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​Samsung says China Note 7 explosions caused by 'external heating'

Reported Galaxy Note 7 fires in China were caused by outside heating, not batteries, Samsung has said.
Written by Cho Mu-Hyun, Contributing Writer

Samsung has said the first reported incident of the Galaxy Note 7s exploding in China was caused by "external heating" rather than faulty batteries.

The South Korean tech giant's quality testing division and research lab came to the conclusion that the two incidents weren't linked to batteries after evaluating one of the phones.

ATL, which supplies the batteries for Note 7s in China, also put out a statement saying Note 7 fires in China had no direct link to the batteries it produced.

The Baidu user "Chiwawani" in China alleged that their battery caught fire on Sunday. Another separate case by Baidu user John Yao was also reported. Both drew huge media scrutiny in China.

Samsung China and ATL conducted CT filming and various heat tests on the damaged handset. Previous Note 7 fires from faulty batteries showed the entire battery burnt out, but the reported cases in China showed the cells intact.

Since its global recall, the South Korean tech giant has maintained that Galaxy Note 7s sold in China did not use faulty batteries. It only recalled 1,858 devices there, which were pre-ordered before official sales began on September 1.

Newly produced Galaxy Note 7s given to consumers will have a green battery indicator instead of white, to differentiate them from the initial faulty models. A software upgrade will also limit the Note 7's charging cap to 60 percent.

Samsung began exchanging the phones in South Korea on Monday and will begin official sales in the country on September 28.

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