iPhone 7 explodes too?

An image of a seemingly exploded, badly damaged iPhone 7 Plus surfaced  online Wednesday, and some media outlets (as well as social media) are already comparing this to the seemingly never-ending Samsung Note7 Explode gate.

While its still unsure what really happened to that iPhone, chances are the incident is very different to what's happening to Samsung's Note7 devices — and there's a good chance the phone didn't explode (at least not on its own) at all. 

Jokes about Apple stealing features from Samsung aside, and judging by the set of photos shared on Imgur and Reddit, it appears that the iPhone was severely damaged during transport. Its packaging is punctured, and the phone itself has a large dent on the back, indicating that the damage was inflicted with a physical blow. The burnt parts of the packaging indicate that the battery did catch fire at some point, but that sometimes happens to batteries when you apply a lot of physical force to them. 

It's also possible the iPhone did really explode on its own, causing all the damage to the packaging, but it just seems less likely — especially since the phone was probably brand new and turned off during transport. 

For comparison, Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 devices overheat and their batteries sometimes explode (apparently due to an unusual error during the manufacturing process), but mostly when the phone is on and charging. 

It's absolutely possible for an iPhone battery to overheat and even explode.

Source: Mashable