Samsung says no evidence of Galaxy S7 faults, after reports that some smartphones had caught fire

With Samsung still reeling from the fire-catching Galaxy Note7 calamity, the Korean electronics giant is facing fresh controversy after a series of reports indicated that the company’s Galaxy S7 range of smartphones was also exploding.

Independent reports from both the Philippines and Canada last month raised concerns that Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S7 Edge phones may be prone to a similar technical fault as the Note7, while another report from Canada earlier this month added further credence to this possibility. However, Samsung has issued an official statement on the latest issues, saying there is no evidence of “internal battery failures” in the S7 or S7 Edge devices. The statement says:

Samsung stands behind the quality and safety of the Galaxy S7 family. There have been no confirmed cases of internal battery failures with these devices among the more than 10 million devices being used by consumers in the United States; however, we have confirmed a number of instances caused by severe external damage. Until Samsung is able to obtain and examine any device, it is impossible to determine the true cause of any incident.

Introduced in early August, the Samsung Galaxy Note7 phablet was initially met with positive reviews, before reports began to surface that exploding batteries caused some people’s devices to catch fire. The problem persisted, even after Samsung launched a product replacement program, and the company eventually had to pull the Note7 from the market completely, leading Samsung to report a 30 percent year-on-year drop in profits for Q3 2016.

The Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge also received overwhelmingly positive reviews on their launch back in March, and, until recently, there was little to suggest anything was wrong with the devices. But with at least three troubling reports surfacing in the space of a few weeks, Samsung is understandably concerned that bad press will impact sales of its flagship 2016 phones.