Roger Fingas
Carriers and phone makers have so far largely ignored Samsung's efforts to promote its new battery testing procedure — created in the aftermath of the fire-prone Galaxy Note 7 — as a possible industry standard, a report said on Friday.
Those companies largely consider their existing safety procedures to be good enough, according to interviews conducted by CNET. Some are, however, said to be quietly investigating the issue of battery safety based on data Samsung shared with the public.
"I'm sure the engineers will be looking at the info Samsung made public," said a phone maker spokesman who asked CNET not to be identified. "I'm sure every [phone maker] will be doing the same."
The Samsung procedure involves eight different steps: visual inspection, an x-ray, charge/discharge, leak testing, disassembling, accelerated usage, checks for voltage changes, and finally several durability tests involving punctures, overcharging, and extreme temperature ranges.
Prior to the Note 7, Samsung reportedly relied on tests conducted by its battery suppliers, but is now conducting tests of its own as well.
One phone maker, LG, noted that its latest device — the G6 — went through battery puncture testing. Motorola simply said that it does internal testing, providing "an additional level beyond industry standards," and gets certification from third-party labs. TCL, which assembles Alcatel and BlackBerry devices, did acknowledge reviewing supplier methods after the Note 7 fires, but concluded it was in good shape.
For the most part there are few industry-wide battery standards, beyond limited testing done by carriers, or the requirements of groups like the CTIA, which represents companies in the U.S. wireless industry.
Apple has generally been quiet about how it tests for battery safety. It has only rarely had to deal with iPhone fire incidents, though other battery problems have occasionally crept up. Late last year, it launched a battery swap program for the iPhone 6s to cope with sudden shutdowns in some units.
Marko Zivkovic
Wesley Hilliard
Oliver Haslam
Christine McKee
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
23 Comments
I'm guessing Apple has been conducting their own battery tests for a long time. They are too high profile and sell too many devices to rely simply on the word of a supplier.
On the various tech blogs Samsung supporters are dismissing the concerns. Whether that goes for the general public remains to be seen. All it will take is ONE reported battery failure and that ship will sink. And you know the tech blogs will be salivating trying to find any failures. Samsung has a long row to hoe for this release. My position is still that the tech giants should pool their resources and start a ‘Manhattan Project’ for battery technology. So-called ‘solid state’ batteries would be a good place to start. Give Dr. Goodenough a blank check and turn him loose.
Isn't it the case that those batteries themselves were never a problem. It is HOW they were installed and the size of the internal compartment is what created the problem.
How can those battery tests address those issues if they only test batteries?
I love how they're trying to get some sort of credit for fixing a very dangerous situation that they themselves created. Samsung gonna be Samsung.
You can bet that Verizon is going to be in Samsung shorts over this. They are not going to want a repeat of this issue. Verizon is very conservative when it comes to thing like things catching fire. Yes Samsung has to restore confident in the buying public, but Companies like VZ are not so easily won over they actual have engineers who know what they are doing and know when a Supplier is not doing what is required. This was part of the Battle with getting the Iphone on VZ network in years past, VZ what to do their own testing before they will sell a product which works on their network.