VIRAL: Woman claims Samsung S7 Edge went up in smoke in Antipolo

MANILA - A woman has claimed her Samsung S7 Edge phone went up in smoke, causing panic at a beauty salon in Antipolo City.

Makeup artist Weng Briones, 36, posted photos of the charred gold phone on Facebook, which has been shared over 13,000 times.

Samsung is in the middle of a recall of 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7 phones, a larger stylus-equipped version of the S7 Edge, due to overheating and exploding batteries.

The South Korean electronics giant has not admitted to defects on the S7 Edge and S7 phones, which were released ahead of the Note 7.

Briones said her 16-year-old daughter was tweeting on her phone when the handset heated up and started emitting smoke.

"Natakot kaming lahat naglabasan lahat ng nasa loob ng salon [We were all so scared so we went out of the salon]," she told ABS-CBNNews.com.

Panicked salon patrons splashed water on the phone. A female staff then covered it up with a wet towel then stepped on it, she said.

"Puro smoke lang po tapos kusang bumuka yung phone dahil lumobo na yung battery [It was all smoke then the phone broke because the battery became swollen]," she said.

Briones she said she brought the unit to the Samsung store in SM Tatay, which initially offered to replace her phone for free.

"Sabi ko gusto ko ng refund kasi kung papalitan lang din nila. Ganun pa rin. Andun pa rin yung fear ko na maulit. They did not resist naman. Sabi lang nila na tatawag sila sa main office. Then after a rew minutes ay inabot na nila sa kin yung pera. P39,990," she said.

[I said I want a refund because they would just replace it again. I was afraid that it would happen again. They didn't resist and said they would just contact he main office. After a few minutes, they gave me P39,990.]

Store staff did not explain why the phone overheated and emitted smoke said Briones. But on the same night, the company's marketing head told her that they would investigate the matter, she said.

ABS-CBNNews.com is still trying to contact Samsung as of posting time.

In the United States, a man named Daniel Ramirez has sued the company after he sustained second and third-degree burns from the S7 allegedly exploding in his pocket, said the Tech Times.

In the United Kingdom, a woman named Sarah Crockett also said her S7 blew up while she was inside a cafe. Samsung said there were "no known safety issues" with the device but that it would investigate what happened, according to The Sun.

SOURCE: ABS-CBN