This is how to tell if your Samsung Note7’s battery is safe

Ever since news appeared that Samsung’s Note7 battery could overheat and burst into flames, the number one question on owner’s minds has been whether their Note7 is safe.

Samsung now has an online IMEI checker to determine whether your Note7 is among those impacted by a faulty battery. 

You can find your IMEI’s number checking the back of your Note7, or by going to Apps > Settings > About Phone or General Management > Status > IMEI information or Serial number on your device.

If it’s among the Note7s affected, the IMEI checker will also tell you. Samsung and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission have strongly recommended that affected Note7 owners should not continue using their Note7s, and it’s a recommendation we’d stand behind as reports of cars catching fire and a Note7 exploding in a man’s pants pocket have come in.

Samsung has previously said that the battery fault was due to a “sub-optimized assembly process” from a “supplier in question,” the supplier in question being Samsung SDI, which is 20 percent owned by Samsung Electronics. Samsung has since switched to using batteries from Amperex Technology Ltd., a unit of Japan’s TDK Corp., according to Bloomberg.

Even if your Note7’s battery is not found to be among those affected, should you still exchange your Note7 for a new one? We’ll reach out to Samsung Singapore for the answer, but in the meantime, we’d say there’s less harm in being safe and doing the swap.

While Samsung has been forthcoming in its reports of what went wrong with the Note7, there’s one question we think remains unanswered. You can see on the online IMEI checker that Note7 owners in the US can exchange their Note7s for a S7 or S7 edge instead of another Note7, but owners in Singapore cannot. We’ve previously reached out to Samsung to ask why, but they’ve kept silent on the matter.

You can check your Note7’s IMEI here, and register here to exchange your Note7.

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