Samsung pushes update that limits battery charge to European Note 7 owners

Samsung will begin sending an over-the-air update to European Note 7 users who have not complied with the recall on October 31. After installing the update, the battery can be charged to a maximum of sixty percent.

With the ota, Samsung wants to encourage owners of the Note 7 to return their device. Two-thirds of the devices sold in Europe are said to have been returned, CNET reports based on a press release from Samsung. It is not known how many copies are still in circulation.

Whether users who consciously choose to keep the Note 7 will install the update, however, remains to be seen. Samsung also says that using the device after the update is still not safe, although no cases of battery explosions have been reported in devices with the battery charge limit.

In mid-September, Samsung sent out a similar update in South Korea and a week later in Australia, when it was not yet known that the smartphone would be withdrawn from the market in its entirety. The ota was to serve as a temporary solution so that users could use their device pending a trade-in.