We can now show you actual pictures of the Galaxy S7 Edge Blue Coral variant and it isn't even a leak. Samsung has officially released pictures of the upcoming new color variant and it looks quite beautiful. They have obviously taken a cue from the Note 7's Blue Coral variant here, as the color was quite well received. If you like what you see, you will be able to buy one starting November.

The S7 Edge Blue Coral is priced at NT$24,900 in Taiwan, which is approximately $790; the same price as all the other color variants. The handset will see its release on November 5 in Singapore and should make its way to the rest of the world soon afterwards. Given that every other competitor will have a new phone in the market for the holiday season, only time will tell if just an additional color option will be enough to convince customers in favor of choosing Samsung over newer hardware from other manufacturers. The LG V20, the Moto Z and the Google Pixel XL are thought to be its greatest competitors, but there are other less popular brands out there too, who will take a shot at stealing Samsung's market share due to the void that the Note 7's untimely death has created.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

In what was the worst quarter for Samsung Mobiles in the last two years, the tech giant has experienced a decrease of 96% in operating profits in Q3 2016, as compared to Q3 2015. It doesn't take a genius to guess that the recalling (twice) of the Galaxy Note 7 and its subsequent discontinuation due to mysterious hazardous threats that it posed to the customers are the main culprits behind such a disastrous financial quarter. That being said, Samsung is still the number one smartphone manufacturer in the world and significantly ahead of Apple, with a market share of twenty percent in the quarter!

According to Melissa Chau of IDC, "Samsung's market dominance in the third quarter was unchallenged in the short term even with this high-profile Galaxy Note 7 recall, but the longer term impact on the Samsung brand remains to be seen."

"If the first recall was a stumble for Samsung, the second recall of replacement devices face-planted the Note series. In a market that is otherwise maturing, Christmas has come early for vendors looking to capitalize with large-screened flagship alternatives like the Apple iPhone 7 Plus and Google Pixel."

According to IDC, 72 million of the 363 million smartphones sold in this quarter were manufactured by Samsung. The report from Strategy Analytics differs slightly (75 million out of 375 million handsets sold) but still clearly depicts the strong presence of Samsung in the global smartphone business, in spite of the embarrassing episode with the Galaxy Note 7.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Vice-Chairman Lee Jae-yong of Samsung has mentioned that the S8 will feature an "improved camera" as well as a "slick design." While this certainly doesn't say anything significant about the device to be honest, it just goes to show that Samsung is now trying to center media attention towards the Galaxy S8 and away from the Note 7.

As Lee Jae-yong specifically mentioned the camera of the upcoming Galaxy S8, it could indicate that Samsung might really be opting for a dual camera setup this time around. If the rumors are true, then one 16-megapixel sensor and one 8-megapixel sensor will be embedded in a single rear mounted module.

The slick design mentioned by the soon to be Chairman of Samsung on the other hand, could point to the "full-screen" display that we have only heard about via rumors so far. However, it's worth mentioning that Xiaomi has already beaten Samsung to it with the beautiful Mi Mix, when it comes to the all-screen display. Let's see if Samsung can top that at the MWC, 2017 next year in February.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

The financial reports for Samsung's Q3 2016 sales are out and they show that the Note 7 has burned Samsung in the same way as the company expected it to. The total revenue of the company has plummeted by 3.87 trillion WON/$3.4 billion and landed at 47.82 trillion WON/$42.01 billion; that's a 7.5% decrease, as compared to Q3 2015. Operating profit stands at 5.20 trillion WON/$4.56 billion, which is the lowest for the Korean tech giant in the last two years and shows a 30% decrease.

Things as a whole don't look nearly as bad as it looks in the company's mobile department. Consider this; Samsung Mobiles has managed a total revenue of 22.54 trillion WON/$19.80 billion, which depicts a 96% decrease, as compared to the third quarter of the last year! The profits in the division stand at a meagre 100 billion WON/$87.8 million.

According to reports, things will start to look a little brighter for the company in the last quarter of the year, as it plans to focus on increasing production and sales of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge in the worldwide market. In the meanwhile, the Galaxy A and Galaxy J series of smartphones will hopefully provide some stability in terms of sales to the company in their respective price segments.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

Samsung is looking to enhance the fingerprint senor's capabilities beyond that of only locking and unlocking the phone. The published patent indicates that the company hopes to bring swipe functionalities to their fingerprint scanners, which will enable the user to perform various actions by making swipe gestures on the fingerprint scanner itself. If you are not aware, then let us inform you that this sounds very similar to what the Google Pixel phones brought with them this year. Before you call out Samsung for "copying" the Pixels, note that they had actually filed for this particular patent way back in 2014.

Will we be able to swipe directly from the fingerprint scanner and launch an application from the lock screen on the Galaxy S8? We are not entirely sure to be honest. Many rumors indicate that the S8 will feature the company's first commercial bezel-less display, of which, a new optical fingerprint scanner will be an embedded part. If that turns out to be true, it is hard to tell whether that particular scanner will also be able to support the swipe functionality.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)