Because stats, and physics.
Samsung says it's sold some 2.5 million Note 7's, and that there are 35 reports of batteries exploding while charging.
First, the stats. 2.5 million phones. 35 failures worldwide. That's a failure rate of roughly 1 in 71,500 or about 0.0014%.
In the meantime, Americans (who like tracking these stats more than others it seems) put up with 220 million flat tires per year, 51 fatalities per year due to lightning strikes, and 113 fatalities falling off ladders.
And we worry about 35 phones?
Second, there's the physics.
I've yet to see an actual "explosion." I've only seen pictures of the after-effects. So I'm not sure "explosion" (which brings to mind something Michael Bay would concoct) is really the best description of the phenomenon - unless, of course, you're writing clickbait.
What the headlines all neglect is that the "explosions" all seem to happen when the phone is charging. Indeed, I've found many sources indicating that the explosions happen when the phone is charging and a microUSB to USB-C is converter is being used. I've not seen anything definitive, but it may be that it's not even the battery that's the root cause, but the microUSB to USB-C converter. It may even be that it's a problem with the fast-charging feature. Or it may be a problem with phones left attached to their chargers even after the battery is 100% charged (which suggests a fix may be possible in software).
The fact remains, though, that so far the failures occur during charging (and probably with a converter) and not during use. So that significantly decreases the odds that I'll be hurt by the phone "exploding." And I don't use the microUSB to USB-C converter, so that lowers the odds even more.
Does that mean Samsung can skip the recall? Absolutely not! Indeed, Samsung is doing exactly the right thing - in the interest of product quality and customer satisfaction. It needs to prove it's willing to bear the responsibility for the products it makes. And replacing every single phone certainly falls into that category of response.
Will we get replacements? You betcha! It'd be stupid to ignore the very, very small chance that something could go wrong with our phones. But it's also nothing to lose any sleep over. And it's certainly nothing for the Internet to lose its collective shit over.
Bottom line, though, is this: yes, it's bad when a phone "explodes," but this is not a phoneocalypse. Relax. It'll be fixed.
And notwithstanding the battery thing, don't forget what a great phone the Note 7 is.
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