There have been at least six separate reports of iPhone 8 Plus batteries swelling to the point of splitting open their enclosures since the phones first went on sale on Sept. 22.
Stories at MacRumors, The Next Web and 9to5mac as early as last week cited social media postings showing what appeared to be separate incidents in Japan and Taiwan where the phones had split apart because of expanding batteries.
More recently, The Guardian has reported on additional incidents in Greece, Canada and China. Taken together, it adds up to at least six cases exhibiting nearly identical symptoms.
An Apple spokesperson said the company was aware of the reports, and looking into them.
In 2016, Samsung recalled its Galaxy Note 7 phone after several incidents of the phone’s battery catching fire. (Over 100 such incidents were eventually reported.)
Samsung put the blame on an “aggressive design” of the Note 7, and implemented an eight-point safety check on its phone batteries after that. The 2017 Galaxy S8 and Note 8 phones have, thus far, been fire-free.
It’s unclear whether this iPhone 8 Plus issue will cascade into a Note 7-like debacle, or swing towards the more benign “Bendgate” controversy from 2016, which cropped up shortly after the launch of the iPhone 6 Plus before quickly fading away.
