There was a time when the Moto RAZR V3 ruled the market and flip phones were hip, but fast forward to 2016 and the term "flip phone" is generally associated with a tang of nostalgia and may be some very cheap entry level phones. However, you would not think like that if you are in China though because Samsung has been making and selling high-end Android powered flip phones in the Chinese market for quite a while now. The latest edition of the series has been revealed via a leak on Weibo and it has the model number SM-W2017 according to the report.

The SM-2017, aka "Veyron," will succeed the SM-2016 while sporting flagship-grade specifications like a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC, a 4.2-inch Super AMOLED display, 4GB RAM and 64 gigabytes of internal storage. There's a 12-megapixel camera at the back of the phone and a 5-megapixel selfie cam, which we suspect are the same ones seen on the S7 this year. The fingerprint scanner with a heart rate monitor isn't missing from the list either and the Veyron does support NFC and Samsung Pay. Although flip phone will most likely be exclusive to China only, would you buy one if one was available near you?

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

Before the faulty batteries in some of them started to explode, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was a much loved handset that was definitely one of the top contenders for being the phone of the year. However, as Samsung has managed to locate and address the issue in their new batch of Note 7 smartphones, they will resume with the sales from September 28 in South Korea. The company hopes to replace/refund a large percentage of the older models by that time and is confident that in time, all of the old devices will be safely recalled back to the manufacturer.

The date on which the Note 7 will be made available for purchase in other nations around the world has not exactly been pointed out by Samsung yet, but it shouldn't take much longer now that the replacements are almost ready to be shipped. What remains to be seen is the impact that this incident will have on the sales figure of the new Notes. Even though Samsung has vouched that the new smartphones are completely safe, will enough customers believe them in a market filled with powerful flagship grade options from various competing manufacturers? We will soon find out.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

Unless you are living in a cave or some deserted island, you probably know that the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 did not pan out well after defective batteries in some of the units started to explode soon after the sales began. The good news is that Samsung acknowledged the problem fast and issued a global recall of the 2.5 million devices that it had sold so far. However, the process has not been very smooth as only 130,000 units have been replaced/refunded so far out of the one million devices sold in the US. In order to highlight the importance of the matter, Tim Baxter, the president of Samsung Mobiles US, has apologised and stressed on the graveness of the subject through an official video. Here are a few important excerpts from his speech of apology to the customers.

"...and with battery cell defects on some of our Note 7 phones, we did not meet the standard of excellence that you expect and deserve. For that, we apologise, especially to those of you who were personally affected by this."

"The CPSC has worked closely with us to develop, expedite, and execute a plan to protect American users. We notified them of a potential defect in the original Note 7 batteries, then issued a global directive to stop sales immediately. To date, we already have exchanged 130,000 units. A fast and meaningful start."

"We will continue implementing corrective steps to exchange every single Note 7 on the market," Baxter continued. He also reiterated that the exchange process is an adequate solution to the ongoing problem. "To be clear, the Note 7 with the new battery is safe... This finding has been affirmed by a recognized, independent, lithium battery expert."

"To our Note 7 owners: if you have not yet replaced your original Note 7, please, please, power it down and return it."

"New Note 7 phones will be available for exchange no later than next Wednesday."

While it still is a huge blunder, one must admit that Samsung is showing a lot of class in the way that they are handling the entire situation.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

After a few weeks of investigations, confusion and more than ninety exploding Note 7s, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission has now officially instructed Galaxy Note 7 owners in the US to stop using the smartphone immediately and return it to Samsung as soon as possible. Although the company did recall the Note 7 smartphones worldwide much earlier, there was quite a bit of confusion regarding what the situation was exactly and how to proceed with the replacement or refund. In order to make things easier, here's what the official statement from CPSC declared earlier.

"Consumers should immediately stop using and power down the recalled Galaxy Note 7 devices purchased before September 15th, 2016,"

"Contact the wireless carrier, retail outlet, or Samsung.com where you purchased your device to receive free of charge a new Galaxy Note 7 with a different battery, a refund, or a new replacement device."

If you opt to exchange your Note 7 for a brand new and safe one, the new box should have an "S" in blue, printed over the bar code to denote that it's safe. We have information from Recode that in spite of the multiple warnings, only about 130,000 customers have returned their devices so far in the US. Hopefully this formal CPSC statement will encourage more customers to opt for the replacement/refund.

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)

Although Samsung will probably resume selling the Note 7 with a safer batch of battery and maybe even a slight rebranding, analysts are of the opinion that it might not be enough to help Samsung out of the huge loss that this fiasco has landed them in. According to Mirae Asset Securities, launching the next flagship device (which is probably the Galaxy S8) prior to its expected release date could prove to be a vital move that may help Samsung somewhat counter the loss that it is suffering both due to the expenses associated with recalling the defective Note 7s, as well as the long term impact on the company's reputation due to what happened.

It has been rumoured that Samsung is currently developing two secret flagship class smartphones, dubbed as Dream (SM-G950) and Dream2 (SM-G955). If this rumor is true then these could be the two upcoming Galaxy S8 models (or not). However, if they are, then we will have to assume that Samsung is once again skipping a number (4 in this case) as the S7 and S7 Edge were codenamed SM-G930 and SM-G935 respectively. Going by how the Galaxy Note 7 performed after skipping the number 6 (the Note 7 was preceded by the Note 5), the superstitious among us may not exactly recommend that!

Saikat Kar (tech-enthusiast)