Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 Allegedly Explodes Into Flames on Video, Company Responds

In an event that might remind some people of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, a Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 smartphone was allegedly seen catching fire in a video inside a shop in Bengaluru. While a shopkeeper was seen trying to insert the SIM into a customer's phone, it caught fire after an explosion and burned the handset's entire body substantially.

Update, July 25 6:45 pm IST: Redmi Note 4 Blast Video 'Fake', Says Xiaomi; Blames Faulty Third-Party Charger for Customer's Woes

In a video shared by The Explode, it can be seen that the customer's smartphone - said to be a Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 - was not connected to a charger or any other accessory and simply burst into flames while the retailer was handling the smartphone. As most of such cases are usually associated with overheating of the handset while charging or otherwise, this seems to be a rather rare case.

Gadgets 360 got in touch with Xiaomi India about this incident, the company responded by saying, "At Xiaomi, customer safety is of utmost importance to us. We have reached out to the customer to investigate this matter, and are awaiting further response." As per Tech Case, which initially reported the incident, the customer has since received a replacement for the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 from the company.

Thankfully nobody got injured in this incident but clearly by very narrow margin. If the phone would have caught fire while someone was over a call, there was every possible chance that it could have caused serious injury. As consumer safety is something that has previously created huge problems even for big players like Samsung, Xiaomi might have to make a strong statement regarding the matter eventually. Having said that, this is currently an isolated incident and doesn't necessarily imply an inherent problem with the handset.

Update, July 25 9:00 am IST: Later on Monday, Xiaomi issued another statement that indicates the company believes the video might be of an unrelated incident. Here's Xiaomi India's statement on the incident in full:

At Xiaomi, customer safety is of utmost importance to us. We investigated the Redmi Note 4 in the images, and concluded that it was a case of damage due to a faulty third-party charger used by the customer. Nonetheless we worked with the Poorvika store where the unit was bought, and replaced the customer's damaged unit with a brand new Redmi Note 4.

However, after a thorough investigation, we cannot validate the source of this video, as it has no relation to this case, and was not from the Poorvika store. In fact, it is unclear if this separate and unrelated incident depicted in the video involved a Xiaomi device.