Apple iPhone 8 failure: Battery swelling reported in US

A week after Apple said it is looking into incidents of iPhone 8 batteries swelling and phones being left split apart, the first such case has been reported in the US.

A Best Buy employee posted on Reddit to report that his store had received a bulging iPhone 8 as a return. He had also supplied an image along with his post, BGR reported late on Thursday.

It is likely that this may not be the last incident.

The number of affected iPhone 8 handsets that have been reported is still statistically insignificant since millions of iPhone 8 handsets have already been sold, the report added.

Earlier, cases of swollen batteries were reported from Taiwan, Japan China, Canada, and Greece.

The first incident was reported from Taiwan when a user claimed her iPhone 8 Plus split open while it was charging.

The tech giant would be praying that a full batch is not affected, which would mean recalling units, ruining the whole reputation built around iPhones for years.

iPhone 8 and 8 Plus went on sale on September 22. Apple was yet to release figures for the early sales of iPhone 8 and 8 Plus.

The pre-orders for "super-premium" iPhone X will begin on October 27, with shipping starting November 3.

Last year, the batteries of the Rs 59,900 Galaxy Note 7 started exploding. Samsung counted several such incidents across the globe (over 90 Galaxy Note 7 smartphones owners in the US reported overheating).

Amid conspiracy theories, a global recall of 2.5 million devices was announced quickly and faster replacements were guaranteed.