Smartphones bursting into flames have been the new viral fever that many have been seeking on the internet. Primarily fuelled by the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 fiasco that took place last year, the fear of a smartphone blowing up is reignited every now and then. It's just intriguing how unconfirmed reports suggest that recently a Xiaomi Redmi 4 caught fire in a shop when the shopkeeper tried to open the SIM tray of the phone. Let's admit it, phones catching fire is a big concern for many consumers and in the click bait era that we live in, many YouTube bloggers thrive on such stories. And many new tech blogging websites are also joining the bandwagon.
Recently, a blog called PhoneRadar, had uploaded a video with a watermark on their YouTube channel to garner more eyeballs (a credibility) of a smartphone bursting into flames, as a shopkeeper tries to put the fire out by stomping on the device repeatedly. The incident apparently took place in a mobile store this time and was caught on the store’s CCTV.
Naturally, the question arises, which smartphone was it? Though this cannot be easily deciphered from the CCTV footage, Phone Radar claims the smartphone to be a Xiaomi’s offering – the Redmi Note 4. Why? Because anything Xiaomi on the internet generates a lot of interest and the Xiaomi fan community in India is also very strong. The concerned user has also posted some pictures of the completely destroyed device, clearly showing a totally burnt up Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 but the authenticity of the images cannot be confirmed. Surprisingly, it is difficult to even understand whether the device in the CCTV footage is a smartphone or something else. The video has generated more than 2.5 lakh views. Watch the video below.
The video by PhoneRadar has garnered over 2.5 lakh views. Xiaomi even did their own investigation into the matter and below is the statement that they issued.
"At Xiaomi, customer safety is of utmost importance to us. We investigated the Redmi Note 4 in the images and concluded that it was a case of damage due to a faulty third-party charger used by the customer. Nonetheless, we worked with the Poorvika store where the unit was bought and replaced the customer's damaged unit with a brand new Redmi Note 4. However, after a thorough investigation, we cannot validate the source of this video, as it has no relation to this case, and was not from the Poorvika store. In fact, it is unclear if this separate and unrelated incident depicted in the video involved a Xiaomi device."
So, what's the real story? What's really surprising is that many YouTube content creators in the country who report on technology don't even do a simple search for such videos on YouTube before publishing them. What really caught our eye is that same video is being circulated on YouTube as an Oppo phone exploding. Watch below.
This was published by a channel on YouTube called Random YouTube Videos and as it's not a popular channel with just 64 subscribers, nobody paid a heed to it. And that's not all, the same video is also being passed on as an iPhone explosion in a shop that's more than 2000 km away from Bengaluru in Noida. Watch below.
So, what's fake and what's real?
Well, one thing is for sure that 'something' certainly exploded. Where? Nobody knows, but what we know that it was a mobile sellers shop. What phone was it? The CCTV footage is not that clear to identify what phone it was. And there are plenty of reasons of why phones explode. Yes 90% of them are battery related, but it also depends on how the owner uses the phone.
For example, if you charge your phone with any charger but the charger that's given in the box of your phone, chances are that it might overcharge or undercharge your phone. Thus, deteriorating the battery life on your device. Chances also are that it does not charge your battery properly and over time the battery of your phone swells a bit. You still keep charging and one day the ions inside the battery of your device can't take it anymore and they just want to be free. The result could be an explosion, something similar to what you saw in all the videos.
So, what's the real story?
The Xiaomi Redmi 4 did explode. Xiaomi has even acknowledged that in their statement. They have even replaced the faulty unit. The only thing was that the video for the incident was not available and PhoneRadar took some other video to represent the incident. So now, they have even come out with an explanation video for that. Watch that below.
So, what do we learn from all this?
In this highly growing and competitive digital world, page views, engagement and video views rule over logical precedence. It's a race that none of the technology journalists in the country wants to run but is forced to. But in all this, let's not forget the objectivity, we still write for our readers and followers online. Their interests should be kept on priority and not of those who try to rule this space by their name. And yes, let's not jump the gun either just because someone sent you an interesting visual on Whatsapp and turn it into a story.
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