New iPhone 8 Splitting Open, Apple Forced To Investigate Possible Battery Issue

Apple is investigating claims that their new iPhone 8 smartphones are splitting open, due in part to an expanding battery issue.

The $1,095 device appears to have a battery issue if images coming out of Asia are anything to go by.

Two customers in Asia have claimed the model’s Plus sized handset split at the seams after it had been charged.

Pictures on website Apple Daily claim to show a Taiwanese customer’s rose gold handset, which has split along the top and sides.

According to reports the iPhone 8 burst after the customer, known as Ms Wu, had charged it using an officially supplied charging cable.

Ms Wu, who claimed to be a loyal fan of Apple products, said she had just bought the handset and had only owned it for three days before it burst.

She said she had paid $1,216 for the 64G iPhone 8 Plus and planned to use it to watch films, checking Facebook updates and taking pictures.

According to Ms Wu, the iPhone 8 Plus had around 70 per cent battery when she plugged it in and it burst open three minutes later.

The Apple dealer has reportedly replaced Ms Wu’s iPhone 8 Plus with a new one.

Mr Zhang, the owner of the dealer, told EBC news that the burst could have been caused by battery expansion.

Mr Zhang said he was very surprised that a new iPhone 8 Plus should come across problems so quickly.

Another user in Japan shared images to Twitter claiming to show the screen separating from the body of his device.

In both cases, there does not appear to be any visible signs of overheating or exploding.

Gases inside the phones may have leaked or expanded, causing the ‘bursting’ effect.

Experts claim that variations in production processes may account for a handful of manufacturing defects, and this is common to most new devices.

With the launch of iPhone X pre-orders only a few weeks away, Apple can ill afford any widespread problems with its phones bursting at the seams.

Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI says Apple still cannot make enough of the new iPhone X handsets due to technical problems with the front facing TrueDepth camera it uses to scan people’s faces.

The firm lowered its estimates of iPhone X shipments in 2017 to 30-35 million units from a previous estimate of 40 million due to the issues.

The analyst claims that Android devices are now likely ‘1.5-2.5 years’ behind Apple when it comes to matching its TrueDepth camera experience.

Last week the final missing specs omitted from the fanfare launch of Apple’s iPhone X may inadvertently have been leaked, thanks to a Chinese bureaucratic document.

Official paperwork appears to reveal the battery life, ram and CPU speed of the upcoming flagship handset.

The leaks suggest the iPhone X will come with a 2,715mAh battery and 3GB of RAM.

This is compared to a 1,821mAh battery capacity for the iPhone 8, and a 2,675mAh cell for the iPhone 8 Plus.

Apple has been less than forthcoming in revealing the specifics of the new device’s hardware, so the documents offer tantalising clues for diehard fans.

The details were revealed in an electronic filing to the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s Telecommunication Equipment Certification Centre (TENAA).

The extra battery capacity is believed to be designed to power the new handset’s TrueDepth depth-sensing camera, which enables the new Face ID facial recognition system, and dual camera set up.

During the unveiling earlier this month in California, Apple said the X’s battery life would last up to two hours longer than its previous models.

The TENAA document also seems to confirm the RAM capacity for the iPhone X as 3GB, slightly more than the iPhone 8’s reported 2GB.