Samsung Galaxy Note 7: The Phone That Tried to Cremate You

Here's where it gets genuinely impressive, in the way that a twenty-car pileup on the interstate is technically impressive.

Samsung initially recalled 2.5 million phones on September 2nd. The CPSC formally joined on September 15th, reporting 92 overheating incidents, 26 burns, and 55 cases of property damage including — and this is real — fires in cars and a garage.

The FAA immediately banned Note 7s from aircraft. Not just "please turn off your phone." Banned. As in, "this object is now classified alongside fireworks and industrial solvents."

But Samsung had a plan. They'd traced the problem to batteries from their subsidiary Samsung SDI, so they switched to batteries from a different supplier, Amperex Technology, and shipped millions of replacement phones. Problem solved. Crisis managed. Time to move on.

Except the replacement phones also caught fire.

Let that settle in. Samsung recalled the exploding phones, investigated the problem, identified the cause, manufactured entirely new phones with batteries from a completely different company, shipped them to millions of customers, publicly assured everyone they were safe, got the CPSC to sign off on it, and then those phones also caught fire.

The second batch had a different defect — a manufacturing burr on the positive electrode tab that created short circuits. Two different suppliers, two different defects, same magnificent result: your pocket is on fire and a flight attendant is screaming.

On October 10, 2016, Samsung permanently killed the Note 7. Total lifespan: 52 days.

The company distributed multi-layered fireproof return boxes — because when your product recall requires fireproof shipping containers, you've transcended normal corporate failure and entered the realm of performance art. The return boxes included an antistatic bag, three nested boxes, and ceramic fibre paper. The instructions explicitly stated: do not ship by air.

Because at that point, putting a Note 7 on a plane was legally equivalent to bringing a pipe bomb through TSA.

Samsung recovered 97% of all Note 7 units — an almost unprecedented recall rate that proves humans will act in their own self-interest when the alternative is their pants spontaneously combusting.

The final damage: $17 billion in losses including brand value. $14.3 billion wiped from market cap in a single week. 92 reported fires in the U.S. alone. Burns on 26 people. One man in Florida whose SUV caught fire while the phone charged inside it. One man in Kentucky hospitalized from smoke inhalation from his replacement phone. And a product so dangerous it achieved the same regulatory status as hazardous materials.

Samsung's internal investigation, released in January 2017, was a masterclass in corporate understatement. CT scans showed the battery pouch was too big for the phone's chassis, causing the negative electrode to fold and touch the positive electrode.

In simpler terms: Samsung wanted the battery to be huge and the phone to be thin, and when physics said "pick one," Samsung said, "No."

Physics picked for them.

The Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 wasn't just a bad phone. It was a $17 billion lesson in what happens when you let the marketing department overrule the engineering department, then let the engineering department overrule the laws of physics.

It was a phone so dangerous that airline safety cards now have a dedicated pictogram for it. It was the answer to the question nobody asked: "What if my phone tried to kill me?"

Samsung has since recovered beautifully — the Galaxy S25 Ultra is legitimately one of the best phones on Earth. But somewhere in a Samsung warehouse, there are millions of Note 7s sealed in fireproof boxes, stacked like tiny coffins for the phone that burned too bright and literally too hot.

We rate it 1 out of 5 incendiary devices.

If you want a Samsung phone that won't file an insurance claim on your behalf, see our alternatives below.

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