Remember the rumor that said LG would launch the G2 in Korea right after announcing the device in New York? Looks like they were right. Local site UNDER kg got a hold of a retail unit and gave it the unboxing treatment. That in it of itself isn’t news, what’s interesting here is the differences the Korean model compared to the global variant that was unveiled. The battery is smaller (2,610 mAh versus 3,000 mAh) and replaceable instead of sealed. Also, the Korean model has an SD card slot, while the global model doesn’t.

Why the differences? It’s likely to appease the local markets. While I can’t speak for the rest of LG’s devices, I know that when Samsung launches flagship phones in Korea, they come with two batteries in the box and a crazy charger that can charge both the phone and the spare battery. They can afford to do that there because devices in Korea are sold by operators with heavy subsidies attached.

Looks like LG has done the same thing with their new beast-phone.

As for the rest of the LG G2, what makes it special? That 5.2 inch edge to edge display, which is larger than the 5.0 inch display in the Galaxy S4, yet at the same time the G2 is only a hair bigger. It’s also got a Snapdragon 800 under the hood, but in Korea it’s not the first to do that, the GS4 LTE-A variant sold by SK Telecom has that.