Brand-new Realme XT smartphone goes up in flames but Realme attributes it to "external force"

Somewhat disturbingly, smartphone OEMs frequently have to deal with issues of exploding or burning devices. We have had reports in the past relating to smartphones from Huawei, Samsung, Redmi and many others, and now it’s Realme’s turn. A Realme customer called Roshan Singh has shared photos of his now destroyed Realme XT (see below), which clearly went through a catastrophic incident.

According to Singh, the Realme XT exploded while it was being charged, and he used the official charger that came with the smartphone, too. However, after looking at the images he sent to Realme’s customer services department, the company has issued a statement to 91Mobiles that states the damage was caused by “external force”. It seems the battery had been struck by something heavy that caused the Realme XT to burst into flames. Realme’s official statement reads:

For us, one of the key pillars is product quality. Every smartphone manufactured by Realme goes through a number of stringent quality and durability checks as customer safety is of utmost importance for us. As per our investigation, we have learnt that the smartphone was damaged due to external force. The user’s smartphone battery caught fire as the smartphone was punctured from outside.

However, Singh has decided to proceed with his complaint and apparently Realme is going to investigate the explosive incident further. At the moment, it doesn’t seem to be an issue on the scale of the infamous Samsung Galaxy Note 7 debacle, but it’s always worth keeping a cautious eye out when these things happen. Realme XT owners will no doubt be extra vigilant for the time being, regardless of the company’s assurance that it was down to user fault.