14 DAY TRIAL // Exploding smartphones are nothing unusual these days, but here’s what’s believed to be the first case of a feature phone that burst into flames while charging.
It happened with the JioPhone 4G, a phone manufactured by Indian company Reliance Jio and specifically aimed at the local market.
Pictures of the aftermath that were posted and then deleted on and from Twitter show the feature phone with a huge hole on the back in the place where the battery normally is. The surprising thing is that the battery pack actually appears to be in good condition, despite the back cover nearly entirely melted.
A report from PhoneRadar indicates the parent company has already conducted an investigation and one of the experts that looked into the incident has been cited as saying that the battery was even working after the explosion.
What’s more, a photo showing the charger appears to reveal that the charging cable experienced some sort of melting close to the connector, so if overheating indeed occurred, it didn’t take place in the battery compartment.
“It’s sabotage”
Parent company reliance says the phone that burst into flames wasn’t actually defective, and puts the blame on what it calls “sabotage.” This means somebody intentionally caused the explosion on a phone in mint condition, they say.
“JioPhones are designed and manufactured with global standards, and each phone goes through stringent quality control process. The said incident has been reported to us. Our initial investigation suggests that this is a case of intentional sabotage. The damage to the device seems to have been intentionally caused. The incident, as well as its timing, has been designed by vested interests to malign the brand. We will take appropriate action based on further investigations,” a company spokesperson was quoted as saying.
Right now, it’s pretty hard to tell who says the truth, but by the looks of things, feature phones can catch fire just as easily as smartphones. Keeping an eye on any device that’s plugged in no longer seems just a good idea, but a thing that each and every one of us should do.