Nexus 7 explodes, leaves behind melted mess

Over the past few months, there have been various reports of devices exploding, and the latest device that is the victim is the Nexus 7 tablet co-manufactured by Google and Asus. The Nexus 7 is one of the best selling tablets of 2012, and one China-based adopter of this tablet has had a bad experience with this device. It exploded, leaving behind a mangled unrecognizable mess of a back panel.

The melted rear casing

According to a report by Phandroid, a user of the tablet left the tablet charging unattended for a few hours, and when she returned to it, the room was filled with smoke and the Nexus 7 had burnt from within.

The insides look like they have been toasted

As per the report, “The user was using the factory OEM charger and the device was only left charging for a total of 3 hours before spontaneously combusting. We’ve seen cases in the past where shady characters have attempted to pass off exploding devices as a manufacturer defect, only to later find out the cause was owner misuse. This doesn’t appear to be indication of foul play and apparently Asus has already dealt with the matter, sending off a shiny new replacement.”

The sides of the tablet look nothing like the original

This is not the first time a high profile device has combusted. Earlier this year, an early adopter of the Samsung Galaxy S III was an unfortunate victim of his device blowing up. The Ireland-based user of the Samsung Galaxy S III took to a web forum and boards to voice his grievance about how an overheating issue has caused his newly purchased smartphone to burn up from the inside. He stated that the Samsung Galaxy S III was placed in a car mount, and then suddenly the smartphone burst into a white flame with sparks and a bang.

Explaining the situation, the user stated, “I pulled in to look at my phone, the phone burned from the inside out. Burned through the plastic and melted my case to my phone. The phone kept working but without any signal. I brought it to the carphone warehouse and they told me that they couldn’t replace it for me that they had to send it off to be checked out first. No even replacement phone, left with nothing. The phone was destroyed and it slightly burned a piece of plastic on the inside of my car.”

This prompted Samsung to launch an investigation into the matter and it stated, “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.” Additionally, the investigation results state, "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 owner of the Samsung Galaxy S III responded and admitted that he had been responsible for the damage. In a statement, the user said, “I would like to retract my original statement. 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. I am unable to comment any further.”