Pantech plans to release its new smartphones next week in a bid to sway consumers from Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy S3, which has been grabbing most of the spotlight in the global mobile markets.

Using its trademark “Vega,” the smallest of Korea’s three mobile phone developers will introduce Vega S5 with 5-inch or hand-size display, allowing consumers to easily control the phone with just one hand instead of two.

The letter “S” in Vega S5 refers to screen, style, strong, speed and special care, while “5” came from the size of the display and five special features of Pantech’s new smartphone.

Using the touch-screen zero bezel technology, its high-resolution display is thinner and lighter than any other 5-inch smartphones in the market, said the firm.

Embedded with one-chip solution of both LTE baseband chip and application processor in Qualcomm’s Snapdragon MSM8960, the smartphone also features a 13.0 megapixel camera functions with tracking focus and zero shutter lag.

Pre-orders for the Android Ice Cream Sandwich platform phone will begin this Thursday, and hit stores of SK Telecom next week.

(hkp@heraldcorp.com)