Develop Bugs

Serious problem with my Galaxy S Screen!!!

Hi to all,
A couple of days ago I noticed that when I answered a call the colors of the screen looked bad, and I didn't pay attention to it.
Now my screen has transparent horizontal lines which are pretty visible, kind of like interference you get in computer screens when you take a picture of them.
I would like to mention that I haven't dropped the phone even once.
I'm considering doing a factory resest in hopes that it will solve the problem, but I doubt that it is a software issue.
What do you guys think?
Please advise
Itay

Sounds like a broken screen to me. And definitely like a warrenty case. Restore stock f/w if you have flashed and return it.

Restore the original firmware (if you have flashed the phone) and call the samsung service for the assistance.

the thing is that now I don't see it at all.
It's as if it came and gone.
I disabled my task killer and juice defender, performed a complete titanium backup, in case I want to restore afterwards, and now everything is normal.
It does sound like a hardware issue, but do you think there's a chance it is software related?
I'm asking because I purchased it in europe, and I don't live there, so sending it for repair is something I would rather avoid.
Of course, if it is indeed 100% hardare issue, I have no choice.
That is why I'm asking, to be certain and to see if there are others who experienced this issue.
Your replies are much appreciated

update:
It appeared again -> Did a Factory Reset -> It's still there -> Sending for repair.
Must be a hardware issue.
Thank you for your replies.

I've actually always had slight screen issues with my Galaxy S also. The screen flickers slightly once in a while. I don't know if the radio is actually the cause but it's the kind of thing you might expect from radio interference.
Has anybody else noticed this?

Benjamin Dobell said:
Has anybody else noticed this?
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Click to collapse
Nope, never seen any flicker. My screen seems to have a defect of it's own though, but I'm not sure if it's worth the effort to send it in, because I imported mine from the UK while I live in South Africa.
When in the sun or under bright light I can see a two vertical lines near the sides and a horizontal line on dark/black colours and when the screen is off. As if those pixels have a grey/brown tint to them. The line is mostly one pixel thick but in places it is two pixels.
They are almost impossible to see unless under sunlight where they are clearly visible where the screen is black.
Does anyone else see this or know anything about it?
Edit: Apparently it's just the motherboard or something visible through the screen and they all have it, so I'm worrying about nothing...

That's interesting...
It used to come and go, but I think now it's here to stay.
It's really annoying and the screen, while usable, is really not a pleasant sight to look at.
I've attached some photos showing the problem.
With a normal screen I would say that it looks that way because that's what you see when you photograph a screen of an electronic device, but the sad thing is that what you see in the picture is exactly what I'm seeing now.
I did a factory reset, so it's in german now.
I heard some Droid X had a similar problem, but didn't know Galaxy S was having it as well.
In any event, can you confirm that after a factory reset, I no longer have root access?
Just making sure so that they don't give me problems with the warranty.

seem like the phone was dropped, and the screen got damaged
the connectors are lose

double posted again....

Really?
That's very weird...
The only time it was "dropped" was from half a meter , it didn't fall directly but partially sideways, it was with a case, and it landed on its back, not on the screen.
I wouldn't even call that a fall.
Unless, someone in my family dropped it without telling me...
Either way, I think there's no escape but to send it to repair.
If you think it's a problem with the connectors, would you try and give it to some local lab to try and fix it or send it to samsung for replacement?

I faced similar problem.
This problem only occurs when I use the phone in 2g mode.
there are occasions whereby the signal bar for 2g is full and when I place the phone near some conductive surfaces the lines becomes very obvious, to the point of irritating.
nit sure if anyone has such problems too

I have same problems with horizontal lines.
I never paid attention if i am on 2g or 3g when it happens. I will now.
Edit: rooted on jm5

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It seems that my phone too has started to do the same thing since last night.
I have called Samsung and am waiting to hear from them now.
I hope this is a thing covered in the warranty.
I have reverted to the local ROM for India and have deleted everything on my device.
Yet it shows lines flickering like you can see on old computer monitors.
Its not as bad as the ones on the attachment above but it is starting to annoy me.
It usually happens when the screen is completely filled with a single color except black.
Eg. When you pull down the notification tray down.
Also I seem to notice that when the wifi is off, it stops.(I dunno maybe a placebo effect)

aditya_t90 ,
I have sent it to Samsung for repair, and they should tell me in the coming days exactly what the problem is and whether it can be fixed under warranty or not.
I will update as soon as I hear from them.
Until then, try to see if it changes when you hold the phone differently, for example if you grip it more firmly or hold it in another way.

itaykoren said:
aditya_t90 ,
I have sent it to Samsung for repair, and they should tell me in the coming days exactly what the problem is and whether it can be fixed under warranty or not.
I will update as soon as I hear from them.
Until then, try to see if it changes when you hold the phone differently, for example if you grip it more firmly or hold it in another way.
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When did you send it in and when did they receive it(if you were not there when they got it).
Also how long has it been without your phone?
The samsung service center is shut in my area today.
I will go to them tomorrow and get this sorted out.
Its not like the phone was cheap or anything.

I actually sent it to my uncle in Germany because it was purchased there.
He went to the store where he bought it and the store owner immediately sent it to samsung and said that probably by this Tuesday or Wednesday (so tomorrow or in 2 days) he will get an answer from them and see what's going on.

aditya_90 ,
Just to let you know that Samsung are sending me a new phone to replace the damaged one.

I sent in my phone for repairs and they replaced the LCD module. The problem is now gone.
I suggest that you should do the same while the warranty still holds since it appears to be the LCD that failed somewhat.

[Q] Qs before buy

Guys, I have MT4G & im gonna buy this MT3GS for my girl.I have few questions.
1.How is the camera quality?
2.Is there anything else I should check before I buy this, like this problems.
Some of MT4G phones have bad emmc chips.They are not good for rooting.Like that,is this phone too have good & bad emmc chip? I donno that emmc chip problem is only related for MT4G.So im asking you.
TIA

I don't know much about the chips, but I've rooted and re-rooted my phone many times and it's still fine. There are quite a few people on the forum complaining about bad ribbon cable, keyboard, and screens and they've gotten somewhere between 2-6 replacements; but I'm still on my first one and I've had it for about 1.3 years or so. The only hardware problem I've encountered is two lines of pixels just stopped displaying, so I have 2 thin black lines going across the bottom of my screen.
As far as camera goes, it's a meh. It's not great, but it's not terrible. It's good for casual (taking pictures for social networking stuff etc...) use but that's about it.

txdeathray said:
I don't know much about the chips, but I've rooted and re-rooted my phone many times and it's still fine. There are quite a few people on the forum complaining about bad ribbon cable, keyboard, and screens and they've gotten somewhere between 2-6 replacements; but I'm still on my first one and I've had it for about 1.3 years or so. The only hardware problem I've encountered is two lines of pixels just stopped displaying, so I have 2 thin black lines going across the bottom of my screen.
As far as camera goes, it's a meh. It's not great, but it's not terrible. It's good for casual (taking pictures for social networking stuff etc...) use but that's about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you very much! I will try this.

Camera issues

Any other verizon Htc ones having the purple/red low light issues? I just received mine yesterday and after about 10 seconds in the camera it will start to turn red or purple in low light. The first shot is usually ok but after that it gets really bad. Is there a consensus this is a hardware issue and not software related?

xjakeryanx said:
Any other verizon Htc ones having the purple/red low light issues? I just received mine yesterday and after about 10 seconds in the camera it will start to turn red or purple in low light. The first shot is usually ok but after that it gets really bad. Is there a consensus this is a hardware issue and not software related?
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Is it the screen itself (while in the camera viewer) that's turning purple / red? And are we talking low enough light where it requires the flash? I'm curious if the shots you're taking while it's doing this are flashing or not - and the ones that are really bad, what's bad about them? Not focusing on anything?

I know exactly what you're talking about and it happens to me too. I found that changing the ISO to 100 alleviates the issue a bit, but its still there. I found a HUGE thread on this a week ago:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=42400071
It seems it definitely gets worse when the phone is hot. I noticed this problem REALLY bad when I was trying to take pics while the phone was charging. It seemed to be better the next day though. I will try it again tonight.

My dad actually got an HTC One today as well so it was perfect to compare the camera. His camera doesn't seem to have the same problem ours do. I took pictures in similar lighting and his didn't depict any of the red/blue tint that I would get sometimes . Kinda bummed out. I'm afraid of returning it and then getting one that is even worse or getting dead pixels. Not to mention that you can no longer root/unlock at this point. Using flash will always fix the issue, but I don't think I want to resort to that.
No idea what to do.

Here is a picture to give you an idea how bad it is. When the flash is on it doesn't look like that but it's really out of focus. Even when I turn the iso to 100 it still looks the same. I to am worried about replacing it and getting one with worse issues. I'm thinking about going the moto x route with all the issues these phones seem to have.

xjakeryanx said:
Here is a picture to give you an idea how bad it is. When the flash is on it doesn't look like that but it's really out of focus. Even when I turn the iso to 100 it still looks the same. I to am worried about replacing it and getting one with worse issues. I'm thinking about going the moto x route with all the issues these phones seem to have.
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Click to collapse
I would imagine those scenarios are a small percentage of the time right? I'm not saying they're not noteworthy, but don't go with the Moto X just on camera alone. I tried out a Droid Maxx and the One's camera runs circles around it. That said, my one complaint with the One is that it can't handle situation's like you're describing - the uber-low-light scenarios that really need a flash. The problem is it doesn't light up the flash when it's trying to focus, and therefore can't focus because it can't see anything to focus on, and the flash shots will, a lot of times, end up blurry. The non-flash shots are pointless in that low amount of light, purple/reddish hue or not. .

LG G3 Screen Flickers, Distorts, and Fades to Black

This problem just started about a week ago. Sometimes after a few seconds of the screen being on, it will flicker, mostly at the corners. However, most of the time it will distort and eventually fade to black. It mostly seems to do it when the phone is warmer. For instance, in my office at work or home, where it's cool, it will not happen hardly at all. But in my truck on the way home, outside, or if I can feel heat on the back of the phone, it does it a lot.
All of that said, I know of the paper/eraser trick on the camera connector (which is very temporary, from what I've researched), but to me this seems to be a GPU/heat problem. Basically, I'm just trying to understand why this might be occurring. I don't want to order a new mobo and have it do the same thing. So, any help would be much appreciated!

How often is this happening to people??

mroneeyedboh said:
How often is this happening to people??
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Click to collapse
It happens to me about 15-20 times a day. More on the weekends because I use it more.

SheaCulb said:
This problem just started about a week ago. Sometimes after a few seconds of the screen being on, it will flicker, mostly at the corners. However, most of the time it will distort and eventually fade to black. It mostly seems to do it when the phone is warmer. For instance, in my office at work or home, where it's cool, it will not happen hardly at all. But in my truck on the way home, outside, or if I can feel heat on the back of the phone, it does it a lot.
All of that said, I know of the paper/eraser trick on the camera connector (which is very temporary, from what I've researched), but to me this seems to be a GPU/heat problem. Basically, I'm just trying to understand why this might be occurring. I don't want to order a new mobo and have it do the same thing. So, any help would be much appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had a similar problem for about two months. I tried the paper thing over the camera sensor and I felt like it helped some but the problem still continued. The screen would just slowly go dark with vertical lines running through it. All apps would still work in the background while this was happening. I could boot to TWRP and this problem never happened while in TWRP which was odd. Seemed like if it was a screen issues or hardware malfunction it would happen all the time. That's when I decided to just flash back to stock. I was thinking about getting the S8 anyways so what the hell. I flashed to stock 10B and took every single OTA. Took all night but I've been running stock for over a day now and the issue has not replicated itself one time since reverting back to stock. I was on RR Nougat and Fulmics when it happened prior. Has to be a root or Rom issue? What ROM are you on?

Pozman1 said:
I had a similar problem for about two months. I tried the paper thing over the camera sensor and I felt like it helped some but the problem still continued. The screen would just slowly go dark with vertical lines running through it. All apps would still work in the background while this was happening. I could boot to TWRP and this problem never happened while in TWRP which was odd. Seemed like if it was a screen issues or hardware malfunction it would happen all the time. That's when I decided to just flash back to stock. I was thinking about getting the S8 anyways so what the hell. I flashed to stock 10B and took every single OTA. Took all night but I've been running stock for over a day now and the issue has not replicated itself one time since reverting back to stock. I was on RR Nougat and Fulmics when it happened prior. Has to be a root or Rom issue? What ROM are you on?
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Click to collapse
I became so fed up with the issue that I caved and bought the Nexus 6P last year. My G3 was on stock OS, no ROMs. Pretty sure it was a hardware issue. I turn it on every now and again, and the same thing happens. Never really solved it. I may try flashing some ROMs at some point, but I think I'm done with Samsung devices for the time being. I absolutely love my Nexus 6P. Great phone. Waiting for the new version of the Pixel or the rumored new Nexus haha.

It's an issue due to bad quality soldering and the SoC overheating. When the phone is very warm (and the G3 tends to get quite warm on the Camera) and you keep using it, the bad soldering starts losing con ection.
So you're basically losing connection to your chip and that's why the phone is experiencing those problems. That's why putting pressure on the chip helps to restore the connection.
It's best to use a thermal pad and it's the best solution there is. Some people bake their motherboards but I don't recommend it since this always kills the motherboard in a few months.
You can also try looking for a replacement motherboard online.

engmia said:
It's an issue due to bad quality soldering and the SoC overheating. When the phone is very warm (and the G3 tends to get quite warm on the Camera) and you keep using it, the bad soldering starts losing con ection.
So you're basically losing connection to your chip and that's why the phone is experiencing those problems. That's why putting pressure on the chip helps to restore the connection.
It's best to use a thermal pad and it's the best solution there is. Some people bake their motherboards but I don't recommend it since this always kills the motherboard in a few months.
You can also try looking for a replacement motherboard online.
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Click to collapse
Mine screen fades to brightnes, and strips when phone is cold. when it gets worm hot screen is almost perfect. same thing with two mobo's.

Will Samsung Ever Give A Technical Reason

As to why phones were "exploding". It seems the original reason they had of a battery manufacturing fault is now incorrect and it seems theres a more inherent design fault? Incredible that the biggest phone manufacturer in the world, with all their engineers couldn't figure it out.

B3501 said:
As to why phones were "exploding". It seems the original reason they had of a battery manufacturing fault is now incorrect and it seems theres a more inherent design fault? Incredible that the biggest phone manufacturer in the world, with all their engineers couldn't figure it out.
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Click to collapse
They either haven't figured it out, or they HAVE, and it's something in the hardware (motherboard, etc) that it's too late/costly to reengineer.

Read a story that mentioned it might be the SoC, designed it to push more power to the battery then it could end up handling. Really liked this phone.
Sent from my Samsung Note 7 using Tapatalk

macawmatt said:
Read a story that mentioned it might be the SoC, designed it to push more power to the battery then it could end up handling. Really liked this phone.
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Click to collapse
If it was that wouldn't they just push a update to limit the fast charging? Or the soc I gotta assume that's all handled by software.

I don't think it's a coincidence that the battery was the smallest and crammed into a tiny space, more than any other phone. There's got to be something in that, perhaps any sort of pressure on the back was causing some sort of battery failure.

All sorts of theories today. Too thin of separators in the batteries. Curve edge of the screen causing it. Fast charging. Some new battery fault etc. I don't think Samsung found the problem.

They better. I hate them so much now... They wasted months of my life, wanting and not getting this phone. Some of you had at least a chance to test it out feel it.... All I got is 10 min. with demo unit. If they keep it to them self a lot of ppl will think they have no clue and the same problem could happen to S8. What phone to get now until S8E is out. I need excellent maniera, water resistance and of course big screen...

It sounds like they don't know yet and can't replicate the problem in their testing. But I don't know if we really know much of the whole story. There could be multiple reasons we never get a clear answer. I think the recall was forced upon them not only to limit litigation, but from the governmental agencies. It is sad that by far the best overall phone ever made to date has been killed off. There really is no other phone that combines all the great things the N7 has going for it.

htcplussony said:
All sorts of theories today. Too thin of separators in the batteries. Curve edge of the screen causing it. Fast charging. Some new battery fault etc. I don't think Samsung found the problem.
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I agree with you. Canning the entire product is such a drastic move. If they knew what the problem was, ANY fix would surely cost less to engineer in, than they huge damage to their reputation, to their competitive position in the market (no flagship product available) and the hard cash costs of product write off.
But if they just can't figure out what's causing this problem, what could they possibly do? Could they say "you know, we don't know what the problem is, but just keep using them and sorry about the occasional fires". Obviously not. How about do *another* recall and risk Version3 phones catching fire too? Clearly they can't do that either.
Then consider the following: This problem is *rare* - 1 in 100,000 units perhaps? And it didn't show up in any pre-production tests nor QA checks. Add in the fact that they thought it was the battery, and then found out that it was not.
All this leads me to believe that they haven't yet figured out with 100% certainty what the problem is.

It must be something that renders the design faulty meaning they'd have to remanufacture the device to fix it something that probably generate quite a wait time for people to exchange it. So canning it is a better option.
The two things I think are most suspect is
a) overheating either via charging or just using the SoC to the max and causing heating issues.
b) casing is designed in such a way that puts undue pressure on the battery.
Either way it's a expensive fix, sure you could firmware update it to slow the charge speed or down clock the processor but then you've got a whole other issue of false advertising. You paid for X and got Y.
Sent from my LG-H901 using XDA-Developers mobile app

evo4g63t said:
It must be something that renders the design faulty meaning they'd have to remanufacture the device to fix it something that probably generate quite a wait time for people to exchange it. So canning it is a better option.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not necessarily.
As I said above, what if they can't be certain what the problem is? What should they do then? The only option in those circumstances would be the course of action they have taken.
This is imho the most likely scenario. Clearly, they didn't think there was anything wrong with it when it was launched, and after extensive r&d and product testing. They thought the product was fine.
And now they are faced with trying to identify *with certainty* what's causing 1 unit in around 100,000 to fail, when all they get back to test are charred remains. They could not risk a second failed recall, based on not being 100% sure what the problem is, so their ONLY option in those circumstances would be to withdraw the product.

One things for sure, when they eventually do find out what caused it, a whole department is getting sacked! I bet there's a lot of nervous Samsung design heads just now.

teegunn said:
It sounds like they don't know yet and can't replicate the problem in their testing. But I don't know if we really know much of the whole story. There could be multiple reasons we never get a clear answer. I think the recall was forced upon them not only to limit litigation, but from the governmental agencies. It is sad that by far the best overall phone ever made to date has been killed off. There really is no other phone that combines all the great things the N7 has going for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now they have 2 million phones they can test and replicate the problem. I foresee huge electric bills for them charging and discharging 2,000,000 phones.
Chippy_boy said:
Not necessarily.
As I said above, what if they can't be certain what the problem is? What should they do then? The only option in those circumstances would be the course of action they have taken.
This is imho the most likely scenario. Clearly, they didn't think there was anything wrong with it when it was launched, and after extensive r&d and product testing. They thought the product was fine.
And now they are faced with trying to identify *with certainty* what's causing 1 unit in around 100,000 to fail, when all they get back to test are charred remains. They could not risk a second failed recall, based on not being 100% sure what the problem is, so their ONLY option in those circumstances would be to withdraw the product.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Another theory is that in the first instance they jumped over a few tests to get the phone out before the iPhone 7, then in the first recall they didn't actually fix anything, just did a firmware update (how else would they have replacement devices within 1 WEEK?). The update turned out not to be enough, whatever was wrong with a certain percentage wasn't fixed by making them charge slower or less.
And now you can't really do a second recall and expect people to trust the same device. They are saving face, call it a loss, and move on.

Do any of you think that this is full of crap though? Samsung has NOT completed their investigation yet, and until they do, for all anyone knows, the devices could have failed due to mistreatment by their users. Out of FOUR MILLION phones, only 35 explode, and of the replacement units only 7? Lets say the first generation was bad, and only count the replacements. 7 out of 4 million. That is a 0.000175% chance of your phone exploding. So, they discontinued the line for less than an even 1% chance, without waiting for the investigation to be completed? COME ON. PLUS, some of the people who had exploded note 7s REFUSED to return them.

PhoenixJedi said:
Do any of you think that this is full of crap though? Samsung has NOT completed their investigation yet, and until they do, for all anyone knows, the devices could have failed due to mistreatment by their users. Out of FOUR MILLION phones, only 35 explode, and of the replacement units only 7? Lets say the first generation was bad, and only count the replacements. 7 out of 4 million. That is a 0.000175% chance of your phone exploding. So, they discontinued the line for less than an even 1% chance, without waiting for the investigation to be completed? COME ON. PLUS, some of the people who had exploded note 7s REFUSED to return them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I want to know, of the ones that have malfunctioned, were they damaged prior? Dropped, thrown, etc. That would definetly play into the battery cells being smashed together regardless if they are on or off. I don't buy into the heat thing entirely, because I've taken mine into the sauna 3 times and it's still fine. I'm debating what to do. I love this phone. My first note. I'll be near a best buy Friday, so I'll go in and see if anything pegs my interest and goes from there. I'd be happier if I knew when they were going to release something with a stylus. Absolutely love that thing.

taz1458 said:
What I want to know, of the ones that have malfunctioned, were they damaged prior? Dropped, thrown, etc. That would definetly play into the battery cells being smashed together regardless if they are on or off. I don't buy into the heat thing entirely, because I've taken mine into the sauna 3 times and it's still fine. I'm debating what to do. I love this phone. My first note. I'll be near a best buy Friday, so I'll go in and see if anything pegs my interest and goes from there. I'd be happier if I knew when they were going to release something with a stylus. Absolutely love that thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also say theres another possibility. There's been incidents with USB-C cables in the past.. cheap cables.. (the kind you buy in gas stations and pharmacies). They've caused the ports to get damaged and devices (of all types) to explode because wires inside are hooked up incorrectly. How do we know that this wasn't caused by someone using a faulty third party accessory?

PhoenixJedi said:
I also say theres another possibility. There's been incidents with USB-C cables in the past.. cheap cables.. (the kind you buy in gas stations and pharmacies). They've caused the ports to get damaged and devices (of all types) to explode because wires inside are hooked up incorrectly. How do we know that this wasn't caused by someone using a faulty third party accessory?
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Click to collapse
My point exactly. That was the rumor the first time. I got the Samsung cables, so I'm not worried about that. Just really wonder if dropping them, damaged the case, which put pressure on the battery and short circuited it.

Here's the thing, SAMSUNG themselves cannot replicate the situation. No matter HOW they tamper with the phone. I guarantee you they're not using these bad third party cables, or trying to operate a device with partially compromised firmware from a failed root attempt, or other things they tell their end users NOT TO DO. I guarantee you they're testing the phone (other than dropping it and water tests) within the specs of what they tell users is okay to do with the phone.
Here's the other thing, the video of a 'note 7' supposedly catching fire in someones home... 1: its in black and white, 2: its a security camera in someone's living room. 3: YOU NEVER SEE THE ACTUAL PHONE ON THE CAMERA. For all we know she's holding a smoking piece of toast. Plus, consider that an overheating li-ion battery is a chemical reaction and that smoke usually means the battery has been punctured. HOW and WHY is she still holding it?

In hindsight, considering my Note 4 would overheat DRASTICALLY on the Gear VR Innovator Edition so much so that the Phone would produce a message to warn to let it cool down, Samsung Engineering should have seen this coming.
Maybe it was a Godsend, INTRUSIVE IRIS Scanner and all.
Or maybe it WAS a conspiracy, like nothing really was at fault, the powers that be saw something in the Note 7 they were not in favor of letting the public/consumer get their hands on.
We may never know. But rest assured something seems not quite right about the whole fiasco. Even a social engineering experiment.

Interesting read guys... I have my note 7 now for 6 weeks. Had the first one too before the switch. Both of them worked/work fine. No overheating. I am not sure if only exinos cpu variants are catching fire. Over here in germany there are no fires at all. It is sad that this phone is canned, and for the remaining working ones, there will never be a a software update at all. This phone is by far the best phone ever. Truly.
Gesendet von meinem SM-N930F mit Tapatalk