Samsung Electronics says to halt Galaxy Note 7 sales on battery problem

SEOUL (Reuters) - Tech giant Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Friday it will halt the sales of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphones and will prepare replacement devices for phones already sold after finding problems with the battery cell used.

Samsung, in a statement, said it will take about two weeks to prepare replacement devices for the phones already sold. It was not clear when new sales of the devices would begin.

(Reporting by Se Young Lee; Editing by Christopher Cushing)