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That sorry sight up there is a man’s prized new Galaxy S III, which melted after “white flame, sparks and a bang” came out of the thing while the smartphone was sitting in his car-mounted dock.
The owner, who bravely reported on and photographed this horror on a web forum, said his new Galaxy had “burned from the inside out” enough to melt through the plastic casing at the top and stop the phone getting a mobile signal, although the mobile’s display continued to work after the miniature explosion.
The chap took it back to the shop he bought it from but was, rather incredibly, told it’d have to be sent away for checks before he’d know if he’d be allowed to have a replacement. Meanwhile, Samsung says it is “aware of this issue and will begin investigating as soon as we receive the specific product in question.” [Boards.ie via Engadget]
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Sounds like a damaged Lipo cell, could happen with any battery.
Indeed, there was a vogue for exploding phone stories a while back. Obviously Samsung have to take this seriously and see if something in the design or build was responsible. It would have been good PR for them to loan him a phone in the meantime, but you can’t have everything.
That’s not the battery that exploded, but rather the connection chip that interface the cable to the battery.
Are you sure, because “white flame, sparks and a bang” sounds just like the Lipo batteries failures I’ve seen while doing RC stuff.
Look at the photo. The battery is quite a distance away from the burnt mark. Also, I had a electrical engineer friend who always charged his battery with an external charger because he’s paranoia about the quality of the charging chip.
Of course they have to send it off to be checked before they give a free replacement. We, and they, have absolutely no idea whether he was doing something he shouldn’t have been when it happened irrespective of his statement. One question I would have is whether this car-mounted dock was also charging and if so, was it suitable for the SGS3? If it turns out it is a genuine fault in the device I’m sure he’ll get an apology and replacement but until they know that, the company has every right to validate his claims.
Unfortunately I agree with Udimon’s statement regardless of how “cold” samsung’s statement may be viewed as. It’s the policy. We gotta follow the policies people or all hell breaks loose !
Agreed, the car dock seems like an important part of the story here which needs to be investigated
You are right, but if it turns he was in fact telling the truth, he could also get compensation as well as a new phone, reason being is that they made him wait.
One out of like 10 million? Yet haters still gonna act like this is happening to them all even though we see reports of this with other makes of phones.
“…while the smart phone was sitting in his car-mounted dock”: In the window and in the Sun I wonder? Nothing does well in that situation, but hey, a good story for the haters and sensationalists.
There is merit in this story. My Galaxy S III gets quite hot in that exact same area.
He’s already been hand delivered a new phone by Samsung’s head of customer services. I think they may not be happy about the PR this has generated.
Whoa, Giz better stop reporting on anything bad happening to a phone… judging by some of the comments here it’s just fuel for the fire.
Funny thing is… I see no haters; only people complaining about haters.