Turns out a Galaxy Note 7 did not explode in a child's hands
About that Note 7 exploding while a kid was using it...
The general consensus amidst hours of conversation here at Android Central was that as long as a Note 7 didn't actually harm a human being during the recall process, there was a chance the Note brand could eventually recover from this exploding battery problem. Then the NY Post published a story claiming a 6-year old from Brooklyn was using his grandfather's Note 7 when the worst happened. Anger toward the grandfather for recklessly continuing to not only use the phone but share it with a child filled our forums and comment threads. Speculation as to whether this would have happened if the battery were removable grew, and a constant wave of speculation as to how Samsung and their partners could have better handled this situation has filled the internet.
There's just one small problem here — that phone wasn't a Galaxy Note 7. NBC New York identified it as a Samsung Galaxy Core Prime, released in 2014. This detail still isn't good news for Samsung, and this detail certainly doesn't make the suffering Kadim Lewis or his family feel any better, but it's significant all the same. The Galaxy Core Prime is a phone with a removable battery that has no history of battery problems. The reasons for the explosion are still being investigated, but at the moment there is no reason to believe it is directly related to the ongoing Note 7 battery flaw. It hasn't even been confirmed that this Galaxy Core was using the original Samsung-provided battery, and when you consider how many shady "cell phone parts" stores and carts exist in NYC it's not impossible for this battery to have been third-party.
It's still a mess, and still unfortunate for a child to go through all of this, but it's important to recognize there's no reason to assume this is Note 7 related. No reason to blame the parents and grandparents, and certainly no reason to call for all Samsung phone sales to be halted until a full investigation is completed. And yes, you should still absolutely, unquestionably power off your Note 7 and go exchange or return it immediately.
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