Nokia Investigating Reported Cell Phone Explosions 379
Iphtashu Fitz writes "C|Net's news.com is reporting that a man in the Netherlands suffered burns to his leg when the Nokia phone in his pants pocket exploded. This is the second reported incident of Nokia phones exploding, the first one being back in August when a Dutch woman's phone exploded in her hand. Nokia blamed the first incident on a third party battery that the woman was using and warned customers to only use Nokia parts and accessories with their phones. However this most recent explosion involved a new Nokia phone with a Nokia battery installed."
Re:This is scary (Score:3, Informative)
news report... (Score:2, Informative)
This sounds like ... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Maybe.. (Score:3, Informative)
Batteries do explode and its not just Nokia... (Score:5, Informative)
Remember, batteries are full of energy -- DUH! One defect and BAM! you have a little bomb after prolonged use. One reason you shouldn't throw them in a fire unless you are really drunk and have track shoes on.
Maybe if they spent more time working on phones (Score:3, Informative)
Not the second reported case (Score:2, Informative)
Actually, there have been two cases reported *this week* by The Register [theregister.co.uk], as well as the one back in August, so it's not the second reported incident at all.
What I want to know is, when will we see the first exploding N-Gage?
LiON and NiMH batteries... (Score:5, Informative)
Me, I'm waiting for nuclear-powered cellphones! Chernobyl in your pocket!
Think of the odds! (Score:5, Informative)
A: Millions
Q: How many of their phones explode each year?
A: 1 or 2
Q: How many cars are sold each year?
A: Millions
Q: How many people die on the roads each year?
A: Thousands
Conclusion: You have a greater chance of dying in a car crash than having your mobile phone explode.
Re:battery (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Sounds like defective batteries (Score:5, Informative)
Nokia claims that they haven't changed materials... my guess is that these phones are getting hotter faster, probably drawing more current to run all the new features they keep adding, and the chemical batteries aren't reacting well.
Re:On Purpose? (Score:4, Informative)
And before you think that maybe the current characteristics can be used, it is not possible. Current, voltage etc will change with change with temp and also with time.
Only thing may be that nokia batteries may come with current draw protection and may be more resistant to an inherent defect in the phonesRe:This is scary (Score:3, Informative)
All lithium laptop batteries I have seen have a little controller that meters the charge to prevent overcharging. They might skip this component for each battery cell in smaller batteries, such in cell phones due to economy (read: cheap.)
NiMH batteries appear to have a different failure mode than lithium from overcharging. They just seem to degrade in performance.
4 out of 5 terrorists prefer lithium batteries.
actually... (Score:4, Informative)
*Kerin, Berkowitz, Hartley, Rudelius.
Marketing: 7th edition.
Re:Maybe if they spent more time working on phones (Score:5, Informative)
Informative? Well, at least it's not informed. Nokia has been around in one form or another for over a century. Nokia is actually a fusion of three companies and three businesses: wood (since 1865), rubber (1898) and cables (1912). The name "Nokia" is actually a place in Finland. Yes, we all know it sounds Japanese.
Through the years Nokia has bought other companies and expanded its business into new areas. In fact the company had practically nothing to do with electronics until the late 80's. The company has continued to narrow down its focus, unlike the parent suggested.
Particularly under Jorma Ollila, Nokia decided to focus on electronics and especially communications and started to sell its other functions away. Most of newly formed companies wanted to be associated with the Nokia brand, so many chose names with suitable connotations. Therefore, you now have Nokian tyres [nokiantyres.com] (the 'n' at the end of the word is the genitive case, so the word actually means "Nokia's tyres"), NK cables [nkcablesusa.com] and Nokian footwear [nokianfootwear.fi]. Pretty much every Finn has a pair of (old 'Nokia' or new 'Nokian') rubber boots. Fine boots them. Used them in the army too.
Anyway, calling Nokia simply a "cell phone company", or calling for Nokia to become one, is misinformed. Although mobile phones are definitely the most visible area to the consumer, the company provides a much wider range of communication solutions including mobile base stations and networks. In the consumer market they've made a few lemons though; the IP55 ADSL router, a rebranded Webramp, comes to mind, as does the N-Gage. :) But the MediaMaster was/is a fine product.
They don't like the term explosion. (Score:4, Informative)
Coincidently I was looking at this stuff a couple of days ago. My Nokia 8250 had started turning itself off when in use. I wasn't sure whether it was the battery dying or the phone so I went to borrow a spare battery to test with.
When I opened the phone I noticed that rather than being flat the battery was bulging out as if it was pregnant. The bulge was enough that it was difficult to get the battery cover back on.
I now have a whole new phone (another Nokia, a 7250i).
Was it the charger? (Score:3, Informative)
I don't remember the details, but something about heat building up during the charging vaporized something inside, making the case rupture spraying acid all over the place. Apparently, the phone could still explode a few minutes after it had been disconnected.
A statement from Nokia (Score:2, Informative)
It's the power amplifier (in)efficiency (Score:5, Informative)
The PA must generate (depending on the type of phone you have--GSM, CDMA, etc.--the range to the cell tower, and other factors) somewhere between 0.2 and 1.0 Watts of RF power output. For lots of good reasons, and despite the best efforts of lots of engineers at lots of places, the conversion efficiency of battery power to RF power of cell phone PAs is around 35%--meaning that approximately two-thirds of the battery power consumed by the PA is converted to heat, instead of RF power, as you talk. Since everyone likes a small, light-weight cell phone, there is no dedicated heat sink (or external fan!) for the phone's PA; instead, most designs usually use the cell phone's frame to conduct the waste heat away from the PA. The frame, of course, conducts the heat to the outside world, which in this case includes your ear.
In many cases, to avoid the loss of an RF transmission line from the bottom to the top of the phone (which would result in even more inefficiency) the PA is placed next to the antenna, near the top of the phone--thus exacerbating the ear-heating effect. Since the heat generated by the PA has remained more-or-less constant over the years but the mass of the phone has decreased, the temperature the phone reaches in this situation has increased, making it more noticable. Handling this temperature rise is part of cell phone design, and one of the many tradeoffs that occur in them. Keep in mind that, since it is produced by energy stored in the battery that could otherwise be used to extend talk or standby time--two selling factors near and dear to the hearts of cell phone manufacturers--designers would eagerly reduce generated heat if they could do so without violating other design parameters, like product cost.
The type of heating you're experiencing sounds completely normal and safe to me. I would expect that heating of the battery itself would be unrelated to whether you talked on the phone or not. Rather, it would occur either (a) during charging with a defective or improperly designed charger, or (b) randomly, as a cell shorts out and its stored energy heats itself (and its neighbors) up, and the built-in protection circuitry either fails or (in off-brand batteries) is nonexistent. You can protect yourself against both of these possibilities (to below the lightning-strike and meteorite-collision probability levels) by simply buying and using name-brand batteries and chargers.
Re:This is scary (Score:3, Informative)
The one you really don't want to mess with is Lithium Ion. The chemistry inside the battery is so volatile that even slight overcharging can lead to rapid disassembly.