We all knew that it was coming, thanks to the rumors and now it's official. The Samsung Galaxy A8 (2016) is going on pre-order in South Korea on October 1, with a price tag of 649,000 won ($580). The smartphone will be exclusive to SK telecom for now. We are not sure whether the smartphone will be sold off-shores as well, but there is a chance that it might be in at least certain specific markets. Check out the specs below to get a closer look at what Samsung is offering with the new incarnation of the A8.

· 5.7-inch Super AMOLED Full High Definition display
· Always On display
· Samsung Exynos 7420 octa-core 14nm processor
· 3GB RAM
· 32GB of internal storage
· 16-megapixel rear camera
· 8-megapixel front camera
· Fingerprint scanner embedded in the Home button
· 3,300mAh battery
· Samsung Grace UX on top of Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow
· Samsung Pay enabled

To be frank, the new A8 (2016) just seems like a tweaked Galaxy S6 Edge Plus, minus the Quad High Definition Edge display (ironically). There is no doubt that the Exynos 7420 is still quite a capable chip, but considering that it's already more than a year old, the A8 (2016) may not be the best option for the price, except for the strictest of Samsung fans of course.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

Just as Samsung was setting up to restart the sale of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphones with a new batch of safe devices, a new report from China has come in where a customer in Guangzhou is claiming that his brand new and "safe" Galaxy Note 7 exploded within a day from the date of purchase. Bloomberg reports that Hui Renjie, a 25 year old man from Guangzhou, China, got minor burns on his fingers after his Note 7 exploded. Ironically, it allegedly also burned his Apple MacBook in the process!

According to Renjie, someone from Samsung did contact him after the incident and asked to remove the device, but he declined in favour of going public with the incident. In reply to the incident regarding the exploded smartphone which was supposedly marked as safe, Samsung has issued the following reply via e-mail.

"We are currently contacting the customer and will conduct a thorough examination of the device in question once we receive it,"

It should be noted that Samsung had excluded China from the global recall of the Note 7, by citing the reason that the ones sold in China sport batteries that are different from the hazardous ones supplied by Samsung SDI. We will soon find out if this is an isolated incident, a faked one or if the Galaxy Note 7 really is still as "explosive" as before!

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

Unlike a lot of the western nations, India did not have to face too many issues with the faulty and hazardous Galaxy Note 7 batteries because of the plain fact that it wasn't even launched then. In fact, Samsung decided to halt the sales and recall all the Note 7s that had already been sold, on the exact day that the smartphones were supposed to go on sale in India (September 2). This means that Samsung Mobiles India did not have to recall any Note 7 back to them and will simply start selling the "safe" and revised smartphones once they have a stock.

According to Business-Standard, the South Korean company will relaunch the Note 7 in India on October 7 and the previous stock won't be sold as refurbished products this time around. Even though they did not have to face the embarrassing recall procedure unlike their western counterparts, it is expected that Samsung will try their best to leave the disaster behind them with a relaunch of the product, complete with a full-fledged media campaign. The fact that the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will also go on sale on the same date definitely doesn't seem like a coincident either.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

Samsung continues to urge its customers to return the Galaxy Note 7 as soon as possible. Although more smartphones have been returned since Samsung involved the authorities to speed up the recall process, not all of them have been returned yet. Canada, for instance, has shown better return rates than all other countries, but even then, 30% of the potentially dangerous smartphones are still in the hands of the population. In order to make the danger more apparent to the ones who are holding on to the older models with the defective batteries, Samsung has planned to release an update in Canada with collaboration from local carriers. This update will clearly show the user if their Note 7 is safe to use, or if it needs to be returned to ensure the safety of the users. If it is indeed unsafe, it will also remind the user to return the phone in every three hours!

Additionally, the new batch of safe Note 7s will all show a green battery icon both in the notifications panel and in the power menu. This was possible after Google allowed Samsung to replace the white battery icon in favour of the green one, in light of the precarious situation. You should already be receiving the update as it has started to roll out to Note 7s in Canada from September 21. According to Paul Brannen, COO and Executive Vice President of Samsung Mobiles Canada, "Note users are probably the most loyal customers there are,"

"We've had very few people get a refund and say they don't want the device anymore."

Samsung had earlier announced that customers in the US should start receiving safe replacements for their hazardous Note 7 smartphones by September 21 and they have kept their promise. Reports indicate that Samsung has already started to distribute the new batch of smartphones to the customers and resellers here in the US. We guess Tim Baxter (COO, Samsung Mobiles US) meant it when he proclaimed the aforementioned deadline in an official apology video, in which he also requested all customers to immediately power down their devices and contact Samsung for a replacement or a refund.

Apparently, Best Buy is one of the first resellers in the US to notify their customers about the replacements having arrived. Although we are not sure, but Best Buy is probably also the only reseller right now that's providing the replacement Galaxy note 7 smartphones to their customers. Nevertheless, we are pretty sure that the other resellers and carriers will pick up on it before September 21. Now that Samsung has guaranteed safety with their new batch of Note 7s, will you be opting to buy one or would you choose something else from what the competition has to offer?

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)