Samsung tries to ease fears after new reports of phone fires

The company logo is displayed at the Samsung news conference at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, January 7, 2013. [Photo/Agencies]

Samsung Electronics Co tried on Monday to ease Chinese consumers' concerns over the safety of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphones after two more reports of fires involving the product.

Samsung said in a statement issued late on Monday that its research and quality inspection departments had concluded, after analyzing one of the Galaxy Note 7 phones that reportedly had exploded, that the damage to the phone was caused by "external heating".

The company has begun a limited recall of the phones that affects about 2,000 smart-phones provided in July and August on a trial basis before the phone's official launch on Sept 1 in China.

Amperex Technology Ltd, a battery supplier to Samsung Electronics, said on Monday that the Galaxy Note 7 smart-phones that are reported to have caught fire in China were "not directly" related to the batteries produced by ATL.

On Sunday, a Galaxy Note 7 user posted several photos on social media, saying his phone caught fire over the weekend.

On Monday, another user posted on a social media account that his Note 7 also had exploded.

One of the users said that while he was using the phone at home, its screen suddenly went blank and the phone began shaking, so he threw it and the phone exploded. He said he bought the phone on Sept 1.

Before the weekend incidents, Samsung, the world's largest smartphone maker, had said it would recall 1,858 Note 7 phones in China after the product was found to have battery problems, according to the country's product quality watchdog.

The recalled phones were manufactured between July 20 and Aug 5 and distributed in China through a Samsung website as part of a test before the Sept 1 official launch, China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said on its website.

On Sept 2, Samsung ceased sales of the Galaxy Note 7 and recalled 2.5 mil-lion Note 7 phones in 10 markets, including the Unit-ed States and South Korea.