A report from South Korea stated that a Galaxy S10 5G model has been found suspiciously burnt. The user, who has been identified by the surname Lee, reported that he left the device on a table and soon he started to smell burning and smoke “engulfed” the phone before he had to “drop it to the ground…because it was so hot” A picture of the damaged handset has also been reported.
The user claims to have done nothing out of the ordinary to the handset that could have triggered the burning. The phone was no longer usable because “everything on the inside was burnt.”
Upon reporting this incident to Samsung, the South Korean company refused to refund Lee’s $1,200. After receiving the charred device from Lee, Samsung stated that it closely inspected it and has concluded the damage is a result of “external impact”. The Galaxy S10 was released in South Korea on April 5 in hopes of the country setting high expectations for becoming a global leader in technology.
This news will likely come with more heated reactions than if it were any other manufacturer considering Samsung’s past concerning phones and fire. Back in 2016, Samsung released the Note 7 which had explosive results, literally. Samsung recalled the Note 7 after several reports of exploding and burning devices due to a battery defect.
Samsung cannot take the burning of the S10 5G lightly. Having a history of similar issues lends the company to quick accusations and further investigation. Apparently, the issue was not Samsung’s fault; however, if more reports continue to pop up, as they did with the Note 7, Samsung will have a much bigger problem at hand.
The Galaxy s10 5G is set to be a beast of a smartphone. It will have a 6.7-inch AMOLED screen, powered by the Exynos 9820 or the Snapdragon 855. It will also be equipped with 8GB of RAM and have a 4,500 mAh battery. Regardless of how many customers will actually purchase the phone on release, the device will set a new standard for power users.
When Samsung first announced the S10 5G, no one at the event was even allowed to handle the device. It seemed the company was keeping the project very much under wraps.U.S. pre-orders for the smartphone are open now and the handset is scheduled to be released on May 16. It’s, of course, possible that Samsung is not at fault, and this report was indeed the cause of “external impact”. It is also possible that Samsung released the S10 5G in South Korea as a form of a test run before it’s release elsewhere. If this is the case, the reported burning of the device becomes much more significant.
Even with the scheduled release of the S10 5G in the U.S. on May 16, it’s unlikely that the 5G network will be ready by then. President Trump has announced big plans for the spectrum in the upcoming year, and it is good that there will be a device ready to handle the high speeds, assuming it works properly.