Workers, wielding orange laser thermometers, check to see if the devices are running hot. Within 30 seconds, I realize I'd go crazy from all the random dings, chimes and "Over the Horizons" echoing across the chamber. But for some employees, spending time in that room is now part of their daily routine. The phones are going through Android Control Tests, part of Samsung's accelerated usage process. Overall, it takes five days to complete this test, in part because there's no way to speed up a battery's discharge. Samsung plans to check up to 100,000 units this way before releasing them to customers. By the time of my visit, two weeks before the Galaxy S8 launch, it's tested 50,000.
Samsung's "doing more than all the right things, but how many years can they keep this up?" says Gerbrand Ceder, a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of California at Berkeley, He's also a member of Samsung's new battery advisory board, Ceder visited the Gumi facility the day before I did, "At some point someone will say this reflection iphone case costs a lot of money, But they cannot afford any problems with the Galaxy S8."Samsung has an interesting history with fires, In 1995, Chairman Lee Kun-hee (who still holds that title despite being in a coma since his 2014 heart attack) discovered the Samsung phones he'd handed out as New Year's gifts didn't work, He was outraged..
So Lee traveled to Gumi, where he had 150,000 phones dumped onto a field as 2,000 workers watched. Then according to legend, he ordered some employees to set the pile on fire and others to plow over the charred remains with a bulldozer. "If you continue to make poor-quality products like these, I'll come back and do the same thing," he reportedly said. Since that moment, Samsung has stressed quality in its devices, helping it to earn the title of world's biggest phone maker in 2012. Lee never ordered another bonfire.
Last year's Galaxy Note 7 seemed like the ultimate manifestation of those ambitions, The phablet featured a curved 5.7-inch AMOLED screen and an iris scanner that let you unlock the phone with your eyes, It also boasted water resistance and a zippy stylus, Reviewers, including CNET's Jessica Dolcourt, called it one of the best phones ever made, You know what happened next, But the Galaxy Note 7 isn't Samsung's only recent crisis, Lee Jae-yong (also known as Jay Y, Lee), Samsung Electronics' vice chairman and heir apparent to Lee Kun-hee, has been linked to a corruption scandal that forced South Korean President Park Geun-hye out of office earlier this month, Samsung's de reflection iphone case facto leader was arrested and formally charged in February with embezzlement and bribing Park to gain support for a 2015 merger that cemented his control of the company..
The day after I arrive in Seoul, I stumble upon thousands of people celebrating Park's impeachment in Gwanghwamun Square outside the historic Gyeongbokgung Palace. Bands entertain the crowd from a stage, as vendors sell snacks and cushions to make the day more pleasant. Organizers pass out bright red signs that, translated from Korean, say, "This is how a country should be. This is justice." Later that week, I ask a woman teaching me Korean cooking what she thinks of Lee's part of the scandal. "We're used to it," she says. The elder Lee had been convicted of tax evasion in 2008, but pardoned the following year.
