By There is good hot and bad hot. Good hot would be something like the rumored HTC Dragon – an Android Phone supposedly coming packed with a Qualcomm 1GHz processor. Then there is bad hot… like your T-Mobile G1 melting through directly through your battery cover:
That’s exactly what happened to a blogger over at AndroidWorld.nl as you can see above – they’ve got more pictures of the melted metal (translated). Thanks to Ruud who sent this in and had this to say:
Some time a go the iPhones were all over the news when the exploded/melted. One of my bloggers experienced exactly the same with his G1, no explosion, but the backcover melted because of the (Batter) heat. Still awaiting the answer from T-mobile, but we do have a article and pictures ofcourse. Think some interesting Androidnews
Interesting indeed. The only way you could really “fake” this is by putting a lighter directly up to your device – is anyone dumb enough to do that? Being Android enthusiasts themselves, I’ll give these guys the benefit of the doubt. So now the question remains… will we start seeing more incidents like these popping up? And what caused this in the first place?
Well it can seen from the pic that this is not in the area of the battery…
Physically the battery is further away from the damaged area and not even close to the bend of the chin …
but possibly on the circuit board where power charging circuitry may be located … ???
When I have my ADP1 in heavy use for ~10 minutes or more, that’s exactly the part of my phone that gets hot,,
my sister’s phone just updated to firmware v1.6!
You can trust the guys at Androidworld.nl :)
The author of the article went to the store because he still has warranty on his G1. He’ll receive a new one after he sends this one to the manufacturer, but before he does that he’ll buy a T-Mobile Pulse as a substitute while he waits for his replacement.
oh, i should add, it’s on t-mobile in the US on the G1, in case someone wondered.
Seems fishy…The bubble is directed into the phone, which would suggest some sort of external heat source. If it were truely from inside the phone, bubble would most likely be directed outwards.
@glyco Thats great but wtf as that got to do with this story?
oh yep my old G1 got hot in that spot too!
@quan
doesnt really matter which way the bubble is (remember that it’s just released energy, no exhaust taking place here).
the heat just melts the plastic, and it expands or contracts
@Sander I have noticed the same thing with my phone. Specifically while tethering or during heavy use.
Side note: Back when I had my T-Mobile Dash (another HTC phone), the first battery swelled to the point that it cracked. The replacement did the same, however neither led to the plastic melting.
I’ve noticed mine doing the same thing. Its a slow melt and not a bad burn that gets bigger slowly. I’m going to have replace my case soon because of it soon. I love my phone but tmo and gogle need to address this soon.
my sim card got damaged by my g1 and i had to go buy another one now i know y cause the heat might have gotten to it
@rat: nothing, other than timing. this was the most recent article, and the event just happened. everybody remain calm.
Hmm, this makes me think…
My G1’s battery sometimes gets a little hot, and then I see this…
Well all I can do is hope it doesn’t do the same, lol. Or turn it off if it starts cooking.
Yeah,heavy usage and car charging bring up the temp in about that region of my u.s. tmo g1,too.But i got donut today @ 1:30 p!in response to a previous post,rob,i’m waiting to see that x3!(or now maybe dragon!)all i know is that after almost a year with my g1,the replacement needs to be king freakin kong.
My phone gets extremely hot in that place when I have GPS on, 3G on, and it is plugged in to my car. I’m sure it has a lot to do with charging, but using 3G, GPS, and having the screen on 100% of the time will run your battery down in a few hours…
since this is the newest post, and also a fairly uninteresting one (turn gps, wifi, 3g, 100% brightness on while charging your phone and then using 10 apps at once will melt your phone), im gonna take this opportunity to voice my concern for the “apps” tab up there ^^^. ive been checking in “the coming hours/days”…NOTHING IS HAPPENING!!
Use internet while charging continuously for about 3 hours,both the charging circuitry and battery will get extremely hot,
but i dont know if that is enough for a meltdown.(dont have a handson experience with g1,still waiting for my first android may be a dragon now)
@Pieter: The heat inside the casing will create a positive pressure, thus pushing the bubble outwards. Plus, if the heat originated on the inside of the plastic, that part of the plastic would start to expand faster than the colder outer layer, causing the bulge also to be outward.
@quan
You assume the casing is airtight?
And if the inside expands faster the bulge would go inward.
(the outside of a bubble has a larger surface area then the inside)
@Qantumrand: actually, if the inside was expanding faster than the outside, it’d generally cause the bulge to be inward. But there’s too much randomness going on to be able to accurately predict that. The picture looks realistic, and also you can see that part of the case is bulging out and part in, so it doesn’t really matter.
Why don’t we wait and see if more people report this. One point that people may have missed is that the amount of heat needed to melt this type of plastic is ‘a lot’. With such heat being produced by the phone, do they mention that the phone still works? I’d be very suprised if it does, considering the soldering joints which would melt at a much lower temperature.
It is entirely possible that this has happended, considering this is where all the GPS and 3G components are. Plug in your phone and feel where the heat is generated while charging. I would hazard a guess, however, that this is most probably down to faulty circuits.
As for bubbles and pressure @Johnny Awkward and @ Quantumrand. Either can be the case. Both of you state good points in your arguments. We shall see if more people come forward. I’m personally edging my bets on a it being produced from the inside (due to the ripple effect caused when the bubble from the inside first protrudes, then contracts, causing the outer edge to ripple like a stone hitting water).
What if they just took off the back cover and put a lighter under it? I think the phone is too close to the cover to make a dent like it did
@moises Wouldn’t that be from the inside then?
So, just got off a call while it was charging and my battery reads as 107.96 degrees F. That seems REALLY hot to me….
(You can use the T-Mobile My Account app to see your battery temp.)
Maybe they played Crysis?
JUST WROKE UP TO MELTING PLASIC, IT WAS MY PHONE THE SAME AS THIS!!!!
WHAT DO I DO?
WHO CAN I COMPLAIN TOO?