Samsung was forced earlier this week to discontinue its
flagship Galaxy Note 7 smartphone. For good. The Galaxy Note 7 turned
out to be a massive disappointment. The phone intended to fight the
iPhone 7 Plus this year was seen as one of the hottest Android devices
in town. Unfortunately, it also turned out to come with an unexpected
side-effect: the Galaxy Note 7 is a fire hazard. Even after Samsung
fixed it.
New manufacturing issues
Samsung has yet to explain what went wrong with its batteries in both
the original phones and the replacements. The Consumer Product Safety
Commission (CPSC), which worked with Samsung on the US recall, said on
September 15th that batteries made by Samsung SDI were faulty.
Apparently, they were made slightly too large for the space available in
the phone. Installing them would crimp the corner, which could lead to a
short circuit, overheating and potentially a fire.
Samsung removed Samsung SDI batteries from its Galaxy Note 7 supply and turned to China’s Amperex Technology. However, Bloomberg reports
that even Amperex batteries proved to have a manufacturing
problem. Investigators of the latest Galaxy Note 7 incidents believe
that a flaw different from the one that caused the original recall is to
blame, according to Bloomberg.
The new issue hasn’t been explained, but it looks like it may have
crept into the supply chain after Samsung began replacing the faulty
phones. Samsung had no choice but to pull the plug. Neither Samsung nor
Amperex’s parent company TDK Corp. commented on the matter, Bloomberg says.
More disturbingly, Samsung is apparently leaving its carrier partners
in the dark about the problem. Samsung is asking partners to share
testing data, but Samsung isn’t reciprocating. Carriers have no idea
what to tell customers, one unnamed carrier executive said.
Fast charging
Another theory that tries to explain the numerous Galaxy Note 7
explosions has to do with the fast-charging feature of the battery.
According to the Financial Times, the problem comes from tweaks made to the processor to speed up charging.
“If you try to charge the battery too quickly it can make it more
volatile. If you push an engine too hard, it will explode. Something had
to give. These devices are miracles of technology — how much we can get
out of that tiny piece of lithium-ion,” an unnamed source said after
supposedly speaking with Samsung executives about the matter.
That beautiful design
The Galaxy Note 7’s looks might actually lead to explosions.
Specifically, it’s the symmetrical curvature of the phone, a feature
Samsung bragged about, that may have exerted pressure on battery packs
and caused the short circuits that eventually led to dangerous fires.
After the first recall, leaked documentation from the Korean consumer
protection agency said that Samsung SDI’s batteries were slightly
larger than the compartment they were supposed to be placed in.
Furthermore, the isolation plates that separate the anode and cathode
were too close to the edges.
One theory states that external pressure could have been applied to
those isolation plates during manufacturing. The plates are placed
towards the edge of the battery and when the phone is sealed, the
battery pack might be subjected to excessive pressure. The images below
show SDI battery packs with isolation plates placed too close to the
edge.
Xiaomi
is not only about high specifications yet affordable smartphones, more
importantly is the MIUI system that comes together with the phones. Up
to date, MIUI has been developed until MIUI 7 and yet, improvements are
being introduced weekly with the China Dev ROM. The simple and yet
functional MIUI system has attracted lots of users to try out Xiaomi
smartphones.As a loyal MIUIers,I would like to share a few simple tricks
in MIUI that MIUIers can’t missed. Let’s learn together the awesomeness
of MIUI.
1. How to turn on the “developer options” in MIUI
You
can turn on the developer options through Settings>About
phone>tap 3-6 times on the MIUI version tab. Tada…You have turned on
the developer options for MIUI.
2. Why there is a bit yellowish tint on my Xiaomi smartphone display?
To
reduce the yellowish tint on the display, please go to
Settings>Display>Colors & saturation>Choose Standard/cool.
This should reduce the yellowness of the display.But if the screen is
still yellow tinted after changing the settings, then this might be due
to production failure. Please do not hesitate to contact the Xiaomi
customer service in your country or take the phone to the nearest
service center to solve the problem.
3. Why sometimes during phone calls there is echo?
This can be solved by: Settings>Sounds>Suppress noise during calls> Single-mic noise suppression.
4. Xiaomi phones could not sent or deliver MMS
This
can be solved by logging into the Mi account. Settings>Mi
Account>Mi cloud. Some of the users who changed the password in PC
are required to delete the account and re-login again.
5. There are some noise on my Mi phone screen.
Dial
*#*#6484#*#* (Which is also the T9 input for MIUI, isn’t this
convenience), choose tab number 11 Touch sensor>Recalibrate the touch
screen
6. How to solve the black screen during phone calls?
Dial
*#*#6484#*#*, number 8 Proximity sensor>recalibrate the sensor. If
it is still the same, the tempered glass might have blocked the sensor
and thus failed. Change another tempered glass/screen protector that do
not block the proximity sensor. If problem still persisted, please visit
the nearest Xiaomi service center for a full checkup.
7. Why when there are calls coming in, the ringtone will only ring after 1-2 second?
When
there is a stranger phone calls come in, the phone will determine
whether this is a harassment phone calls, the system will take about 1
second to decide, that’s why phone will only ring after 1-3 seconds
(this is predetermined by the developers). If the phone calls are from
the number inside contact list, the phone will ring immediately.
8. The sound quality of Mi phone it not that great.
Try
to turn on the Settings>Sound & Vibration>Audio
settings>Mi sound Enhancer. Try to match the earphones that you are
using currently with the available choices in the list.
9. Why my mi phone ringtone is not loud?
Setting>Sound
& vibration>Volumes>Ringtone and notification (Set it to the
loudest). Or you can try plug in earphones, setting>Sound and
vibration>Switch on. With this option on, although there is no
earphones if the phone rings, the speaker volume will be louder 20% as
compared to this function turned off. The last option is there are some
phones the speaker is located beneath the phone, try to turn the speaker
on the upper side.
10. Why I always feel my phone is lagging?
This
is because the animation for the phone is turned on. If you don’t like
the animation, can go to Settings>Additional settings>Developer
options>Window animation scale>Animation off. If you still feel
there are some lags, can try to reflash the phone.
11. How to turn off the in-game vibration?
Settings>Sounds
and vibration>Vibrate on touch>off. Normally, the vibration
during gaming can be turn off in the game menu setting.
12. How to change ringtone easily?
You
can place your ringtone (.mp3) in the File Explorer>Internal
Storage>MIUI>Ringtone. Or, Settings>Sound and vibration>Call
ringtone and vibrate: here, you can choose to have long or short
ringtone for the choices available. The last resort is:
Contacts>Default ringtone>Select the tone you like.
13. When I am playing games, I always accidentally touch the bottom three buttons.
Pull
down the navigation bar>Turn on “Buttons” option. To turn on the 3
buttons function, simply touch home button and power button
simultaneously.
14. Can I switch off the notification for Mi App Store (China ROM)?
No. But you can try to root your phone and uninstall the default MI app store.
15. How to enable the camera in MIUI to detect the gender and age?
Camera>Swipe
to right>At the bottom, setting>turn on the Face detection, then
in the Age and gender, turn on show age and gender when beautify is on.
Then go back to camera, choose selfie mode, at the bottom, the star
icon, choose to turn on the beautify mode (low, mid or high). Then you
can see the age and gender in the selfie cam.
16. Can Xiaomi phone scan and detect barcode and QR code?
Yes. Camera>Setting>switch on the scan QR codes mode. The other place where you can scan QR code is Tools>Scanner.
17. How to easily transfer files between phones and PC?
First,
make sure your phone and PC is connected to the same WiFi. Then,
Explorer>at the bottom screen, FTP>Start server>There will be a
link on the screen, started with ftp://xx.x.x.x:xxxx.
Go to your pc>My Computer>Paste the ftp link in the Computer
address bar. Now, you can easily transfer files between PC and Mi phones
without cables.
18. My PC can’t recognize when I plug in my phone through USB connection
If
the data cable and USB port is working well, then
Settings>Additional settings>Developer options>switch on the
USB debugging.IF your pc still can’t detect your phone then uninstall
all phone drivers such as samsung,motorola,htc,micromax etc., and then
plugin your USB cable.It should work fine!
19. My Mi phone is drop dead, can’t start up with any button pressed
Long
press the power button at least 10 seconds, this will turn on the
phone. If the phone is lag in a screen, this will help to restart the
phone. Currently, Xiaomi flagship phones do not support removable
battery anymore, thus remove battery and restart is not possible. But,
you still can remove battery in selected Redmi series.
The
other way is press the volume up button and power button
simultaneously, your will be directed to Mi logo and recovery page,
choose you language of choice and choose to Reboot.
If
the phone is in off mode, they to press the volume down and power
button simultaneously, to enter the Fastboot mode (Mi bunny fixing
Android robot pic), then try to long press (really really long) the
power button.
If all the method above proven to be failed, it is the time you pay a visit to the nearest service center
20. The screen is dark, but bottom 3 navigation button lights are turned on.
Long press the power button (at least 10 seconds) and try to reboot the phone.
My
friend faced this problem before, is scarce, because he turns off the
auto-brightness and set the phone brightness to the lowest. This can be
solved by blind testing. Unlock the phone, pull down the navigation bar
and try to manually adjust the brightness.
21. The screen turned off during gaming and the phone can’t be turned on
Sometimes,
when you’re enjoying the game with your phone so much, you forgot about
the phone battery where you played until it is out of juice! Try to
charge the phone and power on, if the phone can be on, then today is
your lucky day. If can’t on, charge it for minimum 30 mins, then turn it
on. IF after 30 mins of charging still can’t turn on, please visit the
nearest customer service, if the phone is still under warranty, you can
actually change the motherboard for free..Yay!!
22. If my Mi phone is spoiled, under what circumstances I can repair it for free?
If
the phone is not spoiled due to fall down (the physical condition of
the phone is bad) or drop into water, you can repair it for free in
1-year period from the date of purchasing.
23. The phone has not been use for quite sometimes, how to adjust the time and date back to current accuracy?
Normally,
the time and date is automatically updated when the phone is connected
to the internet. There is no need of manual adjust them. But, make sure
you choose the correct time zone for your phone.
