Samsung Galaxy S7, LG G5 smartphones launched in Barcelona

It’s a South Korean shootout as Samsung and LG raise the stakes on the smartphone front.

The new Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge at its worldwide unveiling in Barcelona.

South Korean rivals Samsung and LG are finding it harder to inspire the public to buy a new premium smartphone. As the Mobile World Congress kicks off in Barcelona, LG has launched the LG G5 while Samsung has unveiled the long-awaited Galaxy S7.

LG, a strong force in the television and white goods markets, was ousted last year from the list of top five phone makers.

Meanwhile, Samsung, the dominant force in Android, is slowly bleeding market share to other manufacturers. Sales of last year’s S6 were disappointing and manufacturing didn’t cater to the public’s preference for the S6 Edge ahead of the flatscreen S6.

The South Korean giants have decided to deal with the situation in their own distinct ways. LG has chosen the radical route, revamping its smartphone design and releasing a premium G5 smartphone that’s more about what you connect to it, rather than the phone itself.

The G5 has a 5.3-inch 2K display, double the processing power of its predecessor, 40 per cent faster graphics, and the power to capture and playback 4K video.

The phone takes wider-angle snaps with a 135 degree lens and supports faster charging, up to four times standard charging, according to LG.

An “always-on” section of the screen shows information such as date, time and battery status. LG says it will consume just 0.8 per cent of the battery per hour.

LG has retained the fingerprint sensor, which doubles as the power button, on the back of the phone. But the volume rocker control has moved from the back to the side of the phone.

You can remove the battery and slot in a microSD card for extra storage.

The big news is the series of devices called LG Friends that slide inside the phone, mostly through a long, thin rectangular slot at the bottom.

They include a 360-degree camera and a headset called the LG 360 VR for viewing virtual reality video.

There’s an 8-megapixel rolling ball camera called Rolling Bot that can be adapted to home security, an LG Tone Platinum headset for listening to 24-bit sound, high-end H3 earphones by Bang & Olufsen that support 32-bit audio, and a controller for DSLR camera-like operation.

LG, in partnership with drone maker Parrot, has also showcased a compact “smart controller” for drones and other third-party devices. Clip this into an LG phone and you are ready to roll. The total revamp of the phone, literally from inside out, is a radical departure for LG, which last year was promoting the G4’s cosmetic benefits, such as its leather back cover.

Samsung, on the other hand, has again played it safe with the 5.1-inch S7 and 5.5-inch S7 Edge with tweaks to last year’s S6. Like LG, Samsung’s phones have a 2K display with four times the resolution of full 1080p high definition.

Samsung has restored support for a microSD card, but there’s no return to a removable battery — a signature feature of its earlier models.

The handsets support wireless charging and will support Samsung Pay, due in Australia this year.

After introducing water resistance with the S5, and ditching it with the S6, waterproofing is back with the S7. Both the S7 and S7 Edge have an IP68 rating, which makes them useful devices at the beach or around the pool.

Samsung repeatedly sunk the boot into Apple at the launch, displaying photos taken by its premium iPhone 6s Plus and highlighting their shortcomings against those of the S7.

Samsung also launched a 360-degree spherical camera called Gear 360. It has dual fisheye lenses, each with 15 megapixel image sensors, that lets users capture near 4K video quality of 3840x1920 pixels in 360 degrees, along with 30 megapixel still images.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg spoke at the launch, describing Samsung’s VR as “the best mobile VR experience yet”. Samsung’s virtual reality headset, Gear VR, is a cut-down version of Oculus Rift, which is made by Facebook acquisition Oculus VR.