South Korean mobile carriers SK Telecom Co. and KT Corp. began receiving pre-orders for Xiaomi Corp.’s latest smartphone Redmi Note 5 on Thursday, ahead of the official release and service launch on July 16.

Pre-orders for Redmi Note 5 can be made at each of SK Telecom’s and KT’s direct online stores until Sunday. It is the first time for Chinese electronics company Xiaomi to launch its smartphone via Korean mobile carriers. LG Uplus Corp., one of the three leading mobile carriers in Korea, will not service Redmi Note 5.

SK Telecom and KT will each provide a free display replacement coupon to all subscribers making pre-orders for Redmi Note 5. KT in particular will offer subscribers to choose from one of the four additional free gift packages.

Although the release price of Redmi Note 5 is 299,200 won, consumers will be able to buy the smartphone at below 100,000 won price when taking out public subsidy that will range from 72,000 won to 200,000 won depending on their mobile tariff plan. Additional subsidy provided by mobile retailers - which is 15 percent of the public subsidy - will also soften the final price.

Online shopping mall 11st Street, meanwhile, will also receive pre-orders for a sim-free Redmi Note 5 until Sunday before official release on Monday.

Redmi Note 5, which runs on Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 processor, comes with a 5.99-inch touchscreen display, 4 gigabyte (GB) random access memory, and 64GB storage. It is equipped with 12 megapixel plus 5 megapixel telephoto rear dual camera and 20 megapixel front camera and is powered by 4,000 mAh battery.

By Seo Dong-cheol and Lee Eun-joo

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]