The unit under question is 8 months old and it isn’t clear whether the smartphone was being charged via the charger that comes in the box or a third-party charger
Xiaomi Mi A1, the company's first stock Android smartphone has reportedly exploded while charging overnight. The Mi A1 in question is 8 months old, was working without problems or heating issues till the incident occurred. The user was jolted awake in the night but ignored it and went back to sleep. The user found the phone burnt in the morning. The post describing the incident on the MiUi forum reads, “My friend's Mi A1 exploded while he was sleeping near it. If not for the protective cover and the distance, he could have been seriously hurt. So, my friend bought a Mi A1 about 8 months ago. It was working without problems till date. No heating issues, while charging or otherwise. He had kept it for charging and went to sleep, as he usually does. Apparently, he was jolted awake at night by something, but ignored it and went back to sleep. In the morning, he found the phone in an extremely damaged condition. He has reported to customer care, and hopefully, they will compensate him. MiA1 users, take care not to place it near your head while charging!!”
There is no information available whether the phone was being charged via the charger bundled with the phone or with a third-party charger. We have reached out to Xiaomi for comments on the incident and will update the story once we have any official word from the company.
The Mi A1 explosion adds to a series of smartphone and tablet explosions that injured people and even resulted in a few deaths this year. In a recent tragic incident, Nazrin Hassan, Chief Executive Officer of Malaysia's early-stage startup investor died after his smartphone exploded while it was charging next to him. According to the family members he had two phones, one Blackberry and one Huawei. More recently, shoppers and staff at Apple's Amsterdam Store were evacuated after an iPad battery exploded at the premises. The most common cause of battery explosions in gadgets is overheating and use of third-party, incompatible chargers. It is very rare that a battery fault, like that on the ill-fated Samsung Galaxy Note 7, results in smartphone explosions. This is the first time we have heard reports of a Mi A1 exploding when being charged overnight.
Speaking to the specifications of the Mi A1, the smartphone sports a 5.5-inch Full HD display and is powered by Qualcomm's Octa-core Snapdragon 625 processor. The Mi A1 offers 4GB RAM and 64GB storage, further expandable up to 128GB via microSD card slot. The Mi A1 features a dual 12MP rear camera setup with one wide-angle lens and another telephoto lens. The primary 12MP wide-angle lens has 26mm focal length with f/2.2 aperture, phase detection autofocus and dual-tone flash. The secondary 12MP telephoto lens has a focal length of 50mm, f/2.6 aperture and is capable of 2x optical zoom. The primary camera is capable of recording 4K videos at 30fps and 720p slow-motion videos at 120fps. There is also a 5MP front camera with f/2.0 aperture and support for 36 beauty profiles. Other features of the phone include a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor and support for 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS and 3.5mm audio jack. The Mi A1 is backed by a 3080mAh battery and uses a USB Type-C port. You can read our review of the Mi A1 here.
Xiaomi launched the successor to the Mi A1 called the Mi A2. The smartphone also runs on stock Android. The Xiaomi Mi A2 features an aluminium chassis and sports a 5.99-inch Full HD+ display with an aspect ratio of 18:9. The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5 and the phone is powered by an Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 chipset clocked at 2.2GHz. It has the fingerprint sensor and a vertically stacked dual-camera setup on the back. The dual-camera system on the Mi A2 features a primary 12MP Sony IMX486 sensor having 1.25-micron pixels and a secondary 20MP Sony IMX376 sensor for portrait photography. Both the lenses have f/1.75 aperture. There is a 20MP front camera with a Sony IMX376 sensor and Xiaomi's Super Pixel Technology. The smartphone comes in two variants – 4GB RAM with 64GB storage and 6GB RAM with 128GB storage. You can read our review of the Mi A2 here.
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