No issues of Samsung’s Note 7 catching fire in the UAE, retailers say

Dubai: There were no issues of Samsung’s Note 7 smartphone catching fire in the UAE, retailers told Gulf News.

Following reports in the US and South Korea of the phone exploding during or after charging, Samsung said in a statement that they will voluntarily replace their current device with a new one over the coming weeks.

The Korean company said that as of September 1, there have been 35 cases reported globally and “we are currently conducting a thorough inspection with our suppliers to identify possible affected batteries in the market. However, because our customers’ safety is an absolute priority at Samsung, we have stopped sales of the Galaxy Note 7”.

Samsung Gulf declined to comment on any plan to recall its flagship device.

One of the distributors, on condition of anonymity, said that there were no issues in the UAE and he himself has been using the phone for the past month.

“We have sold more than 45,000 units in the UAE and there was not even one issue regarding the fire or the battery getting warm,” he said.

He added that there has been no official statement from Samsung Gulf about the recall and if that is the case, then all the users can return the device and will be replaced with a new one.

“All the Note 7 had been sold out and we are waiting for fresh stocks,” he said.

He said stories about lithium-ion batteries used in smartphones do make the news from time to time and even Apple’s iPhones had similar cases.

The Note 7 was only launched on August 19 in 10 countries — the US, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, the UAE and Korea — and has since them been generally well-received by critics and consumers.

Mahesh Chotrani, assistant vice-president of Jacky’s Electronics, also said there were no issues so far.

“We have no official confirmation from Samsung Gulf regarding the recall; it is just a precautionary measure. It is a good phone and I am using it. We have no stocks left,” he said.

SK Telecom, South Korea’s largest mobile carrier, said in a report that about 400,000 units of the Galaxy Note 7 were estimated to have been sold in South Korea.

Omar Abushaban, General Manager at Plug Ins, said that no official communication from Samsung regarding the recall in the UAE.

“We have had no issues so far apart from the firmware issues on some devices, which are expected to be fixed in the coming days via a software update,” he said.