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As rumor has it, we are now less than two months away from the official release date (February 21st) for the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge. It is only natural that two of the biggest and most anticipated Android phones of 2016 will have a lot of buzz around them. Some of those "leaked reports" are expecting the Samsung flagships to be waterproof as well as have IP67 certified dustproof builds.
The Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge were criticized by a lot of users for their weak batteries and Samsung seems to have heard those criticisms with diligence. According to Evan Blass or @evleaks, 3000 mAh and 3600 mAh will be the capacity of the non-removable batteries on the S7 and the S7 Edge respectively. He further states that the S7 will go from 0-100% charge in just 2 hours, while the S7 Edge will do the same in 2.2 hours.
It will excite customers around the world to know that the beloved and missed MicroSD card slot is rumoured to make a return with the Galaxy S7 series. Another speculation about the two prime Samsung smartphones of the future states the possibility of dual 12.2 megapixel Britecell camera sensors on the back of the phone with f/1.7 lens aperture. Although we are inclined to think that Samsung may opt for its in-house Exynos 8890 SoC over the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, it isn't a fact yet.
In what turned out to be the biggest blemish in the world's number one smartphone manufacturer's reputation, millions of Galaxy Note 7s from customers are making their way back to the manufacturer for a replacement. While this move may cost Samsung more than a billion US dollars, they had to take the initiative after 35 smartphones around the world blew up while being charged. Samsung has finally provided an explanation behind the exploding Samsung SDI batteries just recently and here is what they said in their official statement
"based on our investigation, we learned that there was an issue with the battery cell. An overheating of the battery cell occurred when the anode-to-cathode came into contact which is a very rare manufacturing process error"
Lithium itself is a reactive chemical and the truth is that any smartphone powered by a Li-ion battery does have the potential to explode or catch fire, if there's a short circuit. In case of the Note 7's battery however, some of the batteries provided by Samsung SDI had an inherent manufacturing flaw which resulted in overheating. The overheating led to multiple Li-ion cells cracking open, causing a thermal runaway. So if you have already bought a Note 7, it's time to take it back to the South Korean OEM!
Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)
Earlier in the year, it had been officially confirmed that the Galaxy Note 8 (or whatever they decide to call it!) will indeed be coming later in 2017 as always, but it was obvious that quite a few changes were in order. The most important change had to be on the battery front as Samsung had primarily blamed the batteries supplied by Samsung SDI as responsible for the Note 7's tendency to catch fire and explode. However, as it turned out, that was not the case as replacement batteries supplied by a different manufacturer also started to explode. Samsung decided to recall and put the Note 7 out of production altogether in light of the potential safety issues and a new report from South Korea is suggesting that they may have even turned to their arch-rivals, LG.
LG Chem is the department responsible for making the batteries that power LG smartphones and Samsung could be discussing a deal with them. If the deal goes through, then the next Samsung Galaxy Note could feature batteries supplied by LG Chem. According to the report, "The talks have not yet been completed but it seems highly likely for the two firms to sign a deal." Keep in mind that Samsung is also negotiating terms with Chinese battery manufacturer, ATL. ATL did supply a portion of the batteries featured in the Note 7, but I am not sure if any of their batteries exploded. No official confirmation regarding the report has yet been made by Samsung.
Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)
At this point, one may start to wonder what exactly is going on. Samsung SDI is the battery manufacturing division of the Korean tech giant which was initially responsible for supplying the first batch of faulty batteries which had sent the Galaxy Note 7 to its fiery grave. Although Samsung has put in a significant amount of money into the factories and the whole manufacturing setup to avoid future disasters, there's already bad news coming in from China.
The pictures were first published on Weibo and now Samsung has confirmed it officially. A Samsung SDI factory in Northern China had caught fire earlier and it may not have been as "minor" as the statement considers it to be. Take a look at the pictures to get a glimpse of what went down. However, according to the official statement, it was the waste disposal section of the factory that caught the fire and not the manufacturing division where the batteries for the Galaxy S8 are being made. Let's hope that it's true!
Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)
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