LG today announced that its much anticipated flagship handset, the LG G5, goes on sale in South Korea today, with sales in the United States beginning from April 1. This will be followed by a wider retail release of the handset in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. 

The LG G5 sets itself apart from other high-end smartphones by offering a modular design. Despite coming with a unibody design made from aluminium, the LG G5 comes with a removable 2,800mAh battery that has become a rarity in flagship smartphones nowadays.

“Since MWC, LG G5 and Friends have captured the imagination of consumers everywhere with its engaging take on mobile technology,” said Juno Cho, president and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “Modularity has been talked about for years but no one was able to consumerize it until now and we’re happy to take on the mantle.”

The modular design also makes it possible to enhance the functionality of the phone using various ‘Friends’ that LG is launching alongside the phone. This includes CAM Plus, a camera grip that adds manual camera control buttons and a 1,100mAh battery to the G5; Hi-Fi Plus with B&O Play DAC; Rolling Bot; and more.

Under the hood, the LG G5 is as high-end as things can get. The handset sports a Snapdragon 820 chipset, 4GB RAM, 32GB of internal storage, and a microSD card slot. The front houses a 5.3-inch Quad HD IPS LCD display with always-on feature. Another unique aspect of the G5 is its dual-lens camera setup at the rear. The combination of a 78- and 135-degree lens means that the G5 can take some really ultra wide angle shots. The front of the phone houses an 8MP shooter for all your selfie needs. LG has also improved the software aspect of the handset by simplifying its UI further down and adding a semi-transparent blur effect to make it look prettier.

All major carriers in the United States had started accepting pre-orders for the LG G5 from last week itself, with most of them shipping the phone out to customers on or by March 30th itself.