Recently a teenager named Brianna Olivas posted a video (warning: explicit) of her cracked rose gold iPhone 7 Plus with smoke spewing out the side of the device. Olivas said that the iPhone 7 Plus exploded on Wednesday morning and her boyfriend caught the incident on video. The video of the iPhone 7 Plus smoking after the explosion has been seen about 1.3 million times so far, according to Mashable. Here is a screenshot of the tweet that Olivas posted on Twitter following the incident:
It is unclear why the iPhone 7 Plus combusted and started smoking from the side, but it most likely had something to do with the lithium ion battery inside of the device. Olivas confirmed that she always used her authentic Apple charger and did not use any knockoff adapters. In the past, other iPhone models caught on fire due to knockoff adapters. However, many Twitter commenters are speculating that it may have had something to do with the case she was using on her device. Apple said it was investigating the matter and told Mashable: "We are in touch with the customer and looking into it."
Olivas told Mashable that she bought the iPhone 7 Plus from the Sprint store in January. And then it stopped powering on recently so she took it to the Apple Store on Tuesday. The Apple Store employees ran some tests and then it started working normally again. But her iPhone 7 Plus ended up catching on fire the very next day. Here is how Olivas describes what happened:
The next morning I was asleep with my phone charging next to my head, my boyfriend grabbed the phone and put it on the dresser. He went the the [sic] restroom ... and from the corner of his eye he saw my phone steaming and [heard] a squealing noise. By the time he got over to the phone it had already caught fire, he quickly grabbed the phone and threw it in the restroom ... as soon as he threw it in the restroom is [sic] blew up and more smoke started coming out of the phone.
This is not the first time that Apple investigated an iPhone 7 for reportedly catching on fire. Back in October 2016, Apple investigated a claim that an iPhone 7 overheated and destroyed a surfer's car in Australia. And Reddit user Kroopthesnoop shared photos of a co-worker’s iPhone 7 Plus that seemed to combust while in transit in September 2016.
Samsung, Apple’s largest rival, had to set up a massive recall due to a battery manufacturing defect in the Galaxy Note7 last year. The battery defect in the Galaxy Note7 caused some of the devices to combust, which ended up causing major problems for a number of owners. For example, a Galaxy Note7 owner was hospitalized due to acute bronchitis after inhaling smoke following an explosion several months ago. And a Southwest Airlines flight had to be evacuated in Louisville following the combustion of a Galaxy Note7.
Olivas handed the destroyed iPhone 7 Plus to Apple and was immediately issued a replacement. The Apple Genius Bar employee that examined the destroyed iPhone 7 told Olivas that he had "never seen anything like this." Apple is expected to conduct some tests and determine what happened within the next week or so.
What are your thoughts about this incident? Will this affect whether you buy an iPhone 7 Plus? Please leave a comment!
