It’s a darned good thing that the launch of Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 has been delayed here in South Africa. Samsung has just announced a global recall of the handset, due to issues surrounding the handset’s battery. Some Note 7 batteries have been… exploding.

As a result Samsung has taken unprecedented action and halted global sales of the smartphone. The company will also be issuing refunds to anyone affected by the battery issue, which has seen small numbers of what is widely considered to be Samsung’s best phone to date igniting or exploding while being charged. That’s a nasty problem to have.

Samsung’s recall was first announced by South Korean news outlet Yonhap and the details of how it will all work are still developing. Samsung has said that “Products installed with the problematic battery account for less than 0.1 percent of the entire volume sold. The problem can be simply resolved by changing the battery, but we’ll come up with convincing measures for our consumers.”

Samsung has found some 35 handsets have demonstrated that they’re a fire hazard (by, you know, setting themselves on fire), which works out to 24 handsets for every million made. That seems like small odds but the problem is obviously serious enough that Samsung is willing to take drastic action.

Samsung, speaking to The Verge, originally said of reports that they were considering a global recall that “We are conducting a thorough inspection. We will share the findings as soon as possible. Samsung is fully committed to providing the highest quality products to our consumers.” The result of the inspection… that’s something we know all about right now.

That South African Note 7 delay may have just gotten a little longer but at least we’re not going to be at risk of small phone-based fires.

Source: The Verge