In late June reports started to circulate of an unfortunate case where a Samsung Galaxy S III exploded after sitting in a car dock. At first I speculated that it could have been an extremely dodgy dock but Samsung sent the ruined phone to Fire Investigations UK to analyse the cause of the explosion.

The independent group found that “the energy source responsible for generating the heat has been determined as external to the device” and “the device was not responsible for the cause of the fire.” Furthermore, the only way they were able to replicate the damage was to put it in a domestic microwave.

The original owner located in Ireland (who initially got a free replacement for his troubles) has retracted his original claim saying that someone else had tried to recover the phone from water damage which caused the explosion and further damage to the phone. What we are taking from this is that his friend placed the phone in a microwave hoping to zap away any remaining water residue, and while he was at it, his dignity as well.

KitGuru says: The owner called it a “stupid mistake” and we would have to agree with him fully.

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