After having released an official tease of its new 5.5-inch Optimus G Pro handset last week, LG Electronics revealed in a Monday announcement that the new handset will hit the South Korean markets this week, and will be available in Japan in April.

According to the LG announcement, the Optimus G Pro will be available at a contract-free 968,000 won ($894) in South Korea; and will be exhibited at the annual mobile fair which is scheduled to kick off in Barcelona, Spain, next week.

Some of the most attractive features of the LG Optimus Pro smartphone include a 5.5-inch full HD 1920x1080 IPS screen; a 1.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor; a 13-megapixel back camera; a 2.1-megapixel front camera; 32GB on-board storage capacity; 2GB RAM; microSD card slot; and a removable 3,140mAh battery.

In addition, the handset will run the Android OS 4.1 `Jelly Bean' version; and will also feature wireless charging; NFC; 4G LTE; HSPA+; EV-DO; and home key with six-color LED. The smartphone will be available in two color options: Indigo Black and Luna White.

Going by some early reviews, the LG Optimus Pro smartphone - which will be available from three leading South Korean carriers this week - marks "one of LG's more convincing efforts" in the direction of becoming a reputed high-end device manufacturer.