Korean tech firms and telecom operators are filling in the gap left by flagship smartphones with their low cost products.

The next premium smartphones, including Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and LG’s G6, are scheduled to launch after February.

Samsung Electronics said it began sales its low cost Galaxy A5 on Thursday for 550,000 won ($467) in Korea. This is around half the price of its flagship smartphone Galaxy S series, which are sold for around 1 million won.

Despite the low price, the device still features some premium technologies such as waterproof, dustproof, offline payment service Samsung Pay, fingerprint scanner and Always On Display -- which allow users to check the time and date even when the phone is not in use. Galaxy A5 also sports 16 million pixel front and rare cameras. 

Samsung’s local rival LG Electronics also began selling its low-end smartphone LG X300, which costs 253,000 won. LG X300 is a follow-up model of X series which was first launched in March of last year. It sports 5 million pixel front and 13 million pixel rare cameras, which have Auto Shot Selfie function automatically recognizing the face to take the shots.

Alongside the traditional smartphone makers, the nation’s three telecom operators SKT, KT and LG Uplus are also unveiling low-end phones in partnership with global tech firms.

The nation’s largest mobile carrier SK Telecom partnered with Chinese tech firm TCL Alcatel to unveil its own smartphone Sol Prime earlier this month, which costs 433,400 won. The 5.5-inch device, which adopts 8 million pixel front and 16 million pixel rare cameras, is able to adjust the depth and wavelength of voice based on music genre.

KT also launched a 2.4-inch Mini phone, made by the US startup Posh Mobile, which is the smallest smartphone here. The small device weighing only 52 grams costs 132,000 won. It only supports 3G (Third Generation) network instead of faster LTE (Long-Term Evolution) network.

LG Uplus also unveiled Huawei’s P9, which costs 599,000 won. It has dual cameras, which have exclusive lens for black and white pictures.

Industry watchers view the budget smartphone market has steadily increased since 2014 when the government began to limit smartphone subsidies. In the past, the domestic market was dominated by premium phones as customers were able to buy the flagship phones at lower costs with subsidies given by tech firms and telecom carriers.

“Since the law implementation to restrict phone subsidies, the demand for affordable smartphones -- with decent design and functions -- has been growing among local customers,” Kim Jong-ki, director of Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade’s ICT research division, told The Korea Herald.

“The market is expected to become fiercer as telecom operators joined the race with their own devices with exclusive services,” Kim said.          
                  
By Shin Ji-hye(shinjh@heraldcorp.com)