Samsung has recalled its new Galaxy Note 7 smartphones in Iran after reports it can overheat and even explode spread around the world.
Although the phone has not been officially launched in Iran, some tech enthusiasts found ways to obtain or preorder one in the black and grey markets.
There have been no reports inside Iran of the phones exploding, but due to import restrictions, those that did bring them from markets like the UAE and Kuwait would have no way of publicizing it.
To secure the future interest of these customers in the brand, Samsung has devised a scheme to provide services to these customers and refund their purchases in full. But the company failed to replace the phone like-for-like.
Samsung International said it “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 millions), it’s still far from common.
