Reddit user claims his Xiaomi Mi Band 5 exploded, posts pics
A Reddit user has posted pics of his badly damaged Xiaomi Mi Band 5. He claims it exploded while on the charger.
We’ve heard of exploding smartphones but not of the same happening to a fitness band or smartwatch. Fitbit did have an investigation a few years back but if there was a problem, it was an isolated one. Such devices undergo extensive internal and external testing to ensure the safety of users.
The truth is, pretty much any device can explode under the right conditions. The culprit could be too much heat, bad internals or damage. Cheap third-party chargers can also result in damage.
Mi Band 5 explosion
The alleged explosion on the Mi Band happened about 10 minutes after it was hooked up to the charger. The Reddit user Michael Costa from Italy says “I was charging it and it went on fire.”
He adds that he was using the original cable with a Xiaomi 5v 1a base charger. So not a third party one.
The fitness band has only been in his possession for a month or two and he has sent it back to Amazon in Italy. This would imply that this is the global variant sold in Europe which is known as Mi Band 5.
Luckily, the flame remained only on the table. The burn marks are clearly visible on the Mi Band, in the lower half of the display. However, some of the damage is because Costa threw it on the floor when it caught on fire on stomped on it.
Can’t really blame him, can we. Luckily he wasn’t asleep when this happened.
If the story is accurate it seems the culprit is the Mi Band on not anything Costa has done. So far this has been an isolated incident. If we get more such reports it will be very worrying news for Xiaomi.
What springs to mind is the Galaxy Note 7 incident in 2016. There was a battery defect issue that caused damage due to overheating of the phones. In the end the fiasco burned a $17bn hole in Samsung’s pocket.
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