Apple Investigating Reports of iPhone 8 Plus 'Splitting Open'

If you've decided to hold out for an iPhone X rather than picking up an iPhone 8 Plus, you may have made a very wise decision. Apple is currently investigating reports of the iPhone 8 Plus splitting open, with the reason as to why remaining unclear.

As 9to5Mac reports, so far two cases of the iPhone 8 Plus case splitting have been logged. The first occurred in Taiwan where the smartphone was being charged when it split open. According to the owner, they were charging using the official cable and power adapter that ships with the handset. The phone had been in use for five days and the split happened after about three minutes of charging. Images of the split phone from Taiwan are available on ifeng.

The second report comes from Japan, but in this case the 8 Plus was already split open when the packaging was opened for the first time. Twitter user @Magokoro0511 posted a few images of his 8 Plus, including one with it still in the box.

届ã?"ã?ŸiPhone8plusã€?é–‹ã?'ã?Ÿã'‰æ—¢ã?«è†¨ã'‰ã'"ã?§ã?Ÿ pic.twitter.com/eX3XprSzqv

— ã?¾ã?"ã?"ã'? (@Magokoro0511) September 24, 2017

There are no visible burn marks on the casing of either iPhone 8 Plus ($699.99 at T-Mobile) . Coupled with the fact the one in Japan arrived split suggests this may not be a battery issue. The most likely cause is a fault in the glue or screws used to hold parts of the phone together. Maybe a little bit of heat makes them pop?

Whether these are isolated cases, a bad batch, or a wider problem is unknown. Apple is already investigating the iPhone 8 Plus from Taiwan to figure out what happened. If no more split cases appear then clearly someone on the iPhone production lines was having a bad day. For Apple's sake, let's hope that is the reason.

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If you own an iPhone 8 Plus there's no need to worry for now. Just keep an eye on your new phone, especially when charging it to see if the casing starts to buckle. I suspect you'd hear it if the casing suddenly popped open, but if it's a glue-related issue it may happen slowly.