Aggressive design' led to Samsung Galaxy Note 7 explosions: report

Soon after Samsung scrapped its flagship Galaxy Note 7 in October, less than two months after its launch, it started investigating the reason behind explosions.

In the investigation done so far, Samsung SDI batteries were identified as the root cause of Galaxy Note 7 explosions. However, another hardware company revealed that the battery flaw may itself not the only reason, but other factors may have favoured the explosions.

Another hardware firm Instrumental, based on its investigation, found the Note 7 explosion occurred due to an ‘aggressive’ phone design. According to the firm, the phone design compressed the Note 7 battery, even during normal operations.

A high resolution image from an Instrumental station shows the tight XY clearances to the battery. (Photo: Instrumental)

Apparently Samsung engineers claim, ‘Note 7 was designed out all of margin in the thickness of the battery, which is the direction where you get the most capacity gain for each unit of volume. But, the battery also sits within a CNC-machined pocket, a costly choice likely made to protect it from being poked by other internal components.’

‘Looking at the design, Samsung engineers were clearly trying to balance the risk of a super-aggressive manufacturing process to maximise capacity, while attempting to protect it internally,’ Instrumental said on its blog.

‘A smaller battery using standard manufacturing parameters would have solved the explosion issue and the swell issue. But, a smaller battery would have reduced the system’s battery life below the level of its predecessor, the Note 5, as well as its biggest competitor, the iPhone 7 Plus. Either way, it’s now clear to us that there was no competitive salvageable design,’ Instrumental added.