The Samsung Galaxy Note7 is dead. Samsung won’t build or sell any more after ongoing battery fire issues, and it wants customers to return every single one for a refund or an exchange to a different phone. Even if you keep your phone — and you shouldn’t — it’s being gimped more and more with over-the-air updates; first the battery charge was capped at 60 per cent, now Oculus has stopped the Note7 from working with its Gear VR virtual reality headset.
In an email to registered users, Oculus told customers that it had disabled compatibility with the Samsung Galaxy Note7, a phone that was released in August with a new version of the Gear VR headset compatible with its USB Type-C connector. It makes sense, given that the Note7 has proven dangerously flammable.
All purchases on the Oculus Store that customers have made with the Note7 can be refunded, and the company is urging customers to contact Samsung directly for any more information. This is another step in Samsung’s troubled, short-lived Note7 history, and it’s part of the necessary pain of such an extensive and expensive recall. Even though people on Reddit are pissed off, this has become a genuine safety issue. If you have a Galaxy Note7, return it.