Phone explosions are not uncommon in the news, but headphone explosions are rarely heard of, and this allegedly happened with Apple's AirPods.
A recent video widely played on Douyin (TikTok in China) shows 23-year-old Mr. Tang from Zhengzhou wearing AirPods to make a phone call on May 19, when the right headset exploded, causing him to faint.
Ten minutes later, Mr. Tang was awake and felt pain and significant swelling in the right half of his face and ear.
According to the medical certificate issued by the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, the explosion caused "skin lacerations on the front wall of the right ear canal" and Mr. Tang was recommended to be hospitalized for surgery.
Mr. Tang's condition improved after 2 days of treatment, but his right ear pain and hearing loss symptoms persisted, so he went to the hospital again.
Mr. Tang was diagnosed with swelling in front of the right ear, a small T-shaped tear in the nail cavity of the right ear canal, fresh blood leakage in the right ear canal, a tear in the front cartilage of the right ear canal, about 1cm, and blood accumulation in the tympanic chamber.
From the photos of the exploding headphone, the device has obvious cracks, but there is no charred black marks, which is also questioned by many people.
Mr. Tang claimed to have purchased the AirPods for 1,276 yuan from an Apple dealership in a local mall.
Apple staff said they will collect the devices for further investigation and if there are quality issues with the product, the store will be required by law to compensate the consumer.
Since their launch in 2016, the AirPods have become one of Apple's best-selling products.
Third-party data shows that Apple sold more than 60 million AirPods in 2019, taking over 50 percent of the global market for true wireless headphones.
Video here: link
