LG Electronics has unveiled another mid-range smartphone for the Asia, Europe and Latin America markets. The slim metal LG Zero inherits the camera technology and UX features of the LG G Series. The build quality of the LG Zero is highlighted by its aluminum body which gives the LG Zero a premium look. This newest smartphone's metal body is enhanced by the "Arc Glass" design of the edges which create a slimmer profile.

Complementing the solid exterior is a 5.0-inch In-Cell Touch IPS display, an 8MP front camera and a 13MP rear camera. Features found on LG's G Series such as Gesture Shot, Gesture View and Gesture Interval Shot have found their way to the LG Zero as well.

Specifications

• Display: 5.0-inch HD In-cell Touch (1280 x 720, 294ppi)
• Chipset: 1.2GHz Quad-Core Processor
• Camera: Rear 13MP / Front 8MP
• Memory: 1.5GB LPDDR3 RAM / 16GB eMMC ROM / MicroSD
• Battery: 2,050mAh
• Operating System: Android 5.1 Lollipop
• Size: 142 x 8 x 7.4mm
• Weight: 147g
• Network: LTE / HSPA+ / GSM
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 b, g, n / Bluetooth 4.1 / USB 0
• Colors: Silver / Gold
  

Pressure from China

South Korean companies are struggling to stay ahead in the global smartphone market as Chinese smartphones are quickly shedding their cheap copycat image by boosting both quality and prices.

Huawei, the world's No. 3 smartphone maker in terms of sales, unveiled the Nexus 6P smartphone in conjunction with Google in September.

China's Lenovo acquired Motorola from Google last year and has been rolling out mass-market models under the Lenovo brand and high-end models under the Motorola label.

Xiaomi's Hongmi Note 3, which was unveiled late last month, costs only between 899 and 1,099 yuan (US$150-200) but has a metallic frame, fingerprint recognition and a 4,000 mAh battery.

Samsung released its flagship large-screen premium smartphone, the Galaxy Note 5, here in August and set the price in the W800,000 range, lower than all the other predecessors. LG also set the price of its new V10 smartphone unveiled in October in the W700,000 range.

In response, both Korean giants (LG Electronics and Samsung electronics) have also introduced a range of cheaper models to stay abreast of the Chinese competition.

But those strategies resulted in declining profits despite bigger sales in the third quarter.

LG suffered a W77.6 billion loss in the smartphone business in the July to September period although it sold 800,000 more smartphones than the previous quarter. It sought to make up for anemic sales of its strategic G4 model by boosting sales of mid and low-end models.

Samsung, the world's leading smartphone maker in terms of sales volume, saw its profit drop by W360 billion despite sales rise by W550 billion.