Samsung's new Note7 update will cripple the phone's battery capacity

Shortly after the first recall of Samsung's Galaxy Note7, which was due to the phones' batteries overheating and catching fire, Samsung pushed an obligatory software update, which reduced the devices' battery capacity to 60%.

Now that the phone has been fully recalled and discontinued, some owners are still holding onto it. So Samsung is pushing a similar update in Europe, which will also be limiting the battery capacity to 60%.

"The update is the latest measure taken by the company to reduce customer risk and simultaneously drive all remaining Galaxy Note 7 customers in Europe to replace their devices immediately," Samsung said in a press release Tuesday.

According to Samsung, the measure "effectively minimised" customer risk the first time around, with "no incidents reported" from owners of devices which received the update.

The update, which is scheduled for Oct. 31, appears to be pertinent only to European customers; we've asked Samsung whether it plans to do something similar in the U.S. or globally, but the company rep we spoke to could not definitely confirm it.

According to Samsung, Europeans have been returning their Note7 phones quite ardently, with two-thirds of all devices in Europe replaced to date. We don't have the exact number of Note7 devices sold in Europe, but globally Samsung has sold around 2.5 million of them.

Besides making those leftover Note7 devices a bit safer for the rest of us, this also means that everyone who's still holding on to their Note7, contrary to Samsung's pleas, and virtually everyone else (including Mashable), should now give in and return their phone. Yes, the phone will still be semi-functional, but settling for 60% battery capacity when you have a choice to exchange the phone for a Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge is just insane.

In other Note7 news, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure said on Tuesday that most Samsung Note7 owners that returned the phone switched to a Samsung Galaxy S7 device. This is good news for Samsung, which offered financial incentives (of up to $100) in the U.S. for Note7 owners who replace it with another Samsung phone.