Samsung wants your exploding Galaxy Note 7. Have a new one instead Got a Samsung Galaxy Note 7 and live in the UK or Ireland? Not switched it on lately after reading those reports about exploding devices? Fret ye not, for Samsung today announced an exchange programme, whereby you get a replacement “phablet” courtesy of the provider you bought it from. In the meantime, Samsung requests that “ …
After all the negative press about the Note 7, I think I'll wait until they are given away free with a box of cornflakes, before handing over any greenbucks.
Mind you, I did pick up a Note 3 recently for not a lot...so, I doubt it'll be long before the Note 8 comes along and post-replacement Note 7's are indeed as "cheap as chips" !!
Imagine if Samsung had stayed true to the original Note ethos? S-pen, large screen and removable battery. This issue would not be a problem. But no, let's follow brain dead design and seal the battery in. I really hope it brings them to their knees and makes them re-think design of future products. "Pass the marshmallows..."
Then the cheapskate wouldn't have a leg to stand on. The battery was sealed because the iPod had a sealed case. Also it makes the phone impossible to truly switch off (gov spying approved) and the phone needs to be binned in a few years when then battery fades. So built in obsolescence. I think Samsung were the ones using cheap batteries.
They are Samsung produced batteries that are blowing up, but not so much because they're cheap but because they tried too hard to cram as much capacity into them as they could. If they were willing to have it last a few percent shorter life they wouldn't have had these problems.
"I think that ironically the non-replaceable batteries are to keep Joe Cheapskate from replacing the OEM battery with some half-price dodgy thing from ebay, then blaming the phone manufacturer when the crap battery goes up in smoke."
So.. Not to encourage replacement of a perfectly good phone that just has a dead battery, when the battery wears out then?
Do you also salivate when someone rings a bell?
So.. Not to encourage replacement of a perfectly good phone that just has a dead battery, when the battery wears out then?
Considering the quick start guide has a section "Removing the battery" saying you must visit an authorized service centre... followed by 4 step instructions on how to remove the battery, I would say they're not exactly encouraging replacing the phone. They're just saying not to try to botch it yourself, but take it to a service centre.
£674 from one low price type vendor. That's iPhone pricing.
Since a Lumia 950 is now £250 I have to ask the question, are the extra apps worth over 400 quid?
I mean, there might even be an Android device with similar capabilities although I doubt it for £250.
But in terms of speed and definitely camera quality, a Lumia 950 is an easy match.
The screen is very high res and beautiful, although I am sure that the Note is too.
However, it has a removable battery as well as an SD card expansion (or Dual SIM instead on one model).
So, it comes down to dislike of so-called 'slurp' perhaps, which, given that the Note is Android, seems faintly ridiculous.
It sure as hell ain't because Android is less prone to malware attack or even ease-of-attack.
It sure as hell ain't because Samsung support their devices with upgrades for longer.
It sure as hell ain't because Android is easier to use or nicer to look at.
So, Advertising?, Marketing?, the myth that WinPhone is no longer supported or developed?
As a non-app man, happy with the Office and Skype stuff that does exists but not interested in games for instance, I mostly see that a web page 'app' sorts almost all the app holes for things like banks or even Facebook (according to someone I know that still uses it).
Despite the downvotes, I would like to see any reasonable justification that some may have, not that I would pay that money or buy a Android, but still, enquiring mind wants to know.
I have to say about a month ago I would totally agreed with you; For the past three years I've been using a Lumia 1020 running, successively, WP8, WP8.1 and W10P, and I have absolutely loved it. I actually bought it (well, got it included in a 2 year contract which has then been rolling over on a monthly basis for the past year) because I wanted the camera, which is fantastic, and saves me carrying around a P&S when I don't want to carry the DSLRs (especially as I bought the camera back for it). I had never used Windows Phone before, and I have to say I found 8, and its successors, the easiest phone UI to use of all the ones I've owned.
However over the summer the battery (another non-removable one) has progressively failed, to the point where it would barely last 4 hours under any kind of use. I did do a factory reset in case it was any kind of software problem but even in its vanilla state it wouldn't hold a charge for a full day. I went looking for a replacement and initially looked at the 950. The problem was it was a sunny day, and sat just inside the shop window I was having difficulty reading the display. Then I saw this nice shiny phone a couple of holders over, which I could clearly see the display on even though it was in, if anything, an even brighter patch of sunlight. I started playing with it and thought "this is pretty cool" so went online with mine and looked at a couple of reviews. It got such good reviews that I thought "got to be worth a try" and negotiated a new contract (which is actually giving me the same contract plus more data for less pm than I was paying on the 1020). The phone is the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, and I have to say it's easily the best smartphone I've ever owned.
It is difficult to put my finger on exactly why I find it better than 1020, especially as I had initial problems finding where all the settings were to fine tune things like lock screen notifications, but I do. Like you I didn't find the lack of Windows apps particularly bothersome, but I have discovered that if apps are there, I will use them in preference to a web page; for example the Sky app is far easier to use to set a remote record than going to the web page, particularly in low coverage areas. Also there are quite a few non-essential apps that are still nice to have - being interested in aviation I absolutely love the app version of FlightRadar24!
I still believe that Windows Phone has a future, particularly in business (although it is quite possible that by providing endpoint data protection and functional MDM within Office 365 and Office mobile apps MS will end up doing themselves out of a market) but for the moment I am sold on the S7 Edge, and all that comes with it. Oh, and BTW, early experimentation with the camera suggests that, although lower resolution (12MP) than the 1020, because it still shoots RAW and has manual override for just about everything, it suits me perfectly.
That's weird on two fronts. Firstly, I ran WP10 insider edition on my 1020 and it ran like a dog. It prevented me buying a 950 because I worried (thanks to folks here as well) that WP10 just ran like a dog.
When I bought a 950 and it flew, I knew why they did not release WP10 for the 1020 at least.
So I factory reset it and decided to change the battery before giving it to an offspring - because it lasted maybe 18-20 hrs on a charge and I thought it was better when I got it.
The new battery seemed non-fake but maybe was 10% better at most, certainly not worth taking the phone apart for (unless one had done it before like I had).
My Lumia 920 is still running the original battery, heavily used by the other offspring without issues so I am perplexed about what cacked yours, still, I am sure it must happen.
The screen on the 950 does seems less good in the sunlight than the 1020, from that initial feeling I got on the first bright day I used it.
The Lumias had a super-overdrive mode that boosted the brightness at the expense of correct colour reproduction (and screen life?) it seemed. I note that my 950 still has the boosted screen (I see the colours change). Perhaps the ridiculous increase in resolution has had an effect?
Living in the UK I am less bothered by bright days anyway, plus I assumed that other phones were similar in any case, all the resolutions are increasing. I also think they may have adjusted the drive with software and/or firmware because it seems less of an issue now (or I cannot recall the difference any more). Note to self: test against sprogs phone if we see another bright day soon.
It makes sense that Samsung would make superb displays but I could not use one of their phones for a slew of reasons, even ignoring Android and the short period for which upgrades/support seems to be available. Even the 1020 not getting WP10 (for hardware reasons mostly) meant that the upgrade period was longer than Samsung seem to give and the general support period is still ongoing as far as I know.
Having had a couple of Lumias, the only problem I can see with them, and the reason I got rid of my last Lumia, is that car connectivity is limited. While it is common to find cars with Android Auto and Apple Carplay, there are few cars that I know of with Windows phone software. If you spend a lot of time in the car, I find that it's very useful to be able to connect your phone to the car via dedicated software rather than just Bluetooth.
The Microsoft slurp is WAY worse than anything Google has ever done. Have you seen Windows 10 lately? They even switch back on privacy settings you "accidentally" disabled. The phones are likely just as bad, if not worse.
Also, nobody wants to be seen with a Windows Phone. You will be the eternal laughing stock, they guy that buys LaserDisc, HD-DVD and other failed tech in bargain basement fire sales.
Yes, people snigger or just laugh hysterically every time I get my phone out, and here was me thinking it was my tight trousers, or something else, who knew?
Thanks for the heads up, I will surely switch to a more expensive phone with a proper OS next time (that S7 Edge discussed above seems good - gotta be worried about screen breakage though).
Or maybe the time after that.
Also, nobody wants to be seen with a Windows Phone. You will be the eternal laughing stock, they guy that buys LaserDisc, HD-DVD and other failed tech in bargain basement fire sales.
So what did you use before DVD if not LaserDisc? VHS tapes ?
Also I much preferred LaserDics to DVD after DVD came out. Much better and more natural picture, with the benefit of digital multichannel sound. Best of both worlds really.
I'm sure i read somewhere that Samsung are considering doing a remote brick of the devices if people don't return them. Not sure how they'd stand on this, but assuming they'll know the IMEIs of the devices it seems plausible that they could do it.
This has been a monumental screw up, no doubt. The biggest one is not being able to tell what devices have the battery. Faulty batteries happen more than most people realise, I remember Dell/Apple etc getting a bad batch of batteries from Sony a while back. The difference is they were able to identify the exact batches and recall just those needed. I'm amazed Samsung can't tell exactly which devices used the bad batch of batteries.
Oddly all of this doesn't stop me wanting the phone (A fixed version obviously), as it looks to be a great device.
I read that the batteries in the Samsung incendiary phone are produced in 2 different factories. The ones that you can toast marshmallows on are made by one factory. The other factory makes the non exploding variety of battery. I would imagine Samsung will swap the phones, replace the naughty battery with the well behaved one and then they have a refurbished Samsung 7 market.
The sooner critical manufacturing is removed from China and real quality control is restored the safer we shall all be.
I have a Nexus 5 that had a battery that wouldn't hold charge. Removed the case it was in and the plastic back cover popped off. This was caused by the battery that had obviously eaten something that didn't agree with it. I wonder how long before it too would have had a thermal runaway and caught fire. Bought a battery online for AUD$15 and it's been running like clockwork since. The hardest part was finding a place to take the chubby battery to so I could dispose of it responsibly. How many just toss their old batteries in the rubbish bins for burial?
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