Samsung Galaxy S3 Reportedly Explodes in Car, Investigation Underway

Samsung no doubt thinks its Galaxy S III smartphone is red hot and ready to smoke the competition, but a user in Dublin has experienced something else entirely. His Galaxy S III, he wrote on a chat board June 20, exploded while docked in his car.

“I was driving along … when suddenly a white flame, sparks and a bang came out of the phone,” the Samsung owner wrote, using the handle dillo2k10. An included link to a Facebook page says he’s a university student named Dylan Kershaw. He added that the phone burned from the inside out and “burned through the plastic and melted my case to my phone. The phone kept working but without any signal.”

A photo posted to the site shows a phone with some sort of serious, but not externally extensive, fire damage.

The Irish student added that he brought the phone to Carphone Warehouse—a popular phone seller; it’s really only the model in the United States to purchase a phone through a carrier—where he was told the matter would need to be looked into.

“They didn’t even give me a replacement phone, left with nothing,” he wrote. “The phone was destroyed and it slightly burned a piece of plastic on the inside of my car.  … Probably nothing I can do, but I’m really annoyed. That could have burned the side of my face or through my pocket and my leg, or set fire to my bed. It’s very dangerous.”

Samsung, recognizing a potential public relations nightmare when it hears one, hurried to pay the lad a visit.

“The head of customer services came out to see me and gave me a replacement phone. Even said he would send me out some free stuff,” dillo2k10 wrote in an update to the post.

Samsung acknowledged on its Samsung Tomorrow site that it is looking into the matter. In said in a June 21 blog post:

There have been recent online posts displaying pictures of a Samsung GALAXY S3 that appears to have heat-related damage at the bottom of the device. Samsung is aware of this issue and will begin investigating as soon as we receive the specific product in question.

Once the investigation is complete, we will be able to provide further details on the situation. We are committed to providing our customers with the safest products possible and are looking at this seriously.

Samsung is not the first one to be facing such issues. Apple has had numerous cases similar to this one with its iPhones. We’ll have to wait and see if any more similar incidents are reported before we can conclude anything.

Via: EWeek