Samsung Electronics has been facing charges in Australia for apparently misleading its customers regarding one of its features on its Galaxy smartphones. And now, the company will be required to pay millions of US Dollars.

For those unaware, the Australian Federal Court Justice Brendan Murphy had ordered the South Korean tech giant to 14 million Australian Dollars (roughly 9.8 million US Dollars) within 30 days. Furthermore, the brand will have to pay an additional 140,000 US Dollars for the cost faced by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which had began the investigation four years ago. The company faced the fine for misleading its smartphone customers regarding the water resistance claims for its Galaxy handsets.

These false claims were made regarding water resistance on seven Galaxy phones that were aired in 9 advertisements between the years 2016 and 2018. The models in these ads includes the Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge, Galaxy A5 (2017), Galaxy A7 (2017), Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8 Plus, and Galaxy Note 8. As of right now, the smartphone maker  is not disputing these charges and has also agreed to pay the penalty amount as well.

The reason for the fines are due to Samsung showing its smartphones being using in swimming pools and seawater. However, these models were only water resistant not water proofed and would not have been able to withstand these conditions in real world situations. Furthermore, one scene even showed them charging after being wet, which in reality would’ve damaged the charging ports of these smartphones.

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Last week, Samsung officially unveiled the Galaxy S21 series, Galaxy Buds Pro, and Galaxy SmartTag/SmartTag+ at the first-ever Unpacked event of 2021. These phones, in particular, come in a wide variety of colors. Samsung even announced certain custom colors for the Plus and Ultra models. Now, out of nowhere, an unannounced special color of the Galaxy S21+ emerges on Samsung Australia’s official website.

Samsung has begun to take pre-orders for the newly announced Galaxy S21 series worldwide. Interestingly, on the company’s Australian website (FAQ section), it has listed an exclusive color called Phantom Green. This variant of the handset has the following SKU IDs.

• SM-G996BZGAXSA – Galaxy S21+ Phantom Green (8GB + 128GB)
• SM-G996BZGEXSA – Galaxy S21+ Phantom Green (8GB + 256GB)

For those unaware, the custom color variants of Galaxy S21+ and Galaxy S21 Ultra are exclusive to Samsung eStore. At the launch event, the South Korean tech giant only revealed two custom colors for the Galaxy S21+, namely Phantom Red and Phantom Gold, in addition to the standard colors – Phantom Silver, Phantom Violet, and Phantom Black.

Hence, it is surprising to know the existence of third custom color. But unfortunately, there are no renders of this version. And therefore, LetsGoDigital has published renders of Galaxy S21+ Phantom Green based on Galaxy S20 FE Cloud Mint, in partnership with designer Giuseppe Spinelli.

That said, we expect Samsung to extend the availability of this custom color to more markets in the near future.

UP NEXT: Samsung customers in South Korea can now rent Galaxy S21 and win free prizes

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Earlier today, we reported that Samsung was likely to post disappointing Q2 2019 results. Now, it is being revealed that the South Korean giant was recently sued by an Australian consumer watchdog over misleading advertisements. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) filed a lawsuit stating that Samsung misled consumers by showing ads that put its phones at the bottom of the pool and in the ocean.

Samsung’s higher-end models are IP68 certified which means its water and dustproof. In order to market this feature, the company often resorted to ads which show the phone being used inside pools and beaches. ACCC claims that these ads mislead customers because Samsung’s IP68 phones are only tested for waterproofing in freshwater sources. So, it states that the company hasn’t sufficiently tested the effects of pool or saltwater exposure on its phones.

“The ACCC alleges Samsung’s advertisements falsely and misleadingly represented Galaxy phones would be suitable for use in, or for exposure to, all types of water, including in ocean water and swimming pools, and would not be affected by such exposure to water for the life of the phone, when this was not the case,” ACCC Chair Rod Sims said.

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Those who are familiar with IP68 rating might already know the waterproof smartphones in the market today from Huawei to Apple to Samsung are tested in freshwater sources only. In fact, Samsung mentions this on its website. However, ACCC claims that Samsung did little to explain this fact in its advertisements.

ACCC lawsuit concerns all waterproof smartphones released by Samsung since 2016 including Galaxy S series flagships, Note series, and a handful of waterproof A series models.

Samsung responded to Reuters by saying that its advertisements complied with Australian laws and that it would defend the case.

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(Source, Via)

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The launch of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is a little less than a month away. Although availability is said to still be in September and October, the pre-registration page is already up in Australia.

Australia isn’t even among the first set of countries to get the Galaxy Note 8, so its surprising to see that pre-registration is live there. There is nothing much to the page, just basic information (name, email, mobile number), carrier details, and also Instagram account if you have one.

The Galaxy Note 8 will be Samsung’s first globally available dual camera smartphone. It will have the same infinity display as the Galaxy S8 and S8+ but slightly larger than the latter. Samsung has said the Note 8 will offer more advanced multimedia features but failed to mention what these features are.

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The Galaxy Note 8 will launch on August 23 at an event in New York. It will then be available in a few countries like the US and South Korea first in September  before the rest of the world in October.

(Source, via)

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