Man's Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge explodes, Samsung replies
Just a week ago, there were reports of a woman’s new Samsung Galaxy Note 9 exploding in New York. While we have our misgivings about the whole account, it’s a tad telling that yet another Samsung device has spontaneously gone up in flames.
According to /u/rokhana’s first-hand account on Reddit, his S7 Edge froze and shut down while trying to take a picture. Attempts to turn it back on proved futile, and he left it on his countertop in frustration, upon which the device promptly proceeded to go up in flames without warning.
Following that, the user contacted Samsung and received a reply a few days later, with the regional store offering to replace his device with a new S9, but only if he agreed to delete all posts related to the matter. While the user disagreed, Samsung later reached out to him and gave him a new S9 without any conditions, claiming that the initial request was to ensure that scammers didn’t use information and images from the posts to try to get new devices too.
This incident appears to be as close to factual as possible—the user provided concrete evidence of the device post-combustion. It also wouldn’t be the first time an S7 device went up in flames, as there was a similar account about a year ago. It would appear that the Lithium-ion polymers batteries used on that particular model are prone to random failures, with at least a non-zero rate.
Of course, Samsung devices aren’t the only culprits here. We’ve received similar reports about Xiaomi and Motorola devices, but Samsung devices have way better sales figures and accompanying price tags, so Samsung-related incidents are likelier to find their way unto the headlines.