Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Bricks with Zero Charge

It’s common knowledge that batteries are the modern gadgets’ weakest feature. They are short-lived, constantly overheating and too small to support the average day’s work expected of them, and now they threaten phones in one more way.

Recently, Samsung Galaxy Note 8 users discovered that the phone bricks once the battery reaches zero level of charge. Running out of battery charge is a typical problem, especially when the phone is all screen and has no physical buttons like the latest Korean flagship. Usually phones tend to spring back to life the moment they’re plugged back in. Some models may reboot but not necessarily.

With Samsung it’s a different story. The company is experiencing a really long run of bad luck with batteries. Last year’s Galaxy Note 7 cut a short but brilliant career of a portable explosive device. This year’s Galaxy Note 8, on the contrary, is silent. It silently bricks without any notice.

A bricked device cannot be restored, re-flashed or resurrected in any other way. The LED indicator is dead even when the phone is plugged, showing no evidence for getting any charge. The Samsung company has not cleared this issue yet but claimed that they are investigating the incidents. Meanwhile, the South Korean company accepts the bricked phones for a warranty replacement. This is not a full scale program, for now Samsung is operating on a case-by-case basis. If you got your Galaxy Note 8 from the carrier, you can try and change it for a good one but you risk developing a neurosis constantly checking the charge level.

Frankly, I can’t recollect any new device with similar behavior. You see, any modern handheld is engineered to survive lack of charge. Every mobile battery has a small controller that doesn’t let it run dry.

In fact, even when the battery is flat and the device won’t turn on, there is a little amount of charge left. It’s enough to ensure the system maintains a smooth performance once the power comes back on. This is the reason why you’ll find all your settings still retaining what they were set on when you turn on your charging or already charged phone after a while. Glitches do happen, of course. Time and data can be lost, in situations like not having your phone turned on for a year or if the battery is just old. But if the device was off for no longer than it took to get to the nearest wall socket, it should be OK.

The behavior of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 prompts that something is going very wrong with the battery or its’ controller as soon as it drains. The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 Plus is reported to have the same problem. Samsung insists that the community has overreacted and the company received “only a very small number of customer inquiries that can be linked to charge management”.On the other hand, this can be attributed to the fact that not so many users have drained their batteries dry.

Anyway, Samsung has to thoroughly inspect its’ suppliers chain. For years it has been the company’s highlight, but obviously something isn’t right in the battery department.