How to officially identify a safe Galaxy Note 7, as units arrive in the US, UK and Korea

It’s been 17 days since Samsung announced the worldwide recall of its Galaxy Note 7 handset, after a small percentage of the smartphones shipped out with dangerous batteries. Safe replacements handsets have only recently begun making their way back out to consumers in Canada and Singapore, and today safe Galaxy Note 7’s have arrived in Korea, the US, and the UK.

Now that the replacement exchange is well underway, Samsung has announced some official guidelines that will help consumers identify the new, guaranteed safe Note 7’s from ones that may feature a defective battery. The company has introduced a new green battery icon as part of three specific software changes to the handset. The box also feature a little black square symbol, so that customers can check before leaving the store with their Note 7.

The new green battery icon is visible in the status bar, when using the always on display, and also on the Power Off prompt screen when users long-press the power key. However, this feature will only appear after a software update has been applied to the handset. For comparison, the original batch of Note 7 handsets feature a plain white battery icon.

In the US, a number of customers have begun reporting that their replacement Galaxy Note 7 units are available to pick up at Best Buy. At the moment, Best Buy appears to be the only retailer stocking replacement handsets in the US, but other stores and carriers should start announcing their own replacement stock soon enough. Samsung has confirmed that replacements will be provided to US customers no later than September 21st.

In South Korea, the handset exchange is now fully underway at the company’s three biggest carriers. Customers with SK Telecom and KT must visit the store that they bought their Galaxy Note 7 for an exchange, while those with LG Uplus can visit any store in the country for a replacement smartphone. Customers are only allowed to exchange their Note 7 for one of the same color.

Samsung is also swapping out potentially dangerous Note 7’s in the UK today. Customers should make contact with the retailer that they bought the phone from to arrange an exchange. However, there’s no indication about when the Note 7 will actually go on sale in the country, as only a small selection of pre-orders were fulfilled before Samsung cancelled the country’s September 2nd sale date.

If you haven’t returned your original Galaxy Note 7 smartphone yet, you can use Samsung’s official IMEI checker to help decided whether or not you should exchange your handset. Although Samsung recommends that everyone who purchased their phone before the recall date exchange their phone. Have you received your replacement smartphone yet?