Samsung has recalled its new Galaxy Note 7 smartphone after reports it can overheat and even explode. The company said it had “conducted a thorough investigation and found a battery cell issue.”
According to Samsung, there have been 35 reported cases and 2.5 million phones have been produced. While that figure is relatively high (batteries typically fail at a rate of 1 in tens of millions) it’s still far from common.
Overheating is obviously driven by temperature rise. This can be due to the environment, such as a hot car in summer, or through heat transferred to a battery from another component inside the phone. Heating can also begin within a battery itself, which is what’s behind the “battery cell issue” in Samsung’s Note 7.