Two weeks after it first came to light that the batteries in some Samsung Galaxy Note 7s could short out and cause a fire, the company has officially partnered with the United States' Consumer Product Safety Commission to issue a recall through that agency. The CPSC estimates that about a million Note 7s are affected by its recall. The move comes after 92 incidents with the devices' batteries were reported to the agency, comprising at least 26 incidents where owners were burned and 55 incidents where property was damaged.
USA Note 7 owners now have a somewhat clearer set of instructions for exchanging their potentially dangerous devices. Samsung USA has set up a portal with an IMEI database that can tell owners whether their devices are affected by the recall. Owners can also use the Samsung+ app on the Note 7 to figure out whether their devices are affected.
If a Note 7 is affected by the recall, it should be returned to the point of purchase. AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, US Cellular, Best Buy, and Sprint each have response pages set up for the recall. As was the case with Samsung's unofficial recall, Note 7 owners will have the choice of receiving a new device, exchanging it for a Galaxy S7 or S7 edge, or getting a full refund. AT&T and T-Mobile's recall pages suggest that new Note 7 inventory will begin arriving September 21.
It should go without saying, but if you purchased a Note 7 before September 15, you should exchange the phone for a new one as soon as possible. Samsung issued a statement to The Verge confirming that only 130,000 or so of the Note 7s that were sold before the recall have been exchanged, or a little over 10% or so of the potentially incendiary phones. Given that relatively low percentage, we may not have seen the last of incidents stemming from potentially dangerous Note 7s.