Report indicates Samsung killed the Note7 without figuring out what's wrong with it

During a mini brainstorming session at Mashable on Tuesday, a few of us that have been following Samsung's Galaxy Note7 fiasco tried (with little help from Samsung, which has been quite vague in its statements) to establish a timeline of events.

It appeared to us that, after receiving 92 user complaints of Note7 overheating and/or bursting into flames, the company quickly pinpointed the problem to one of the batteries used in the device (the Note7 was originally shipped with batteries from two different plants).

But replacement phones appeared to suffer from the same or similar problem, making it unlikely that it's just the battery causing the overheating. So Samsung decided to stop the bleeding and just pull the device altogether -- likely before it really figured out why the phones are bursting into flames.

The above is mostly speculation, but a new report from the New York Times appears to confirm the theory. According to the NYT's sources, Samsung employees testing the devices (and there were "hundreds" of them) could not replicate the problem as of this week. The decision to permanently stop production of the Note7 came Tuesday.

When you can't replicate an issue, that pretty much means you don't know the exact cause. One of the NYT's sources for the story, former director of the Center for Advanced Batteries at the Korea Electronics Technology Institute Park Chul-wan, says the issue is probably "far more complex" than some error with the battery or the chip board.

"In a race to surpass iPhone, Samsung seems to have packed it with so much innovation it became uncontrollable."

Although this is an educated guess, it's still a guess. Yes, it could be a complex combination of factors -- perhaps both inside and outside factors -- that's making those batteries boil. It's also still possible that the cause for all those Note7 devices bursting into flames is relatively simple, but Samsung simply hasn't figured it out fast enough. It could even be two entirely separate problems, as this report suggests.

Samsung never clearly stated the reason for the Note7's exploding issues; the company said it was a "very rare manufacturing error" that causes the anode to come into contact with the cathode, which in turns causes the overheating of the battery cell, but that explanation now sounds sorely lacking.

We've contacted Samsung for an updated explanation of what's really happening with the Note7, but have not yet heard from them.

Regardless of whether Samsung knew, exactly, why the Note7 batteries' keep bursting or not, the decision to recall the device for good was the right one. It might cost the company billions (up to $17 billion by one estimate), but it was just too dangerous to leave that phone in the hands of consumers. For an idea why, just check this surveillance footage of a Note7 bursting into flames -- the sixth publicly reported case of the phone exploding in the U.S.

As we've said many times this week, if you own a Note7, regardless of whether it's a pre-replacement or a replacement device, you should immediately turn it off, return it to the place of purchase and exchange it for a different phone or money.

BONUS: Watch a Note7 go up in smoke.