Roughly two weeks since Apple had begun shipping its new iPhones, reports have surfaced that there are units of the iPhone 8 Plus bursting open due to a possible problem with the device's battery.
The first customer who reported the problem was a woman from Taiwan, who said her iPhone burst open while charging. She said she was using an official Apple power adapter when the incident happened.
According to Chinese media, the device has been returned to Apple and is being investigated as part of its routine process for isolated incidents.
The second report came from a customer from Japan, who posted a photo on Twitter showing an iPhone 8 Plus with the screen detached on the bottom and the sides.
iPhoneが昨日より膨らんでる。
Apple、早く回収しにきて！ pic.twitter.com/sRx6orgxi6
The problem appears to be with the battery swelling inside the phone. When this happens, it puts too much pressure on the display assembly, causing it to detach from the body in places in order to relieve the pressure.
According to Apple, the company is aware of the reports and is looking into them.
According to Mac Rumors, the issue is "simply an inevitability" when it comes to lithium ion batteries, and that having a few battery failures out of the millions of phones coming off the tech giant's production lines are bound to happen. The website said that the same issue also happened with the iPhone 7 and will probably occur in every iPhone model.
It is still unclear if the incidents are isolated or if they are the first indication of wider manufacturing problems with the new iPhones. Only if more of the same incident is reported then the problem may prove to be a manufacturing issue – such as what happened with Samsung's Galaxy Note 7. After getting dozens of reports about battery related incidents, the Korean manufacturer was forced to recall the product.
