popular seller of devices that there are more out in the wild?
Also I recognize my experience is also fully anecdotal, but I'll be interested to see any actual data behind it and see. I do think the
Re:Is it really just Samsung phones, or popularity (Score:5, Informative)
You need to look at the video linked to, and in particular the comments. A number of people working in the trade were asking questions along these lines and there were some answers. The most interesting comment I found was
(From user Canis_Machina)
In the replies to *that* there are some which doubt his claim and several more from him where he goes into some of the questions raised. One of the posters pointed out that the "Z fold 2" affected is newer than the S20, another replied that the two are the same age.
This needs a wider audience.
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Are you sure it's the magnesium? 1000 hours is only 41 days, and these phones are blowing up after many years. Given that 1000 hours is the half life, you would expect the most expansion in the first 41 days.
There are plenty of other ways that lithium ion batteries can produce gas. Even very small amounts of water ingress, as might happen due to humidity over many years, can react with the lithium. Over discharging them by leaving them off for very long periods of time (there is some self discharge) can als
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Correct. The 1000 hour thing is a bunch of hooey from someone who doesn't fully understand what they're talking about. And it's likely the rest of the post is, as well.
Lithium battery problem (Score:4, Informative)
This isn't a Samsung phone issue. It's an issue with any device that has a sizable lithium battery in a small package. When discharged below the minimum (like say a phone you haven't used in over a year) the batteries tend to expand. All of them. The larger the battery the more energy it retains at this low charge level the more likely for this expansion to be drastic. Compress said battery, say in a ultra thin device, and you're likely to create a short in the cell and "game over man, game over".
You want your devices to last, try to store them with a charge between 40-70%. Pull them out of storage every 6 months or so and make sure they have roughly that charge.
Re:Lithium battery problem (Score:5, Insightful)
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Uh, no, you can see in the video linked at the bottom of the post that this was noticed by a longtime tech-enthusiast YouTuber who has every popular smartphone, and it only happened to Samsung phones.
From TFA: To make it clear, what's happening here isn't necessarily a problem exclusive to Samsung phones or something that can't be prevented. Although this might not be universally known, any gadget that contains a Lithium-ion battery or a "Li-ion battery" is susceptible to such damage if treated without caution.
I have old (non-Samsung) flagship phones (Apple, Motorola, Google, and LG) in a box and don't see this issue.
Nice anecdote that proves nothing. Nobody is claiming that this happens to ALL Samsung phones, either.
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Absolutely correct.
I've been using lithium polymer batteries for many years and they will "puff" (as it's called) whenever they are over-discharged.
In normal use, the battery management system will turn the phone off before an over-discharge situation occurs but if you leave the battery (in any state of charge) long enough and there's a degree of parasitic draw (as is the case with a smartphone) then eventually the battery will over-discharge and puffing may take place.
Not Samsung's fault... just a limitati
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>This isn't a Samsung phone issue. It's an issue with any device that has a sizable lithium battery in a small package.
If you watch the video (I know, a shocking proposal), it is only happening with Samsung phones for a bunch of people who have *extensive* phone collections that are all kept in the same condition. So it seems to be a Samsung phone issue, hence the title.
This made me pull my Note 3 out of the drawer. (Score:2)
By all appearances, battery is still shaped the same as it was in 2013. Last time I charged it was back in May or so.
But, I think it's time for it to hit the bin bucket.
Not cheap Samsungs... (Score:1)
Well, maybe its only the more expensive ones. I've got two cheaper model samsungs that have been sitting on a shelf unused for four years and neither of them are exhibiting any issues. They're as cold as Pelosi's v...
Useful for personal data autodestruction (Score:2)
Say I lived alone and I was terminally ill and I knew that I was going to die soon but didn't know exactly when. I could buy a bunch of these phones and put them all around the box with my personal data and/or my home and then remember to charge them once a year in bulk. When I died, it would all go up in flames. (sorry, "dear" relatives - no inheritance for you!)
My sister experienced this (Score:2)
My sister experienced this but with her iPhone. It swelled up horribly. I persuaded her to power it off again and she took it back to the Apple store for a replacement.
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All four Macbook Pro laptops I've been issued at work have suffered massively swollen batteries after a couple of years -- in one of them, it interfered with the operation of the touchpad. I suspect it was exacerbated by keeping them plugged into their chargers most of the time. With the latest OS update (Monterey), Apple finally implemented a way to limit the charge; I keep it at 80%. Hopefully that will eliminate or at least delay the battery swelling.
I've had a variety of brands and qualities of PC lapto
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You apparently. Cunt.
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A defective lithium battery cell will heat up relatively slowly to 350C - 500C, at which point it goes into thermal runaway and may explode or catch fire. If it catches fire, it can reach several thousand degrees C. I wouldn't recommend counting on a kitchen oven to contain that.
Stop with the soft case battery! (Score:3)
While they are at it, they can make it user replaceable since it will have a durable case again.
Remember when? (Score:5, Insightful)
Remember when we used to be able to REMOVE the battery from our phones?
Pepperidge Farms remembers.
use it then (Score:3)
Makes sense (Score:1)
Sounds similar to years ago Capacitor Plague issue (Score:1)
While batteries and capacitors are obviously different, they both require an electrolyte in order to perf
Standardize batteries (Score:3)
Standardize batteries.
Demand by law all batteries must be replaceable by the customer.
It's the same shit as having standard USB charger or standard AAA, AA etc. batteries.
This is why I love removable batteries. (Score:2)
Sadly, it is almost impossible to find top tier phones that offer the three features I want.
> memory expansion slot
> removable battery
> USB Type-C