Reports about some Galaxy Note 8 units dying after the battery was fully drained surfaced last week. The handset just wouldn't turn on no matter how long it was left plugged in, and wireless charging didn't help. Samsung has since acknowledged the issue that some Galaxy S8+ owners have experienced as well, but the company hasn't explained what's causing this.
The reports largely came from users with US carrier variants of the Galaxy Note 8, suggesting the issue is limited to the Snapdragon-powered variant. Samsung has offered those customers replacement units under warranty.
Is there more to this than meets the eye?
There haven't been any reports about Samsung's low-end or mid-range devices facing this issue. One of our low-end devices has exhibited similar behavior in the recent past, though. It's a Galaxy A3 (2017). The device wouldn't turn on after the battery was completely drained one day.
This happened before the holiday season and before reports about the Galaxy Note 8 dying after a full discharge came in. Samsung normally treats charging errors as the customers' responsibility so in most cases they're told to pay for the repair service.
We were initially told that it was a USB-C failure. The unit hasn't come back as yet, so there are no details as yet about the work that was done to fix the problem. Samsung doesn't usually fix these issues under warranty, but we were able to get it done for free by quoting recent reports about the Note 8. Others might not have been so lucky, though, especially if they ran into such a problem a few months earlier.
Have you experienced a similar issue with a low-end or mid-range Samsung device? There haven't been any reports as yet, but that's not surprising. Samsung sells more premium (and budget) handsets compared to mid-range ones, which is probably why the issue has first been reported by some Galaxy Note 8 and Galaxy S8+ users. Flagship phones also have a lot more going on under the hood, making such problems more likely.
Let us know if you've experienced something like this by voting in the poll. Also let us know what device it was and whether you got the issue fixed under warranty in the comments section.
Poll Results: Most of the readers who participated in this poll said that they have not experienced something like this on their device. Only a fraction have experienced it on a Galaxy S/Galaxy Note flagship. Some have also experienced this on Galaxy A and Galaxy J series handsets.
- No 82%, 160 votes160 votes 82%160 votes - 82% of all votes
- Yes, it was a Galaxy S/Galaxy Note flagship 9%, 17 votes17 votes 9%17 votes - 9% of all votes
- Yes, it was a Galaxy A series phone 4%, 7 votes7 votes 4%7 votes - 4% of all votes
- Yes, it's a Galaxy J series phone 3%, 6 votes6 votes 3%6 votes - 3% of all votes
- Yes, but on a different Samsung handset 2%, 4 votes4 votes 2%4 votes - 2% of all votes
