According to the report, the phone was working perfectly. After the drop, the phone vibrated continuously as smoke began to pour out of the device. The battery then exploded, leaving the screen cracked and nearly detached from the phone itself.
Other details are scant, including how the incident occurred and whether there was a fire afterward. Based on pictures circulating among Chinese media, it does appear there was at least some kind of small fire, as much of the plastic internal components of the device appear to have been melted.
It’s worth it to mention here that this appears to be different from the Galaxy Note incidents. In most cases, those phones were exploding on their own, not as a result of a drop. Here, it appears the phone may have taken a hard fall, which caused the battery to explode.
No doubt, the incident will only again bring to the forefront these types of battery issues, regardless of how it happened. Phones are dropped all the time, and the last thing anyone wants to worry about is some kind of explosion as a result.
Another iPhone suffered a battery malfunction and subsequent explosion in October, and there was another incident where an iPhone caught fire inside a car while it was connected to a charger. So far, Apple has not made any public comments on the matter but is reported to be investigating the latter of those two incidents.
