'Burning' Galaxy S III: Samsung is poised to investigate

Samsung is to investigate the case of a Galaxy S III user's handset bursting into flame, the manufacturer said on Thursday.

Samsung is poised to investigate a report of a Samsung Galaxy S III that burst into flames. Image credit: Samsung

In a brief notice on Thursday, Samsung noted that "there have been recent online posts displaying pictures of a Samsung Galaxy S III that appears to have heat-related damage at the bottom of the device".

"Samsung is aware of this issue and will begin investigating as soon as we receive the specific product in question," the company said. "Once the investigation is complete, we will be able to provide further details on the situation. We are committed to providing our customers with the safest products possible and are looking at this seriously."

The Galaxy S III is Samsung's new flagship Android phone. It has a very large and dense 4.8-inch screen and a state-of-the-art 1.4GHz quad-core processor, which is more powerful than that found in netbooks a couple of years ago.

Both screen and processor require a lot of power, and the device accordingly comes with a 2,100mAh battery, which is relatively capacious.

Some on the messageboard where the report appeared suggested that the flame incident may have had something to do with the user's charger, but 'dillo2k10' said no charger had been connected at the time.