Samsung's premium Galaxy Note 7 smart phone made headlines for the wrong reasons last year - when it kept spontaneous bursting into flames. Following a global recall and a gigantic internal investigation that involved the testing of tens of thousands of handsets, Samsung has arrived at a conclusion. As expected, the fault lies with the lithium-ion batteries inside the device, rather than with any hardware or software defect. The first round of devices included batteries with casing that was too small, which led to them short circuiting and igniting. Following a recall and reissue, the second set of batteries used still had a manufacturing defect that led to the same issue. "Our investigation examined every aspect of the Galaxy Note 7 including hardware and software, and related processes, such as assembly, quality assurance testing, and logistics," the South Korean company said in a statement. "Through a large-scale testing facility where approximately 700 Samsung researchers and engineers replicated the incidents by testing more than 200,000 fully-assembled devices and more than 30,000 batteries, Samsung finally concluded the cause of the issues." "Our investigation, as well as the investigations completed by three independent industry organizations, concluded that the batteries were found to be the cause of the Note7 incidents." A customer uses his Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Samsung has given its assurance that the issue will not be repeated in any of its upcoming phones. The company is widely believed to be on the verge of announcing the Samsung Galaxy S8 which will go up against the iPhone 7 in 2017. "We are taking responsibility for our failure to ultimately identify and verify the issues arising out of battery design and manufacturing process prior to the launch of the Note7," the company said. "We have taken several corrective actions to ensure this never happens again, including the implementation of a multi-layer safety measures protocol at the product planning stage, and an 8-Point Battery Safety Check. "We look forward to moving ahead with a renewed commitment to safety. The lessons of the past several months are now deeply reflected in our processes and in our culture." In total, Samsung was forced to recall over 2.5 million Note 7 last September before halting production of the gadget altogether. The move is expected to cost the company around $5.3 billion in lost profits, even though it actually posted a 50% rise in profits year-on-year. That's because smart phones make up a fraction of the company's products - it also creates many different components for other electronics - like microchips and semiconductors. It's heavily rumored that Samsung will reveal the Galaxy S8 at the Mobile World Congress trade event next month.
