Samsung Takes Extra Safety Steps With New Galaxy Note Smartphone

Samsung unveiled its new Galaxy Note 8 smartphone. Its predecessor was plagued by safety recalls. CreditSamsung

By BRIAN X. CHEN

SAN FRANCISCO — The Galaxy Note 7 met an untimely demise last year after dozens of the Samsung phones overheated or exploded. So Samsung has taken extra steps to make sure the Note 7’s successor does not suffer the same outcome.

Samsung, a South Korean manufacturer, announced the Galaxy Note 8 on Wednesday, pointing at many improvements consumers expect to see in smartphones, like more speed and a better camera.

It also has one key new feature: It is unlikely to explode.

Samsung said the Note 8’s battery underwent a series of safety checks. And to be extra sure, the company for the first time brought in a product safety consultant, Underwriters Laboratories, to do additional tests.

Samsung also gave the Note 8, which is scheduled to arrive in stores on Sept. 15, more typical upgrades. Besides supposedly being explosion-resistant, the device is also water- and dust-resistant. The digital stylus included for jotting down notes has better pressure sensitivity and a finer tip.

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The new Galaxy Note 8 smartphone. CreditSamsung

With these improvements, Samsung said it believed it was in the clear after it had to kill the Note 7 last year following safety recalls. The company said it surveyed thousands of Note customers afterward, asking them how they felt about the phone. Eight out of 10 used the word “love,” Justin Denison, Samsung’s head of product strategy, said in an interview.

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“Samsung pursues innovation, and we stumbled,” Mr. Denison said about the troubled Note 7. “We accepted it, we learned from it, we’ve applied processes and we’ve had quite a bit of success in recovering from that.”

Data from third-party research firms corroborated Samsung’s findings about die-hard enthusiasm for the brand. SurveyMonkey, the survey company, polled 1,000 American consumers about their opinions on the Galaxy Note 8. The majority of respondents, or about 64 percent, said they still considered Samsung products to be extremely or very reliable. About 27 percent said they were ready to purchase a Note 8 despite the Note 7 recall.

Carolina Milanesi, a tech analyst for Creative Strategies, said the SurveyMonkey data illustrated that Note customers were among the fiercest of Samsung’s fan base. People have been attracted to the Galaxy Note products for years because of their larger screens and stylus compatibility, she said.

Much of the frustration over the Note 7 stemmed from disappointment about not being able to replace the phone, not the fact that some were exploding, she said.

“You get away with more as a brand because they love you so much to start with,” she said. “Now that there’s a new device coming out, that’s what people are looking forward to.”

Source: www.nytimes.com