LG Electronics, the nation’s second-largest handset maker, is set to unveil its new flagship smartphone, the G3, later this month.

“We will release the LG G3 at the end of May or at the beginning of June after reviewing the market conditions,” said Yoon Bu-hyun, a vice president of LG Electronics’ mobile communications planning division, at its earnings briefing on Tuesday. “The LG G3 will first be rolled out in the domestic market, then expand globally,” he said.

The release date is two months earlier than the launch of the G2 in 2013. Analysts said this was the best time to avoid competition from rivals like Samsung Electronics and Apple Inc.

Apple’s iPhone 6 is expected to hit the market this September.

The company likely considered the business suspensions slapped on local telecom companies, which will end in May. KT is currently the only firm operating.

Sales from home account for just 7 percent of LG’s total smartphone sales, but Korea is still an essential test bed for the company as it seeks a soft-landing in the European and North American markets.

The LG G3 will come with premium features, including a Quad High Definition (2560x1440) resolution display, which is four times the resolution of an HD panel, and twice that of a full HD screen.

LG hopes to get a foothold in the QHD smartphone market before its rival Samsung Electronics unveils its new Galaxy S5 variant with a QHD display in June, industry watchers said.

The LG G3 is expected to have a 5.5-inch display, 0.3 inch larger than the G2. It will be powered by the quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801, clocked at 2.5 GHz, and will house 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage.

The new handset will come with a 13-megapixel rear camera, a 3000 mAh battery and an Android 4.4 KitKat. It will reportedly not adopt waterproof or dustproof functions in consideration of design factors.

LG Electronics, despite seeing sluggish growth in handset sales in the first quarter of this year, said its brand image has greatly improved since the launch of its G series, and that it will continue to invest in global marketing throughout the second half of this year to further enhance its brand.

“LG Electronics’ smartphone business is expected to turn around in the third quarter as its premium smartphones will continue to perform well in European countries and North America,” said Kim Rok-ho, an analyst at Hana Daetoo Securities.

By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)