Apple is investigating why an iPhone 7 Plus allegedly ‘blew up,’ following the posting of a video of the device catching fire.
iPhone 7 Plus owner Brianna Olivas filmed the concerning video Wednesday, which shows dense smoke coming from the side of her device underneath its melted Rose Gold finish.
The clip has already been viewed more than 1 million times.
An Apple spokesperson told the Daily Dot, “We are in touch with the customer and looking into it.”
It still isn’t clear what might have caused the phone to catch fire.
The prime suspect in any incident of this sort is a faulty charger. There is always a risk in using third-party chargers, especially from an unknown brand. In 2013, a 23-year-old China Southern Airlines stewardess was tragically killed by an electric shock from a third-party iPhone charger.
Olivas told Gizmodo she was using the original Apple charger with the phone and didn’t run into any issues until earlier that week.
The 18-year-old did have some unexpected problems prior to the incident. She says she visited an Apple store after the device, which she purchased in January, failed to turn on. The blue-shirted problem solvers ran a bunch of diagnostic tests but didn’t find any issues.
The next morning, her phone caught on fire.
“I was asleep with my phone charging next to my head, my boyfriend grabbed the phone and put it on the dresser,” Olivas told Mashable. “He went to the 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 it blew up and more smoke started coming out of the phone.”
This incident is eerily similar to the catastrophe that ended the Samsung Galaxy Note 7. While there have been numerous unverified reports of iPhone 7 explosions and battery inflation over the past months, as of now, nothing suggests Apple devices have widespread defects similar to those found with the Note 7.
Apple has already issued Olivas a replacement device. Representatives told her they are conducting tests and will know more within a week.
H/T the Verge