Multiple social media posts say that battery flaws have been the reason behind Apple's new iPhone 16 "exploding."

Question

Experts note that rare overheating incidents often happen due to third-party chargers or damaged batteries and not design flaws. Although there have been sporadic reports of iPhones overheating or batteries swelled, there have been no confirmed "explosions." There has been no confirmed widespread defect reported by tech safety organizations such as the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, and Apple has not issued a recall. A few overheating cases exist, but claims of exploding iPhones are exaggerated and unsupported by evidence.

Answer 1

The source that this information is from, techradar.com, seems to be a trustworthy source. According to Ground News, a website that rates other sites’ biases, it says that techradar has a high factuality rating. The Washington Post also has an article about this, but it is quite dated back to 2018. They do state that it is an issue with the lithium battery overheating. The techradar article doesn’t include anything about the batteries exploding, they mainly cover that the new iPhone 16 has issues with the battery draining very fast. There was a lawsuit back in 2022, about Robert Franklin’s iPhone 6 exploding in 2019, but that isn’t very supportive of your claim because it occurred so long ago. The main sources that appeared when I tried to research this claim were from Reddit and TikTok, which are not reliable sources.

Comments

I enjoyed how you incorporated information on different kinds of batteries. There isn't enough evidence to truly support these people's stories.

Answer 2

The only noted reports of the iPhone 16 "exploding" comes from social media, primarily TikTok and Reddit. No other reputable news outlets or sources have covered this, meaning there is no known cause behind any "explosions" or note of consistent explosions. 

However, a consumer did post on Apple's "community" section on their website, "Hey there! I just got the iPhone 16 Pro 1TB, and it’s overheating like crazy. It’s kinda scary, feels like it might explode in my hand while I’m typing this" (Apple Discussions Board). So, there is noted evidence of users having trouble with overheating and fear of the phone exploding. However, the claim was never responded to by an official Apple employee.

Comments

I agree! There was no true information unless it came from popular social media outlets. There truly no reputable news outlets that helped us understand why this claim was posted in the first place.

Answer 3

There is no real evidence of Apple’s new iPhone 16 exploding, most reports have come from Tiktok videos and other forms of social media posts. Although there have been many reported issues of the phone overheating directly on the Apple website, there is nothing from the company or any other reputable source that the problem is tied to the battery. 

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255768328?sortBy=rank

Answer 4

My findings show that there has been no reported "explosions" of the iPhone 16 and that this claim is inaccurate/misleading. The only "support" is from claims from people on social media platforms such as TikTok, Reddit, and Facebook, but even then there is no clear evidence. 

Although, according to https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255776374?sortBy=rank, there has been a comment made by a consumer of the Apple iPhone 16 Pro, claiming, "... I just got the iPhone 16 Pro 1TB, and it’s overheating like crazy. It’s kinda scary, feels like it might explode in my hand while I’m typing this. I bought it less than 24 hours ago. Any tips? Also, what’s the return policy?" Replies have also stated how to deal with the overheating issues and link Apple Support (iPhone Battery and Performance - Apple Support). There is only evidence of issues with overheating and concerns with explosion. 

Furthermore, according to https://www.techradar.com/phones/iphone/youre-not-alone-many-users-are-reporting-iphone-16-battery-life-issues-on-ios-18?utm_source=chatgpt.com, there has been note of battery drainage. The articles also goes on explain ways to help with these issues, but no mention of the phone blowing up. 

While there has been no reports of the iPhone 16 exploding, there is issues raised from its battery drainage and overheating, overall supporting that this claim is untrue and exaggerated. 

Comments

I agree with your explanation that the evidence is not reliable and there is barely any information to back this claim. The part of your answer about how overheating and battery drainage, but no exploding is important. I do wonder why there isn't more info on these two concerns because these sites and people may not be reliable sources.

Answer 5

Overall, my findings were very different to what this claim is expressing. I have found no evidence or articles proving iPhones exploding to be true. I believe that this claim is not correct and very misleading. There are a lot of social media posts describing the situation about this topic but not actually showing proof that this has happened before. It seems like this claim would be used to exaggerate an issue such as an iPhone over heating that feels like it may explode.

Some primary sources I found were videos on social media such as Tik Tok. These videos were also very misleading and most have nothing to do with exploding iPhones but more with the battery being drained very quickly. The video I found that is closest to this claim is from Tik Tok. https://www.tiktok.com/@tpsbristol/video/7056769044367576326                    I learned that this supposed issue is not very common.

There were many articles explaining battery life on iPhones, whether it was good or bad. Although there are many stories about how quickly the batteries drain, there were two articles that I found that provided stories with exploding iPhones. A man caught on fire because his iPhone 6 exploded due to his battery. Now I understand that we are talking about an older model of an iPhone but I think it's very important to make known the progress that has been done or what needs to be done. The fact that this we an issue 7 years ago and there might be claims out there that are true about exploding iPhones espcially with the newest model is very disappointing.  https://www.sinklaw.com/blog/iphone-catches-on-fire-in-mans-pocket-causing-serve-burns-says-new-lawsuit/

Another article explains a similar situation but with an iPhone 15. A man from North Carolina smelled something burning and felt heat coming from his pocket. Apple did not believe this man and refused to refund him.                  https://www.wcnc.com/article/tech/north-carolina-man-phone-exploded-in-his-pocket-apple-disputes-claims/275-79c72391-a838-4db6-885b-3357b5c164d8

I believe that some biases my sources may have if favoring Samsung over Apple which would lead them to posting something negative relation to Apples products.

I would say that there are no supports to this fact-check from my sources. There were no direct answers to this claim.

The evidence that does not prove that this is true is undermining the claim.

Answer 6

This statement appears to be fake. 

Though there have been some cases of a battery smoking after being exposed to elements, there’s no concrete evidence that this is due to the design of the phone itself. Most of these videos are posted by small creators on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and Reddit, where the merit should be questioned for obvious reasons. 

Otherwise, no credible news sources have picked up the story. Privately-owned information sites and blogs such as TechRadar acknowledge the issue as more of a matter of battery life than actual explosive danger. Even then, the article published on TechRadar only touches briefly on the inconvenience of battery life before segueing into possible solutions. There is no mention of safety concerns. (TechRadar) 

This sentiment of the “iPhone 16 Battery Disappointment" is echoed by a private blog, Tom’s Guide, with the implication that improvement on the iPhone 15 battery life is optimistic at best. (Tom’s Guide)

Finally, Apple itself has not issued a recall on iPhones, leading the public to believe that the issue isn’t as grave as some sources make it out to be. (Apple) 

This statement appears to be fake. 

Though there have been some cases of a battery smoking after being exposed to elements, there’s no concrete evidence that this is due to the design of the phone itself. Most of these videos are posted by small creators on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and Reddit, where the merit should be questioned for obvious reasons. 

Otherwise, no credible news sources have picked up the story. Privately-owned information sites and blogs such as TechRadar acknowledge the issue as more of a matter of battery life than actual explosive danger. Even then, the article published on TechRadar only touches briefly on the inconvenience of battery life before segueing into possible solutions. There is no mention of safety concerns. (TechRadar) 

This sentiment of the “iPhone 16 Battery Disappointment" is echoed by a private blog, Tom’s Guide, with the implication that improvement on the iPhone 15 battery life is optimistic at best. (Tom’s Guide)

Finally, Apple itself has not issued a recall on iPhones, leading the public to believe that the issue isn’t as grave as some sources make it out to be. (Apple)