iPhone XS Max explodes in pocket, causes serious injuries to owner

With smartphones falling prey to the economies of mass scale, quality control over millions of hundreds of different models becomes challenging. Even the expensive ones aren't exempt from this issue - the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was one of the biggest examples in recent times. However, a manufacturing defect affecting a batch of devices on a smaller scale also keeps on surfacing on the expensive phones every now and then. And the latest device to fall into the limelight is Apple's iPhone XS Max.

According to one of the latest reports from iDropNews, a man from Ohio going by the name of Josh Hillard has mentioned that his iPhone XS Max exploded in his pocket and caused him injuries while damaging his clothes at the same time. The man was able to throw the device from himself as soon as possible and reduced chances of an extremely critical injury. The fire was doused by a fire extinguisher, but the handset was completely damaged and not in a state to be reused.

Speaking to iDropNews, Josh said, "Once the phone was extinguished, I was left with a hole in my pants, fire extinguisher on my pants/shoes, and some pain/irritation in my buttocks region where the pocket of my pants was located. From the time of first noticing the fire and between removal of the pants and taking the phone out of my pocket and placing it outside, I inhaled A LOT of smoke. Later in the day, the team told me about the video that the office security camera captured."

After the incident took place, Josh visited the nearest Apple store to resolve the issue. However, he reports that reaction to this serious incident was pretty cold. "I told her that I expected a call from customer relations and there was nothing that a tech could tell me about the melted phone. After spending about 20 minutes with an employee and answering questions, she removed the SIM card in an effort to pull up my profile but it was melted," he added.

The store was eventually not able to resolve the issue. Josh said that store representatives offered to pack the phone and send it back to the engineering team for examining, to which Josh refused. No spare phone was said to be provided during the time the device wasn't functioning. Unsatisfied with the response, Josh reached out to the Apple Care line and was asked to send some photos of the damage that the phone had caused. The photos were acknowledged and Josh was eventually offered a new unit of the iPhone XS Max.

While Apple is reported to have taken care of the loss that Josh had suffered by replacing his damaged unit with a brand new one, Josh believes that the company should compensate for all the injuries as well as his damaged clothes. Josh is also reportedly consulting legal action against the company for selling him a faulty product and not compensating or the damage adequately.

While Apple is yet to make an official statement on this matter, it is to be noted that all electronic devices with Lithium-ion batteries are susceptible to damage and therefore, should be handled with extreme caution. If you feel unnatural generation of heat from your smartphone even when you aren't using it extensively, you should stop using the phone and get the unit checked at the nearest service centre.