A woman's Galaxy S25 FE exploded inches away from her head and her 8-year-old while sleeping

First things first: the infuriated owner explicitly says that the phone wasn't under a pillow. Instead, it was "behind, as in ABOVE" their head at night.

This is an important clarification, since some fellow Redditors suggested the user was charging it wrong and if it was under a pillow, that would be a major factor. Of course, if the device was indeed under a pillow, its built-in protections should've stopped the charging process.

So, the Samsung Galaxy S25 FE unit was charging on the owner's bed. She woke up during the night to loud popping sounds similar to fireworks as pieces of metal and plastic were sent flying across the room. Her 8-year-old son, who was sleeping beside her, witnessed the incident and was left deeply shaken by what happened.

No prior problems

According to the owner, the phone had never shown signs of overheating before the explosion and was being charged with its original cable along with a compatible charging brick. The author admits the device had been left charging directly on the mattress, which isn't an ideal place, even though the room itself was kept unusually cold.

Emergency responders arrived to deal with the smoke, and firefighters submerged the damaged phone in salt water afterward.

Thankfully, the unlucky owner suffered minor injuries, including singed hair and a small burn on the neck, while their bedroom sustained an awful chemical smell from the battery fire.

But her son has now become afraid of electronics and no longer wants devices plugged in around him, including his Nintendo Switch.

Remember the Note 7 scandal?

I would rather not blow things out of proportion, but it's safe to say that even one exploding phone can be too much. Fire, especially in your bedroom while you're asleep, is no joke.

It's worrisome that another Galaxy phone has exploded in a span of under a month – and there might be other cases that we know nothing about – so I'll be watching closely for other similar reports.

Samsung must be paying its full attention to the matter, too. The company has a story to tell about exploding electronics.

Ten years ago, in 2016, Samsung went through a major crisis after reports emerged that some Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones were overheating, catching fire and even exploding.

But why?

This was because of defects in the phone's lithium-ion batteries, which could short-circuit under certain conditions.

Samsung first announced a global recall in September 2016 and replaced millions of devices, but even some replacement units later experienced the same problem.

To this day, some airlines explicitly list the Galaxy Note 7 in their restricted objects on board over safety concerns. This truly damaged Samsung's reputation at the time. The company eventually discontinued the Galaxy Note 7 entirely and urged all customers to power off and return their devices.

This scandal is likely why Samsung hasn't changed its 5,000 mAh battery for seven years in their Galaxy S Ultra flagships. The company might be too afraid to try massive 10,000 mAh batteries like Honor.