Samsung has delayed shipments of its Galaxy Note 7 in South Korea over reports of exploding batteries.
Reuters on Thursday reported that the tech giant confirmed it has halted shipments to South Korea's top three mobile carriers while it conducts quality control tests. Samsung did not immediately respond to PCMag's request for comment, and the company did not mention to Reuters the problem it's trying to address, or whether markets beyond South Korea will be affected.
"This is some major buzz-kill for Samsung, especially given all of the hard-earned excitement that products like the Note 7 have been garnering lately," IDC analyst Bryan Ma told Reuters. "The pending Apple launch puts all the more pressure for them to contain this quickly. The timing of this couldn't have been worse."
The delay comes after at least two Note 7 users in recent days have claimed their phones exploded while charging. Business Korea on Wednesday reported that a user on the popular Korean social media service Kakao Story this week posted images of a burned Note 7, and suggested a third-party charger may actually be to blame.
"There was another explosion of the Galaxy Note 7. It was my friend's phone," the user reportedly wrote in the now-deleted post. "You should use its original charger just in case and leave the phone far away from where you are while charging."
That post came after images of a separate burned Note 7 hit the online community Ppomppu last week.
"My boyfriend's Galaxy Note 7 exploded while charging at night," the Ppomppu user wrote, according to Business Korea. "I woke up by the bang and the smell of smoke."