South Korean giant LG Electronics recently announced in its homeland a new mid-range smartphone, the LG Band Play, which comes with a 1W speaker and the LG QuadBeat 3 earphones, according to a report.

LG plans to launch the new LG Band Play smartphone in the South Korean market this week, according to Phone Arena, but hasn't mentioned any plans for a future release to other regions. Phone Arena added that the new handset costs about US$356.

The new LG Band Play handset runs on the Android 5.1 Lollipop operating system and is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 410 processor and 2300 mAh battery. The LG Band Play handset sports a 5 inch display screen with a 720 x 1280 resolution.

The LG Band Play will offer would-be owners 2GB worth of RAM along with 16 GB internal memory storage that can be expanded. The new smartphone will have a 13 mega pixel camera on the back and a 5 mega pixel camera on the front.

GSM Arena reported that the new LG Band Play will come with the "Focus Mode", which enables users to focus on their work by turning off Wi-Fi and data connection, among other functions.

Another South Korean giant, Samsung Electronics, also released two new mid-range smartphones, the new Samsung Galaxy J5 and Samsung Galaxy J7, in the Chinese market. These new handsets are designed for selfie enthusiasts and come with front-facing LED flashes accompanied by 5 mega pixel cameras.

Like the new LG Band Play, the new Samsung Galaxy mid-range smartphones also have 13 mega pixel rear cameras, 16 GB internal memory storage, and they both run on the Android 5.1 Lollipop operating system as well. It's also unclear whether Samsung plans to release the new Samsung Galaxy J5 and Samsung Galaxy J7, to other markets in the world.