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Samsung says that its Galaxy S3 has been exonerated following an earlier report of it burning up.
According to the company, it hired a third-party organization, Fire Investigations U.K., to inspect the damaged device. That investigation found that the trouble occurred in June after an “energy source” was used to heat the device and cause the damage.
“The only way it was possible to produce damage similar to the damage recorded within the owner’s damaged device was to place the devices or component parts within a domestic microwave,” the investigation found, according to Samsung.
Last month, an Ireland-based forum poster published images on Boards.IE showing what appeared to be a Galaxy S3 with burns along the bottom. According to the poster, “dillo2k10,” the device was sitting in a “car mount when suddenly a white flame sparks and a bang came out of the phone.” The device, the forum poster said, “burned from the inside out” and melted its case. The phone kept working, but had lost its signal.
“The phone was destroyed and it slightly burned a piece of plastic on the inside of my car,” the person wrote. “And they are refusing to give me a replacement; they had to send it off. Probably nothing I can do, but I’m really annoyed. That could have burned the side of my face or through my pocket and my leg, or set fire to my bed. It’s very dangerous.”
Samsung, which said at the time that it would investigate the issue, pointed back to the Boards.ie over the weekend to highlight an update from the forum poster “admitting that he was responsible for the damage.”
“I would like to retract my original statement,” the poster wrote on Saturday. “The damage to the phone was caused by another person, although they were attempting to recover the phone from water, this later caused the damage shown on the phone. It occurred due to a large amount of external energy and there was no fault with the phone. This was not a deliberate act but a stupid mistake.”
Samsung’s Galaxy S3 has quickly become one of the most sought-after smartphones. In her review of the Galaxy S3, CNET’s Jessica Dolcourt said that the new handset “is an excellent, top-end phone” and awarded it an Editors’ Choice with four stars out of a possible five.
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