Samsung Blames Galaxy SIII Burns on "External Energy Source"

Samsung has some great news for Galaxy SIII smartphone owners. As it turns out, your mobile device isn't at risk of overheating to the point where it catches on fire and burns through its casing, as a forum member at Boards.ie claimed was the case with his Galaxy SIII a couple of weeks ago. At the time, Samsung said it would follow up the complaint with an investigation.

Fire Investigations UK (FIUK), an independent third-party organization, assisted Samsung with looking into the matter, and here's what they concluded:

"The energy source responsible for generating the heat has been determined as external to the device... the device was not responsible for the cause of the fire," FIUK said in a statement. "The only way it was possible to produce damage similar to the damage recorded within the owner's damaged device was to place the devices or component parts within a domestic microwave."

burned Samsung Galaxy S III
The damage shown here is the result of a microwave oven.

Following the investigation, Boards.ie user "dillo2k10" has retracted his statement, saying "the damage to the phone was caused by another person" who was "attempting to recover the phone from water." He also admitted that a "large amount of external energy" was to blame, a statement that jibes with the FIUK's finding that a microwave was involved.

So there you have it. While your Galaxy SIII might feel hot once in awhile, it's not to going to burst into flames.