Image Credit: Tech Case
WHAT HAPPENED?
The incident occurred in Bangalore where a Redmi Note 4 exploded in a mobile phone shop when a shopkeeper tried to insert a SIM card into it. Although most phone blasts occur while charging, there have been some phones like the current one which exploded while not being charged. The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 had found itself in the eye of a storm last year when some of its units caught fire due to a fault with its battery design. Right now it's too early to say whether the Redmi Note 4 too has such an inherent problem which makes it blast prone or if this is just an isolated incident.
A video purporting to be of the incident had become viral yesterday, but Xiaomi in a statement declared that the viral video is not related to the present case.
WHAT WERE THE FOLLOW-UP ACTIONS TAKEN?
Some online portals had initially reported that the owner of the smartphone had filed an FIR with Bengaluru police with regard to the incident. But he is now said to have no more complaints against Xiaomi as the company has replaced his phone.
WHAT COULD BE THE REASON BEHIND THE BLAST?
The conclusion reached by Xiaomi after an investigation into the incident is that the blast occurred because the customer had used a faulty third party charger.
The increasing number of smartphone blasts can be attributed to the trend of making phones as slim as possible. The smaller a phone is, the heat produced by the phone also gets concentrated in a smaller area, leading to overheating and explosions. Therefore, manufacturers must test the products properly and make sure that they're safe before launching them. Meanwhile, customers too should be cautious about their smartphone usage and must depend only on original accessories as much as possible.
THE AFTERMATH
This entire episode has further strengthened the doubts people have about the quality of Chinese phones. Whether concerns about safety will lead to Indian consumers returning to expensive phones of premier brands like Sony, Samsung, and LG by shunning cheap Chinese brands remains to be seen.
