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Hardware

Samsung Galaxy J5 Catches Fire and Explodes in France, Says AP (popularmechanics.com) 92

Posted by msmash from the phone-on-fire dept.
A Samsung phone user in France says her Galaxy J5 smartphone caught fire and exploded. The model is different from the Galaxy Note 7 that has been recalled worldwide. From a report on Associated Press: Lamya Bouyirdane told The Associated Press that on Sunday she noticed the phone was very hot after she asked her four-year-old son to pass it over. She said she threw the phone away when she realized it had "swollen up" and smoke was coming out. The phone then caught fire and the back of the handset blew off. Her partner quickly extinguished it.
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Samsung Galaxy J5 Catches Fire and Explodes in France, Says AP More

Samsung Galaxy J5 Catches Fire and Explodes in France, Says AP

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  • Sometimes those things just blow.

  • Does anyone have comparitive stats (Score:5, Insightful)

    by presidenteloco ( 659168 ) on Monday November 07, 2016 @05:26PM (#53232645)

    Of battery fires on different smartphone brands, as a percentage of units sold?

    Pretty sure the odd one of any kind ends up with a smoking Li-ion battery.

    Is Samsung being unfairly further beat up here because of the laser of media attention on it now?

    What do the objective facts say.

    I'm genuinely interested cause have a Note 5 in my pocket right now.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by tnok85 ( 1434319 )
      The J5 was released back in April, if it was having the same issue as the Note 7 (August), I'm pretty sure there would have been a lot more news on this.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        The J5 was released back in April, if it was having the same issue as the Note 7 (August), I'm pretty sure there would have been a lot more news on this.

        Yeah, this really isn't big news. The Note 7 was notable because it had 30 within 2 weeks of release, this is more of a random event and bad luck to the owner. While I would never buy this phone myself (it sounds like a cheap crap Android Samsung cranks out),,I wouldn't worry about more blowing up. Hell, even if a different model Samsung blew up tomorrow, I

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by 4im ( 181450 )

          The J5 was released back in April, if it was having the same issue as the Note 7 (August), I'm pretty sure there would have been a lot more news on this.

          Yeah, this really isn't big news. The Note 7 was notable because it had 30 within 2 weeks of release, this is more of a random event and bad luck to the owner. While I would never buy this phone myself (it sounds like a cheap crap Android Samsung cranks out),,I wouldn't worry about more blowing up. Hell, even if a different model Samsung blew up tomorrow, I wouldn't deem Samsung dangerous. Samsung's shipped so many phones now so it's inevitable.

          The J5 may be cheap, but it saves money and offers features in the right places, definitely is not crap. The battery is removable, there's a microSD slot to extend the low built-in memory. The CPU is quite fast, and the screen is absolutely sufficient for me, even if its resolution is much lower than on high-end models. I got mine (a dual-sim model at that) as a bargain for 150EUR (no contract), where a top-of-the-line model would have cost at least 3x that. The only thing I'm missing so far is better senso

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by jeremyp ( 130771 )

          What you mean is that it shouldn't be big news. But because of the Note 7, it will be big news.

        • IPhones also do 'blow' up, just like any other smartphone from any other company.. Samsung makes fine smartphones (I don't own one and never have as I don't like the physical button on the front), but I know a lot of people who are VERY satisfied with their Samsung..

      • Perhaps they both use the same charger, and perhaps there is a design flaw in the charger that damages the batteries....

    • ...Is Samsung being unfairly further beat up here because of the laser of media attention on it now?

      This just in:
      Hints have surfaced that Samsung may be using lasers on the media...

    • Re:Does anyone have comparitive stats (Score:4, Informative)

      by vux984 ( 928602 ) on Monday November 07, 2016 @05:56PM (#53232899)

      Is Samsung being unfairly further beat up here because of the laser of media attention on it now?

      Yes.

      What do the objective facts say.

      The public i don't think is privy to much in the way of real stats.
      But anecdotally...

      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new... [dailymail.co.uk]

      http://www.phonearena.com/news... [phonearena.com]

      http://www.windowscentral.com/... [windowscentral.com]

      http://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobile... [ndtv.com]

      From which we can objectively say that other phones catch fire too.

      And I wouldn't worry about the J5 too much... it looks like a cut down version of the S5. Hardly cutting edge or pushing any boundaries. It came out in June 2015. So 18 months... one handset. People are definitely just attaching it to the samsung hype.

    • My Note 5 still the best phone of mine ever!

    • Had an iPhone 5s smoulder, buldge and the case break open in our office the other day. They all have the occasional problem. The phone has been out for 9 months. Call me when hundreds catch fire which is what the Notes were doing.

    • All I can say is that it isn't difficult to find article about iphone fire either : e.g. https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/32... [yahoo.com]
    • comparative stats:
      If J5 GTA mods start getting pulled from youtube too, there's a problem.

  • All cell phones can explode (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ADRA ( 37398 ) on Monday November 07, 2016 @05:30PM (#53232681)

    The only relevant stat is how frequently a given model does, and if so, what conditions the phone was subjected to when it occurred. A one-off incident is unfortunate but certainly within the realm of possibility (enter any phone here).

  • She was obviously holding it wrong.

    The problem is that she had just been handed it from her son, who probably overtaxed the battery by playing too many games. These are not meant to be devices that are "full-on" 24/7, any more than a laptop is now a "workstation" -- bad things happen when components spec'ed for 4-hr day duty cycle are used for 12 to 18 hours per day and the battery has to be recharged 6 times per day.

    • She was obviously holding it wrong.

      The problem is that she had just been handed it from her son, who probably overtaxed the battery by playing too many games. These are not meant to be devices that are "full-on" 24/7, any more than a laptop is now a "workstation" -- bad things happen when components spec'ed for 4-hr day duty cycle are used for 12 to 18 hours per day and the battery has to be recharged 6 times per day.

      Is this critical information included in the Samsung manual?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by PRMan ( 959735 )
      Not to mention, these things are often caused by damage. Letting a 4-year-old play with a Li-ion battery is really not a good idea, if you have ever watched a 4-year-old play.
  • First the reports:

    Now we see the denials that there is any problem at all, and that all lithium batteries are dangerous

    Next up will be the repeat of the S7 saga. Popcorn time! Gonna be heads asploding in here!

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Nemyst ( 1383049 )
      The Galaxy J5 is over a year old (June 2015). Had the problem been the same as the Note 7 (not S7), it'd have been widespread a looooong time ago. This is just an isolated incident (as it happens occasionally) that's getting larger media attention than usual because it's Samsung.

      • The Galaxy J5 is over a year old (June 2015). Had the problem been the same as the Note 7 (not S7), it'd have been widespread a looooong time ago. This is just an isolated incident (as it happens occasionally) that's getting larger media attention than usual because it's Samsung.

        Perhaps isolated. But not all problems are of the infant mortality type. Don't know if you are familiar with the failing electrolytic frrom around 10 years ago. Seems a capacitor manufacturer left out a vial ingredient, and a lot of computers were hit hard when the electrolytics aged too quickly Apple iMacs and Dell were hit pretty hard with this one. Let's hope is is a one-off.

        • The Galaxy J5 is over a year old (June 2015). Had the problem been the same as the Note 7 (not S7), it'd have been widespread a looooong time ago. This is just an isolated incident (as it happens occasionally) that's getting larger media attention than usual because it's Samsung.

          Perhaps isolated. But not all problems are of the infant mortality type. Don't know if you are familiar with the failing electrolytic frrom around 10 years ago. Seems a capacitor manufacturer left out a vial ingredient, and a lot of computers were hit hard when the electrolytics aged too quickly Apple iMacs and Dell were hit pretty hard with this one. Let's hope is is a one-off.

          The way I heard it, it was actually a STOLEN electrolyte formula, and the thieving chemists didn't know that they didn't have the complete formula.

          • The way I heard it, it was actually a STOLEN electrolyte formula, and the thieving chemists didn't know that they didn't have the complete formula.

            Yeah - that's the story I heard as well. I just figured if there were any company shills around, I'd get modded to oblivion, os I left that part out.

            • The way I heard it, it was actually a STOLEN electrolyte formula, and the thieving chemists didn't know that they didn't have the complete formula.

              Yeah - that's the story I heard as well. I just figured if there were any company shills around, I'd get modded to oblivion, os I left that part out.

              But it's easy to spot the Shills: They're the people that are constantly accusing OTHERS of being Shills.... ;-)

              • The way I heard it, it was actually a STOLEN electrolyte formula, and the thieving chemists didn't know that they didn't have the complete formula.

                Yeah - that's the story I heard as well. I just figured if there were any company shills around, I'd get modded to oblivion, os I left that part out.

                But it's easy to spot the Shills: They're the people that are constantly accusing OTHERS of being Shills.... ;-)

                So you are the one that has been stealing my checks from Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Dell, and every other manucaturer or OS provider?

  • We need removal battery in phones and not thin (Score:3)

    by Joe_Dragon ( 2206452 ) on Monday November 07, 2016 @05:42PM (#53232771)

    We need removal battery in phones and not this must be super thin thing that is going on today

    • Removable batteries would not fix the problem and could make it worse. Trying to cram even more in a phone won't help.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Chmarr ( 18662 )

      well, if you're phone is swelling up and smoking you're NOT going to spend the time to crack the back off and remove the battery. You're going to drop that whole thing like a hot rock.

      Also, having non-removable batteries (mostly) stop people using cheap, and likely increasingly-dangerous, third-party batteries. I personally had a chinese knockoff "OEM" battery do the die-and-swell-up thing (fortunately without smoke). If the _proper_ batteries die like this ,imagine what cheap knockoffs would do!

      • I've been using inexpensive $5 batteries rather than the approved $30-60 batteries in my phones for over a decade now .
        Only heard of original batteries doing the assplode thing. Reminder they are ALL cheap Chinese crap

      • There was an article awhile back that found that a massive amount of the removable batteries on Amazon (like 90%) were cheap knock-offs. I used to be on the removable battery train, but I realized after I bought a replacement battery that looked 95% identical to the real thing that I had gotten scammed. (However, for $10, I just limited use of it and payed close attention when charging it.) Unless Samsung can get Amazon to crack down on the knock-offs, there are likely going to be far more problems with exp

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by phayes ( 202222 )

      Yeah! You gotta be able to jettison the warp coils in case reversing the polarity fails!

    • At least you could remove the battery all the time, and put it back only when you need to use it, or when you expect a call.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by 4im ( 181450 )

      The J5 is not super-thin (neither thick), and the battery is removable. Also, it features a microSD slot (which is needed, as internal memory is quite low).

  • Load of ... (Score:3)

    by janoc ( 699997 ) on Monday November 07, 2016 @05:50PM (#53232837)

    I am no Samsung lover, but sorry, that article is BS.

    Insinuating that the model is "compromised" because of one freak accident and no other information (such as whether the phone had original battery or has been charged using original charger vs. some cheap fake Chinese special before) it is just sensationalism. There are millions of possible reasons why that could have happened and none related to a manufacturing fault.

    I am in France and cheap and unsafe chargers are ubiquitious here, carried even by "serious" stores like Fnac or Boulanger. Normal person has no chance to know what they are buying. So it is well possible that the phone has been charged by a 3rdparty charger before (most people have several chargers at home for the various gizmos these days) and then the battery blew up a bit later.

    Or the kid could have dropped the phone, triggering the runaway (shouldn't happen, but not completely impossible).

    • You're right in the US there are third party chargers and car charger available in stores everywhere too that are often cheap and can kill a battery and/or phone. This is not mentioning how badly these devices are often abused.

      It may have only been a small percentage but I have had plenty of electronics die with a fizzle and smoke or batteries that popped and ruined a device over the years. It's always been that way less than 1% of a product line have a defect only now they can post it on facebook and have

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by PCM2 ( 4486 )

      But it wasn't even she who was using it ... it was her precious, precious child! Think what could have happened!

      • But it wasn't even she who was using it ... it was her precious, precious child! Think what could have happened!

        You mean she is just trying to get bandwagon sympathy to start another bandwagon of "witch hunting" to get whatever money she can out of Samsung, thinking they are vulnerable and will bow to her right now?

        Wait, was that too soon or too obvious? ;)

    • carried even by "serious" stores like Fnac or Boulanger

      I thought Boulanger would sell Croissant and bread...

  • If all of these problems did turn out to be software related. Too much bloatware? And they had to destroy all of that awesome hardware.
  • Battery fires are chemical fires, they don't require oxygen thus can't be extinguished in the typical sense. Maybe it was submerged in water... which would cool it to stop the reaction... but it would be blazing hot and smoking thick white smoke

    • Don't read the BS article from popularmechanics. They didn't even report the age of the kid right (he was 5, not 4).

      The original article (http://www.sudouest.fr/2016/11/06/pau-un-portable-samsung-brule-et-explose-2559368-4344.php, in french) indicates that they just let the phone extinguish itself on the floor and called the firemen, and they intend to sue Samsung since the product was dangerous and could have burnt their kid.

      The original article just reports an isolated incident. Then the US shiftnews

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Calydor ( 739835 )

        and they intend to sue Samsung since the product was dangerous and could have burnt their kid.

        At the rate things are going, we're going to end up with a generation that doesn't know to let go of something that is too hot for comfort.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Uberbah ( 647458 )

          Sure. Because your kid sipping some too-hot-coco is the same thing as getting sprayed with a chemical fire.

  • This is just God's way of telling Lamya to get to church and accept Jesus Christ as her personal savior. God works in mysterious ways.

  • Refugee neighborhoods will snap these up. Still legal to carry everywhere, yet lethal when they feel mildly offended about something.

  • it's a secret game! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Gravis Zero ( 934156 ) on Monday November 07, 2016 @07:24PM (#53233547)

    <Overlord> N7.
    <Samsung_> aww shit. hit. R3.
    <Overlord> miss! umm... J5?
    <Samsung_> FUCK! another hit. Q9.
    <Overlord> miss, ha! S-
    <Samsung_> NO! NOT S! ANYTHING BUT S!

  • This doesn't encourage me :(
  • Create an explosives division.

  • How do you "quickly" put out a battery fire?

  • ...the smartphone CPU executes a Halt and Catch Fire instruction. Apps available in the google market should be better screened for this serious threat.

  • I prefer removable-battery models since then I can do a swap while travelling etc, however one of the possibilities with these is also that users may install poor-quality 3rd-party batteries. Before the recent Note7 debacle, a lot of cases where phones went up in smoke was due to crappy batteries bought online from China. Not word yet what the case is here, but just food for thought.

  • I'm going to start a company that analyzes risk potential through temperature, humidity, hardware internals, charging equipment and, of course, batteries... Every single battery in existence. Everything tested will go through a battery (heh) of abuse and destructive real-world scenarios.

    I'll form a government-like entity (like the BBB) that all manufacturers will have to put my company's "safe" logo on in order to prevent .01% of their lost sales per year. I'll charge $7,800 per analysis and $7,900 for "

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