LG G5 will cost R13999 in South Africa, arrive 15 April [Update]

Update, 8 April: LG, in an one-on-one interview with the company’s South African marketing and managerial team, announced that the launch price of the LG G5 will be R11 799, not R13 999 as initially planned. The device is currently available to preorder on Takealot.

This means that the LG G5 is now the cheapest flagship launched this year, undercutting the R12 999 Samsung Galaxy S7, R12 999 iPhone 6S and R13 999 BlackBerry PRIV.

LG’s big, bold and beautiful smartphone gamble — the LG G5 — is making its way onto South African retail shelves on 15 April, the company confirmed.

The LG G5 is the first flagship to take modular design seriously, boasting a removable bottom slot on which the battery resides, and alongside it, space for Magic Slot modules.

These modules effectively add functionality to the phone as a whole, and some of the current modules available beefs up audio processing, improves camera usage and lengthens battery life.

Related: LG G5 in pictures: the ‘world’s first’ modular phone

The phone itself features all the usual flagship specifications of 2016, including a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC, 4GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. A microSD card slot is also present, a dual rear camera setup of 16MP and 8MP, as well as the same 8MP camera up front as well. There’s a 5.3-inch screen too with a quad HD panel lurking within.

Complete specs list: LG G5 announced with ‘LG Friends’ peripherals, bold new smartphone vision

There’s currently no contract details available, but the phone will retail for R13 999 — more or less in the same price range as the Samsung Galaxy S7, the BlackBerry PRIV and the Microsoft Lumia 950 XL. Expect contract prices to reflect this as well.

Feature image: LGUSAMOBILE via Twitter