Samsung has confirmed reports that some Galaxy Note 8 units died, but indicates that the issue is not really widespread.
For those unfamiliar with the matter, here's what happened. A week ago, news surfaced that some Galaxy Note 8 units became unresponsive and unable to charge once their battery level hit zero. For some reason, if the battery was drained completely, the smartphone would no longer turn on or charge at all.
Samsung Responds To Galaxy Note 8 Battery Issues
Last week, it was reported that Samsung offered replacement units to affected Galaxy Note 8 owners, but the company didn't make any statement on the matter. It just sent refurbished Galaxy Note 8 units to customers whose devices became unresponsive, without revealing what the issue might be or how it plans to fix it.
Samsung has still not clarified what went wrong with these Galaxy Note 8 units, but it did acknowledge that it received a few reports. To get to the bottom of things and come up with a solution, however, the company says that it has to investigate more.
"Of course, Samsung is taking all reports of this kind seriously, we only received a very small number of customer inquiries that could be linked to charge management, and unfortunately we can only comment on the matter further if we have more detailed information about the affected devices," says Samsung.
No Solution Yet For Affected Galaxy Note 8 Units
At this point, it remains unclear whether it's a hardware issue or a software one. If it's the latter, it would be easier to fix with an upcoming update. For now, it seems that most reports of affected devices originate from the United States, which indicates that the problem might only be affecting Galaxy Note 8 units with Qualcomm Snapdragon processors and not Exynos-powered units.
Either way, there is still no solution available to fix this issue once the phone has died. Samsung has been replacing bricked Galaxy Note 8 units with refurbished ones although they should've been covered by warranty.
However, it has yet to issue a fix. For the time being, Galaxy Note 8 owners are advised to charge their device before its battery depletes completely, or they risk not being able to turn it on again.
Affected customers should contact Samsung Customer Service either via telephone or the company's website and request a replacement unit if their Galaxy Note 8 is bricked.
