Samsung Galaxy S III explodes onto the scene, literally

posted by Alan F.

Jun 21, 2012, 7:31 AM

Samsung Galaxy S III explodes onto the scene, literally

The phone melted right through the case

Its the kind of thing that could have happened to anyone. A guy is driving in a car with his brand new Samsung Galaxy S III safely snuggled into its car dock with the charger not plugged in. All of a sudden, he is startled by a flash of white smoke, sparks and a loud bang came from the device. Stopping the car to examine the phone, he found it had been burned at the bottom and had melted through the case. The guy brings the phone back to the Carphone Warehouse and was told that the phone would have to be sent in to Samsung. And that is how they left it, no replacement phone, no unit for this gentleman to use.

Samsung had apparently found out about the incident and issued a statement that said that the company is aware of the situation and is investigating. Meanwhile, the poor guy narrowly escapes serious damage to this face, his hands or his pocket and ends up with no phone for the moment while the investigation goes on. We knew that the Samsung Galaxy S III was hot, but hot enough to melt the phone?

"There have been recent online posts displaying pictures of a Samsung GALAXY SIII that appears to have heat-related damage at the bottom of the device. Samsung is aware of this issue and will begin investigating as soon as we receive the specific product in question.Once the investigation is complete, we will be able to provide further details on the situation. We are committed to providing our customers with the safest products possible and are looking at this seriously."-Samsung statement

source: Boards.ie via DailyMobile

The Samsung Galaxy S III unit after the explosion

Related phones

View Full specs

PhoneArena Rating:

9.3

Read Full Review

User Rating:

8.7

Based on 113 Reviews

Display 4.8 inches
1280 x 720 pixels

Camera 8 MP (Single camera)
1.9 MP front

Hardware Samsung Exynos 4 Quad, 1GB RAM

Storage 32GB, microSDXC

Battery 2100 mAh

OS Android 4.3
Samsung TouchWiz UI

FEATURED VIDEO

Options

91 Comments

90. becazican

Posts: 52; Member since: Nov 09, 2011

strange i have my samsung galaxy s3 and i am comparing the back with that phone, there should be writing on the bottom of the back say galaxy sIII but there isnt any on this pic and i have blown the pic up to 400 percent

posted on Jun 22, 2012, 3:04 PM 0

80. Hammerfest

Posts: 384; Member since: May 12, 2012

Someone else already posted it but I dont feel like getting lost in a reply chain: The factors are not clear from what I read, he said it was in his car dock*, and that the adapter wasnt plugged in** Now to go over this statement: *I have a car dock as well for my device, when I plug it in, the CORD for the ADAPTER gets plugged in, snazzy car-dock if you ask me, which leads me to: **Does he say what his adapter wasnt plugged in TO? IE It could have been plugged into the phone, but not the vehicle! So if he had a 3rd party POS car dock and just didnt have the adapter plugged into the vehicle to charge, Its POSSIBLE, see that I said POSSIBLE that the problem didnt/doesnt originate from the device itself, and a recall shouldnt be necessary... but a WARNING should ALWAYS be given about 3rd party adapters! (hell should be an industry standard) I tried to go over the source, but its a TL;DR situation, and CTRL+F didnt find any relative terms... Also of note: I watched people talking on their cell phones ever since what was it a week ago with the SG3 "antanna gate" Samsung style came out... GUESS WHAT, the majority of people DID in-fact have their hand covering the back/bottom portions of the phone... GJ apple and samsung with antanna placement!

posted on Jun 21, 2012, 4:16 PM 2

78. BrandonRico

Posts: 12; Member since: Mar 29, 2012

Designed for Humans

posted on Jun 21, 2012, 2:20 PM 3

77. davidneary01

Posts: 16; Member since: Nov 25, 2008

omg, i don't want to die...

posted on Jun 21, 2012, 1:57 PM 1

76. gallitoking

Posts: 4721; Member since: May 17, 2011

wow this beats the iphone going in flames..

posted on Jun 21, 2012, 12:46 PM 2

75. Watchmanz

Posts: 12; Member since: May 01, 2012

Why should this guy have to wait? It's clearly a warranty issue and should have been replaced immediately by the carrier.

posted on Jun 21, 2012, 12:30 PM 1

73. jove39

Posts: 2153; Member since: Oct 18, 2011

Got myself one x, Feeling lucky :)

posted on Jun 21, 2012, 11:48 AM 2

71. skymitch89

Posts: 1453; Member since: Nov 05, 2010

At least Samsung admits that one of it's devices has had a problem and didn't put the blame on the user. I take it that this was an international version? I think that this might have happened because of the quad-core processor and no ventilation on the device. I'm thinking that with all the mobile processing power that is coming out to devices, and the larger screens and batteries, device manufacturers need to start putting in cooling vents/cooling fans like they do with laptops. I'd rather have a device that is thicker with a cooling fan than have a device that is really thin and prone to overheating.

posted on Jun 21, 2012, 11:34 AM 1

65. yazbuh

Posts: 29; Member since: Jun 21, 2012

Lucky I didn't buy a SGS3 immedately.... Sticky to the S2 for a while...

posted on Jun 21, 2012, 11:03 AM 2

87. wendygarett unregistered

Agree sgs2 is way better than sgs3... I dont give a f**k whether it is quad core or not...

posted on Jun 21, 2012, 10:26 PM 0

63. vietnam83

Posts: 2; Member since: Jun 21, 2012

That dumb ass is lying! He plugged in his cheap ass charger which cause the short. If he just got the phone from the store what the first thing he do when he get to his car? Plug it in and charge it!

posted on Jun 21, 2012, 11:01 AM 1

62. becazican

Posts: 52; Member since: Nov 09, 2011

so when did this guy get his galaxy 3 that it already exploded, it came out today ,preorders were not received till today , this article came out 3 hours ago , i would say thats damn fast. its a fake.

posted on Jun 21, 2012, 10:57 AM 1

60. sithman

Posts: 299; Member since: Apr 21, 2012

iPhone cracks if u drop it. Gs3 explodes if u purchase it. Death grip vs explosagrip

posted on Jun 21, 2012, 10:43 AM 4

59. sithman

Posts: 299; Member since: Apr 21, 2012

Bring on the new iPhone. Can we say build quality.

posted on Jun 21, 2012, 10:42 AM 3

56. remixfa

Posts: 14605; Member since: Dec 19, 2008

man, now samsung phones are exploding. Where is taco to come in screaming that samsung is copying apple's iExplode feature!?!?

posted on Jun 21, 2012, 10:16 AM 6

81. wendygarett unregistered

Taco has tried his best not to bashing around... So don't taunt him please :)

posted on Jun 21, 2012, 5:14 PM 1

50. MEeee

Posts: 449; Member since: Oct 19, 2011

This guy used a $1 made in China charger to charge his S3 and lied about it to get a free replacement S3.

posted on Jun 21, 2012, 9:53 AM 3

55. OpTiMuS_BlAcK

Posts: 418; Member since: May 04, 2012

And what would it benefit him exactly?

posted on Jun 21, 2012, 10:12 AM 2

70. vietnam83

Posts: 2; Member since: Jun 21, 2012

free replacement... if he said i use a none approve charger he would not get a replacement!

posted on Jun 21, 2012, 11:23 AM 0

44. yougotkilled1

Posts: 167; Member since: Apr 27, 2011

Well, at least Samsung is approaching the problem after seeing it happen once. Unlike other phone companies, they would wait to see if more people would submit the problem. Sad day to see such a beast of a phone have something faulty like that :(

posted on Jun 21, 2012, 9:08 AM 3

43. medicci37

Posts: 1361; Member since: Nov 19, 2011

That model was made strictly 4 export to the mid-east. It was jut a minor shipping error.

posted on Jun 21, 2012, 9:06 AM 0

40. wmdprod

Posts: 2; Member since: Jun 14, 2012

this is a made up fluke story by the owner trying to make headlines, whos ever phones this is obviously trying to bring bad rap to this phone. plus no way without it being connected could it create a charge like that to melt the device in one spot. If the battery exploded or such it would have been in a larger area,

posted on Jun 21, 2012, 8:52 AM 1

42. becazican

Posts: 52; Member since: Nov 09, 2011

i think you are most likely right. i think its a made up story too

posted on Jun 21, 2012, 9:00 AM 1

39. APPLE_R0YALLY

Posts: 73; Member since: May 08, 2012

Really good news, just received an update on the Galaxy note, and upgraded to ICS. LOVING IT. ENJOYING IT! Must say its better than IOS 5.0.... its way much faster than GB 2.3.6... ™®………!