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Apple says that it is intvestigating a video showing an iPhone 7 Plus engulfed in smoke emitting from a large crack in the device that went viral this week.
The video, posted on Twitter by Brianna Olivas, shows a large part of the phone’s display pulling away from its aluminium chassis. Right now the video has over 1.68 million views and over 25,000 retweets.
So my IPhone 7 plus blew up this morning ???? was not even using it, literally no explanation for this pic.twitter.com/sQ8CJt4Y69
— Bree? (@briannaolivas_) February 23, 2017
Speaking to Mashable, Olivas said that the day before she was having trouble turning her phone on and took it to an Apple store, just one month after purchasing it. Employees ran tests and the phone appeared to be working fine. The next day however she claims that the phone apparently caught fire when it was sat on her dresser.
"The next morning I was asleep with my phone charging next to my head, my boyfriend grabbed the phone and put it on the dresser," she said via a direct message on Twitter to the site. "He went the the [sic] 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 is [sic] blew up and more smoke started coming out of the phone."
Olivas has handed the phone over to Apple, and the company says that it is "in touch with the customer and looking into" the cause of the malfunction. The firm however has not yet provided an explanation for what exactly happened and why.
Users are now more conscious and aware of battery malfunctions than ever before due to Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 controversy that saw examples of the smartphone spontaneously catch fire and the entire product range being discontinued and recalled. While there’s no evidence of this iPhone catching fire and it is one isolated incident, Apple will hope that this is not tied to a wider problem.
