Battery fiasco: Samsung retrieves 90% Galaxy Note 7 phones in S Korea

Seoul: Samsung Electronics said on Tuesday that it has retrieved over 90 percent of the fire-prone Galaxy Note 7 smartphones sold in South Korea, leading the company to consider software upgrades to further limit the battery-charging capability.

Over 850,000 Note 7 devices have been retrieved among about 950,000 phones sold here, raising the recovery rate to 90 per cent, Xinhua news agency reported.

Samsung said in a statement that it is considering the upgrade of the software patch the firm released in October to limit the maximum charging capability of Note 7 to 60 per cent.

The South Korean tech behemoth has decided to discontinue the latest Galaxy device on reports of the devices catching fire or overheating globally.

In the US and Europe, where the retrieval rate surpassed 90 percent, Samsung already took an action to restrict the battery capability for the protection of consumers.

Exchange and refunds of the fire-prone phones will continue here until next month, but benefits and favours from the replacement is scheduled to end by the end of this month.

With IANS Inputs