The year is ending pretty soon, so this should be the right time to finally do a recap of all the "what has beens" of the year. There are quite a number of controversies and interesting stories that have shown up in the tech headlines. However, these three are probably the ones that are interesting enough to have stayed in the headlines longer than the others.
Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Explosion Controversy
Samsung announced the Note 7 August and released it September, as per GSM Arena. It was quite a great release and the device is undeniably a big improvement over its predecessor. However, within just a few weeks, the first explosion case for the Note 7 came to surface. It could have been just an isolated case as that incident was said to have involved a non-official charging device. However, not long after that, another explosion case came out and soon enough the explosion cases surfaced one after the other.
The said explosion issue has been blamed for the Note 7's faulty batteries. With that, Samsung felt the need to do a recall program for the device. They initially started a recall program where they were still replacing the "faulty" Note 7 devices with "fixed" ones. However, soon enough, these "fixed" replacement Note 7 units started exploding too. With that, Samsung finally discontinued the Galaxy Note 7 as a whole, never to return to the market again. The company asked every Note 7 owners to return their devices and have it replaced with practically any phone plus a refund of any price difference or just get a full refund instead.
Mixed Reactions Received By Apple's iPhone 7 and 7 Plus
The other star of this year's recap is Apple's iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. Well, Apple's iPhones always attract the attention of everyone year after year after year. The said phone is practically the only phone that drives people wild. As usual, people still lined up outside Apple stores right before the release of the new iPhones. Needless to say, these phones still got mixed reactions from the masses. Some loved it to bits and others just loved to hate on it.
There are quite a number of reasons why people should love the new iPhones. For one, they are still speedier than most of its current competitors. Also, there's no denying how premium-looking these phones are. Plus, the fact that the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are waterproof is quite enough reason to love it.
Nevertheless, there are also reasons why these phones are understandably hated by the haters. For one, they aren't so many improvements of their predecessors. They practically look the same as the older models. Also, the headphone jack removal is one big issue. The need to remove such a conventional part of the iPhone isn't understood by many smartphone users.
Samsung Galaxy Note Series' Reputation Not As Stained As Expected
If there's one winner as this year's tech star, it would probably be the Galaxy Note 7. People may think that the Note 7 controversy ended when the company discontinued it. However, months after those series of stressful incidents for Samsung disappeared from news sites, the company and the phablet is back on headlines for all the weird reasons. Apparently, not every owner of Note 7 returned their devices and the company is doing all that it can to urge these people to do so. Samsung has resorted to releasing a bricking update for the remaining Note 7 to make them practically unusable.
This pretty much leads to a simple conclusion - the Note 7 is one amazing device. Rebellious owners wouldn't rebel from Samsung's recall program if there are appropriate alternatives for the Note 7 on the market. Samsung's ultimate step of bricking the remaining Note 7 devices says so much about how much people would have wanted to hold onto their units as much as they can. With that said, it seems like the Note series' reputation isn't exactly as stained as other people thought it must be. In fact, this also forecasts the amount of people who are buying the Note 8 when it gets released. People who were unhappy to return their Note 7 devices must be awaiting the Note 8's arrival.
