Tests find some cellphones may catch fire, explode

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Tests ordered by Zhejiang provincial authorities in East China found that products from a number of cellphone makers - including Samsung Group, Sony Mobile Communications (formerly Sony Ericsson), Motorola Mobility and Nokia - are substandard and can cause fires and explosions.

The test, organized recently by the Zhejiang Provincial Administration for Industry and Commerce, found 27 out of the 36 batches of sample cellphones, or 75 percent, were of inferior quality, with 20 batches failing to pass the battery heating test, one of the critical safety benchmarks.

Other brands with problems were Royal Philips Electronics, HTC, ZTE, K-Touch, TCL, Huawei Technologies, Hisense, Lenovo Group, Desay, Amoi, Vivo, Ebest and Coolpad.

Jin Lei, a public relations officer at HTC China, said on Thursday the company will launch an investigation into the issue and release the results as soon as possible. Other brands, including Samsung, Huawei, Sony Mobile and Lenovo, did not respond Thursday.

The revelations came after a rash of cellphone explosions in recent years. In one of the most serious cases, a young woman in Beijing had her leg and left hand burned in April after her cellphone exploded in her pants pocket.

Public concern about phone quality prompted the authority to launch the inspection, and the test was carried out by a Guangzhou-based telecom-products test center designated by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, according to the Zhejiang administration.

All the sample products were collected from authorized retail outlets of China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom - the country's largest telecom operators.

Tests were carried out on the products' general function, battery capability and quality of chargers, and it was found that most of the defective phones could not pass the heat exposure as required by the national standard.

"If a phone doesn't pass the heating test, it can easily lead to a short and start a fire, especially when it is kept in a hot place for a long time," said Wu Yuping, a professor at Fudan University's Chemistry Department. "It is very dangerous."

Other defects found by the Zhejiang authority include an inferior audio frequency, which will reduce the connection quality, and insufficient battery capacity.

Questions:

1. Who ordered quality tests on cellphones?

2. Which phones failed the test?

3. What is the risk?

Answers:

1. Zhejiang provincial authorities in East China.

2. Samsung Group, Sony Mobile Communications (formerly Sony Ericsson), Motorola Mobility and Nokia.

3. Substandard products can cause fires and explosions.

（中國日報網英語點津 Helen 編輯）

About the broadcaster:

Nelly Min is an editor at China Daily with more than 10 years of experience as a newspaper editor and photographer. She has worked at major newspapers in the U.S., including the Los Angeles Times and the Detroit Free Press. She is also fluent in Korean.