Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 bursts into flames; should owners be worried?

Just as we put behind the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 nightmare, news of a Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 smartphone exploding has filtered in. The blast occurred in Bengaluru, and surprisingly, it was not at home, but at a store. The blast was captured on camera. This is the first such case of a Redmi Note 4 smartphone exploding though previously, other Xiaomi smartphones have been in news for randomly bursting into fire. The video in question was captured on the CCTV inside the store.

In the video uploaded by Phone Radar on YouTube, the entire blast is clearly seen. BGR India received a tip regarding the incident from a Twitter user but could not verify the authenticity of the video and has reached out to Xiaomi India for comment. Xiaomi responded by saying, “At Xiaomi, customer safety is of utmost importance to us. We have reached out to the customer to investigate this matter, and are awaiting further response.”

As per an initial report by TechCase, the Bengaluru resident purchased the Redmi Note 4 and visited a nearly local store for inserting SIM into the device. The video shows exactly how the blast occurs. Arjun, the owner of the smartphone hands over the phone to the shop boy. As soon as he tries to open the SIM slot for inserting the card, the phone instantly bursts into flames.

The phone is in the man’s hand as it bursts into flames. The phone continues to be engulfed in flames for a few moments before those in the store rushed to put the fire out. The video shows the device completely destroyed. There has been no word on any injury to the store owner as he held the device in his hands when the blast occurred. The incident took place on July 17, but Xiaomi India is yet to reach out to the owner, suggests the TechCase report. The owner has since then filed a report against the manufacturer at the nearest police station in Bengaluru.

The smartphone was purchased at Poorvika Mobile Store in Bengaluru and the bill for the device shows an amount of Rs 11,499 as the final amount for the smartphone. The date of billing is June 2017. While this is the first and a lone incident of the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 bursting, in the past there has been news of other Xiaomi devices too blasting. Surprisingly, on the same date a year back, Ajay Raj Negi, reported that his Xiaomi Mi 4i smartphone burst into flames in office while it was simply lying on his desk and he was not using it. He wrote a long letter to Xiaomi India on Facebook and also added the video from the CCTV footage from his office which shows the Xiaomi Mi 4i bursting. 

Smartphone blasts are a major concern for most modern users as more and more manufacturers pack features into the device while keeping it slim. The heat often does not have enough space to dissipate, thus leading to overheating and blasts. While in the case of Samsung it was a faulty battery that was the issue, many times using a local, unbranded charger causes the problem. More and more manufacturers are now urging users to exercise caution while charging phones while themselves putting the devices through rigorous tests before launching the units.

The article was originally published on BGR India