A faulty Samsung Galaxy Ring battery has had severe penalties for one consumer. The wearable is alleged to have swollen a lot throughout a journey that it may now not be faraway from the finger. The proprietor was stopped from boarding a flight and needed to go to hospital as an alternative.
British YouTuber Daniel Rotar (ZoneofTech) was the particular person affected. Earlier than boarding a flight from Hawaii, he observed that the battery in his Galaxy Ring was swollen, inflicting the ring to get painfully tight. As lithium-ion batteries pose a security danger on this situation, the airline refused entry to the airplane.
The titanium ring may solely be eliminated at hospital, and solely with a mixture of ice and medical lubricant. It was not mandatory to chop the ring open, which might have meant a danger of fireside or explosion of the battery.
It’s unhealthy information for Samsung, which hasn’t had the smoothest historical past with battery issues – the Galaxy Observe 7 was famously recalled and discontinued.
Indications of a pre-damaged battery
Rotar had beforehand reported conspicuously brief battery runtimes. As a substitute of the supposed battery lifetime of round one week, the Ring solely lasted round one and a half days. Such signs can point out a broken battery.
The YouTuber himself cited the excessive warmth in Hawaii, contact with salt water or an already weakened battery as potential causes for the battery swelling. Regardless of IP68 and 10ATM certifications, Samsung’s Galaxy Ring isn’t explicitly protected towards corrosion from salt water.
Reviews of comparable issues have been accumulating for months in on-line boards equivalent to Reddit. Along with tremendously lowered battery life, customers are additionally reporting deformed rings resulting from bloated batteries.
Samsung said that such incidents are very uncommon. The corporate is in touch with these affected and seek advice from common recommendations on the way to take away caught rings – for instance, with cleaning soap and water or chilly water.
The producer has not but commented on the causes of the defects or whether or not the issue will be mounted with a firmware replace.
What customers ought to look out for
The next applies to homeowners of all sensible rings: If the battery life decreases considerably, this is usually a warning signal of defects. On this case, you must cease utilizing the machine as a precaution, particularly if the match it tight in your finger.
The present incident makes it clear that sensible rings are troublesome to take away in an emergency – and there may be presently no security resolution for fast removing.
This text initially appeared on our sister publication PC-WELT and was translated and tailored from German.
