Apple is often accused of copying features from competitors, but if there’s one comparison the company would like to avoid with its just-released iPhone 7, it would be that it explodes just like Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7. Unfortunately, it appears that at least one shiny new iPhone just couldn’t help mimicking the Note and exploded before it even reached its owner.
kroopthesnoop
Reddit user Kroopthesnoop says that his coworker’s brand new iPhone 7 Plus arrived in a most peculiar state. Kroopthesnoop included a photo of the device, which his coworker claims exploded inside its packaging before he even unwrapped it.
The photo included in the original post shows an iPhone 7 Plus that is most certainly charred beyond any hope of repair. The packaging appears to have suffered some burns and obvious distress as well, though miraculously it didn’t continue to burn after the phone lost its cool.
There are a few things point to this story being at least believable. The owner doesn’t claim any property was damaged by the device, which largely rules out the possibility that they set fire to the device intentionally for monetary gain. Additionally, Kroopthesnoop says that his coworker is already in touch with an Apple representative in Texas to go over the details and sort out exactly what went wrong, and when.
There’s still plenty of reason to be skeptical, and even if the phone did indeed suffer a catastrophic meltdown, there’s no reason to suspect a Note-7-like situation is going to plague Apple’s new device.
Still, it’s some seriously bad timing on behalf of the defective device.
H/T BGR