iPhone 8 Plus Allegedly Splits Open While Charging, Apple ‘Looking Into’ Reports

Apple is said to be investigating two reported cases of iPhone 8 Plus ‘splitting open’ thanks to swollen batteries, which have been circulating on the social media. The news comes merely few days after the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus went for sale in several markets. Reports have emerged from Taiwan and Japan.

Apple has confirmed that it is “looking into” the two reports where the iPhone 8 Plus casing opened up, according to The Independent. For now, the Cupertino-based giant declined to further comment on the issue. It’s not certain what caused the problem, and it’s being thought to be a battery failure, which causes it to swell up.

A Taiwan-based report by ifeng, shared by The Next Web, last week claimed that a iPhone 8 Plus unit cracked open while charging, possibly due to a swollen battery.

ifeng claims that iPhone 8 Plus faulty battery was reported by a woman named Wu, who renewed her phone contract and bought 64GB Rose Gold iPhone 8 Plus. Wu noticed the swollen battery five days after purchase when the handset was plugged for charging. Notably, the faulty iPhone 8 Plus battery issue has been reported by Wu who was using the bundled charger and adaptor. The report adds Wu noticed the front panel bulging out just after three minutes of charge, and it finally came completely off from the device. The report claims that the iPhone 8 Plus unit was replaced and has been sent to Apple for investigation.

In another similar incident, a Japanese iPhone 8 Plus user noticed the screen eventually detaching from the chassis possibly due to swollen battery issue. The Japanese user shared images of the faulty unit on Twitter which attracted over 14,000 retweets.

For now, there are just two reports of isolated incidents, so it’s best to wait for the results of the company’s investigation into the issue before jumping to conclusions about the iPhone 8 Plus, and possible similarities with the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, which was recalled last year due a fire hazard related to the battery.