An established tech YouTuber has revealed that some batteries in older Samsung phones are swelling up, causing damage to the handset and even breaking apart.
YouTuber Mrwhosetheboss — also known as Arun Maini — has been collecting every high-end Samsung Galaxy device since 2010. These handsets have been used only once for review and later for comparison videos after which they were stored in safe conditions together with other brand phones.
This summer, Maini wanted to make a video about the collection of his devices, and that’s when he noticed that the batteries inside his Galaxy S6 (2015), Galaxy Note 8 (2017), and Galaxy S10 (2019) had started to swell up prompting the back covers of the smartphones to pop open. Such type of incidents could lead to accidental fires and explosions.
Upon further investigation, it was found that the battery issue is not just limited to the above mentioned Galaxy handsets, but also includes the Galaxy S8, Galaxy S10e, Galaxy S10 5G, Galaxy S20 FE, and even the expensive and relatively new Galaxy Z Fold 2.
Interestingly, devices from other brands, such as Apple, Google, Asus, etc. that were stored in similar atmospheric and temperature conditions did not show any corrosion. You can check out the video below:
The YouTuber resides in the UK, which was recently hit by a severe heatwave. Probably, the atmospheric temperature in the storage room used for keeping the review units could have caused the lithium batteries in the smartphones to swell leading Miani to believe that the issue appears exclusive to Samsung phones.
Miani tweeted about the issue to which Samsung swiftly responded and collected his affected phones and send them to their Euro QA Laboratory, on August 1, 2022, for further inspection, according to the YouTuber. It has been over 50 days and the Korean giant has yet to provide Miani with an explanation on the handsets, report, or follow-up on the matter.
Another prominent YouTuber Matt Ansini, host of the This Is channel, confirmed Maini’s findings too, who experienced a similar issue with his Samsung Galaxy S7. He went on to say that every Samsung phone that is three years old and up in his collection has met with a similar fate.
Marques Brownlee (MKBHD), the king of tech YouTubers too reiterated Maini’s findings on his Twitter account saying that Samsung is the only brand with which he has faced a battery swelling problem:
I’ve had several Samsung phone batteries swell up years after I stopped using them. Never any other brand. https://t.co/mhbAAkp9UA
— Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) September 27, 2022
Samsung is yet to officially comment on why the batteries in its Galaxy smartphones are much more susceptible to expansion over a period of time. We will update this space with more details once we hear from the Korean giant. Stay tuned!
