China has the worst luck with smartphones. One person is dead, and another seriously injured, after an iPhone delivered a deadly shock to both victims. Now a man’s apartment has burnt down thanks to his Galaxy S4.
Xianguo reports that a Hong Kong man with the surname Du was playing a game on his Galaxy S4 when it allegedly exploded and caught fire in his hand. He immediately threw the phone onto his couch. Unfortunately, his couch proved highly flammable and the fire spread throughout his entire apartment. It even reportedly spread to his Mercedes parked outside.
Now, the logical explanation for all of this is that Du was using a shoddy battery or charger on his Galaxy S4. He says that is not the case, and is adamant that he was using official Samsung parts at the time of the explosion. Unfortunately, there’s no way to prove this immediately as the phone and its parts were destroyed in the fire.
As expected, Samsung isn’t going to let this go without an investigation though. The company announced that it will look into the matter to find if its parts were truly at fault. The Register notes that Samsung has dealt with allegations of exploding phones in the past, and usually finds that the person reporting the defective device was using third-party knock off components. Of course, that’s not always the case.
The moral of this story is that you should always use official parts direct from Samsung or a certified dealer. The prevalence of cheap knock-offs isn’t as much of a problem in the U.S. as it is in countries like China, but it’s still something to watch out for. A good way to avoid cheap parts is realizing that they’re cheap for a reason.
[h/t: The Register]