Samsung is taking the heat for a flashlight problem your iPhone and Pixel share

A TikTok of a Samsung flashlight melting through a trash bag has racked up over 13 million views, and the comments are exactly what you'd expect: panic, jokes about pocket fires, and a lot of people swearing off Samsung. The panic, however, is missing the point.

What the viral video actually shows

The clip from creator @neev.akavak shows a Galaxy S25 FE's flashlight burning a hole through a black plastic bag in seconds. It looks alarming, and it spread fast enough that several outlets decided to put it through a real test.

A real-world test was run using the Galaxy S26 Ultra, the iPhone 17 Pro Max, and the Pixel 10 Pro at maximum brightness inside a black trash bag. The Galaxy melted through fastest, but the iPhone burned a hole too. The Pixel took longer, however, it still did damage.

This isn't a Samsung problem

Here's what the viral framing gets wrong: this is a flagship flashlight problem, not a Samsung defect. Modern phones use seriously powerful LED modules to support photography, and that brightness translates to real heat when concentrated in a small area.

Samsung already knows this, which is why its phones display a warning when you crank the flashlight to maximum. The white trash bags didn't melt in any of the tests because lighter colors reflect light instead of soaking it up as heat.

The Pixel 10 Pro situation was actually scarier

A month ago, we covered Pixel 10 Pro owners reporting burn marks on their flashlight lenses, with one user claiming a Pixel 10 Pro XL scorched a keyboard's palm rest. That's a $999 phone melting itself, which is a much bigger story than a TikTok stunt with a garbage bag.

The idea is the same, though. Flashlights on flagships are getting hot enough to cause damage when heat has nowhere to escape. A trash bag in a controlled test is one thing, however your phone face-down on a synthetic backpack with the light accidentally on is a real scenario.

What you should actually do about it

Forget the viral fearmongering. The genuine risk is accidental activation, especially with lock screen shortcuts that are easy to trigger when sliding a phone into a pocket.

Both iOS 26 and Android 16 let you adjust flashlight intensity by long-pressing the flashlight icon in Control Center or Quick Settings. Turning it down a notch reduces heat output and the chance of an accident you don't notice until you smell something. If you don't use the lock screen flashlight shortcut, disabling it is one of the smartest things you can do this week.

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