Apparently, Korea’s testing labs never investigated the original Galaxy Note 7 explosions
This isn’t pretty. After Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7s were proven to have battery issues, state testing labs in South Korea were said to be conducting independent investigations of their own. They were to collect 5 Samsung Galaxy Note 7 units for testing.
But a new report out of The Korea Herald suggests the KTL never did pick up those 5 units, instead opting to leave them at Samsung’s place. As you know, Samsung tried to relaunch an improved Samsung Galaxy Note 7 shortly after that, and the issue recurred.
After the first report of a battery explosion on the new units, Samsung once again contacted the KTL (and a second firm, the SGS) to request certification testing. Both firms found that the explosion came from external impact, which Samsung took to mean that their new batteries weren’t faulty.
And then even more replacement units started exploding, and that’s when Samsung had thrown in the towel. The KTL will supposedly launch a final investigation to see what actually happened once and for all.
This urges us to ask a question: what in the actual hell did KTL actually do? They neglected to collect the units in the first case, and in the second case they seemingly dismissed the device’s battery explosion as human error.
Even if this third and final investigation produces a more substantial result, how do we know they’re to be trusted? How can Samsung go forward with certainty if certified battery investigations are being fumbled by the very authorities who claim to know this stuff?
Samsung can’t afford to halt their 2017 plans out of sheer uncertainty, of course, so the company has vowed to drastically improve their QA efforts to ensure nothing like this ever happens again. Let’s just hope these vows will be fulfilled and that they’ll result in actual improvements going forward.