Jan. 20 (UPI) — Fires in some Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphones were caused by oversized and faulty batteries, sources familiar with a report to be released next week said.
Samsung Electronics Co. ordered the report on the fault, which led to a $5.3 billion product recall. Samsung began selling the devices in August 2016, and recalled all 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7 smartphones and ended their production after reports of fires, explosions and warnings from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Federal Aviation Administration to stop using the product.
The official corporate report is expected to be released next week.
People familiar with the report said oversized batteries and batteries with manufacturing defects were the cause of the incidents, The Wall Street Journal reported. Samsung believed the problem was confined to batteries made in South Korea by Samsung SDI Ltd., an affiliate company; batteries made in China by Hong Kong-based Amperex Technology Ltd. were not believed to the cause, and production of the Chinese batteries was increased.
The report will conclude that batteries made by Samsung SDI were of an improper size which did not fit properly in the phone. The size difference caused the overheating problem. Manufacturing flaws in the Amperex batteries were caused by the ramp-up in production.
