Serious (and potentially harmful) bug detected with NX2000

First of all, hello to everyone. I am not new on DPReview, but I have been away for so long, I had to re-register (my bad, lost my old password and access to my old email)

Here is the long story, err, long...

I just got myself a new NX2000, which cost me basically peanuts, and I was very impressed with it up until recently. Who wouldn't be anyways when you pay less than a decent point and shoot for a APS-C sensor camera body with an acceptable lens?

Yesterday I was having a long shoot for my in-laws family event outdoors, and after a prolonged session, when we were almost at the end of the event, it shut down suddenly after taking a picture. I was using two of my other cameras for videos so NX2000 was strictly for taking pictures. I tried turning it on and off a few times with no success, so I assumed the battery was dead. I cannot keep an eye on the battery as I always use the level gauge, and you cannot have it on the screen at the same time with other -vital- information (nice thinking Samsung, by the way. We get what we pay for, right?). So I just left it in the "off" position and packed it up, as we were ready to leave.

When we reached home and I was unpacking, roughly 20-25 minutes later, I noticed that the case of the camera was really warm. When I took the camera out, I noticed that it was scorching hot! My better-half actually suggested that we should immediately put it out in the garden as might "explode" Needless to say upon my refusal she moved upstairs with our dog... (no kiddin', it was that hot)

It still was in the off position, and would not turn on. So I went through the manual and the manual suggests in relatively fine print that if the camera shuts down by itself you should remove the battery and let it cool down. I did as suggested. It took almost half an hour for the camera to cool down. After that, it was back to normal. Even the LCD screen which I was sure would fail as it was "too hot to touch", seemed to be functioning well. Memory card was ok with only the last file, the one being taken during the shut down, being corrupt.

I don't know if this had caused any permanent damage to the sensor, or any other component for that matter but what I cannot understand is, when you have an emergency overheat shut down, isn't it supposed to "shut down"? Instead it simply locked the camera to an semi-on state, and rendered the physical power button useless. I recon the sensor was still powered, ergo the excessive heat.

I was ready to believe that this was an isolated incident, until I saw that quote in the manual, saying that you need to remove the battery once it locks up / shuts down, to cool the device.

I apologize for the long post, but I thought people should now about it. In the end, as suggested again by the manual, the camera "might cause fires" (I would not rely on it if I go camping though, I'd rather take some matches with me.)

So if it ever happens to you, run for the battery, and take it out... Don't assume it is off, don't put it in it's case / your backpack etc., and most importantly, don't expect Samsung to put a proper overheat shutdown procedure in a camera you pay barely above $200.

Any criticism, comments and suggestions are more than welcome...