Samsung Electronics Co.'s latest flagship smartphone, the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, topped the list of handsets with the best-performing cameras available in the market, a report showed Sunday. The Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, a high-end version of Samsung's phablet series, posted the highest marks among the latest smartphones, according to the report by US Consumer Reports. The high-end Note 20 Ultra has a 108MP wide-angle lens as well as 12MP telephoto and ultrawide cameras on the back. It features a m

LG Electronics Inc. said Sunday its new dual-screen smartphone will go on sale in South Korea this week as the tech firm aims to boost its handset sales amid the pandemic. The Wing will hit local shelves on Tuesday, with a price tag of 1,098,900 won ($940), according to LG. In the United States, the Wing will be released on Oct. 15, the company added. LG already announced there would be no preorder reservations for the Wing. Instead, the company decided to hold a promotion for the full mont

With Tesla dominating EV market, other automakers are ready to take on competition

Airline traffic in South Korea and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region will remain well below 2019 levels next year due to the coronavirus's impact on the airline industry, according to a global ratings agency Saturday. The pace of the recovery will depend on each market's relative success in bringing the COVID-19 pandemic under control to help improve passenger confidence and reduce the risk of further travel restrictions, Fitch Ratings said. "Airline passenger volume could impro

South Korea's chipmakers are expected to benefit from the United States' export restrictions against China's leading foundry firm, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), analysts here said Saturday, as the ban could give them more opportunities to secure orders. The US Commerce Department recently added SMIC to its blacklist, saying that exports to the Chinese firm pose an "unacceptable risk" of being used for Beijing's military activities. The move prevents US

Although child care leave was introduced by the country more than 30 years ago, the rate of workers who use such leave at private companies is still significantly lower than that of civil servants, a lawmaker said on Saturday, citing recent official data. A total of 4.5 percent, or more than 54,800, of about 1.22 million government employee pension holders, were on child care leave as of June this year, Rep. Kang Byung-won of the ruling Democratic Party said. He cited data from the Korea Worke

South Korean pharmaceutical companies have joined the global race to develop vaccines and treatments for the novel coronavirus, and several of them have received approval for clinical trials from the country's drug safety agency. Among the front-runners is Celltrion Inc.'s antiviral antibody treatment candidate called CT-P59 that is currently undergoing phase two and three trials both at home and abroad. Celltrion said it has completed phase one clinical trials on 32 healthy adults in the coun

Retail sales of Hyundai Motor Co. in the United States rose 7 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier on rising demand for its sport utility vehicles (SUVs), the carmaker's US unit said Friday (Korean time). Hyundai sold a total of 170,838 units stateside in the July-September period, down 1 percent, or 2,200, from a year earlier, according to a release by Hyundai Motor America on its website. But its retail sales reached 161,254 units over the three months, up 7 percent from the same

KT&G maintains over 60 percent market share, beating out global players in Korea

South Korea’s first smart city project, involving an area of 2,743,000 square meters in Sejong, is expected to take shape soon as local firms have recently joined the bidding competition. Other smart city projects, including one in Busan, are expected to follow as well. Parties that placed bids include a group led by LG CNS and KT-Hyundai Motor consortiums, according to sources familiar with the pilot smart city project. The successful bidder will work on this 2.5 trillion won ($2.1 bil

Suffering from stalled growth in recent years, the smartphone market remained dull until the first half of this year amid the gloomy sentiment driven by the pandemic. But starting with Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Note 20 launch in August followed by LG Electronics’ new swiveling form factor smartphone in September, the market is seeing consumer excitement grow again with the releases of new models. Among others, the launches of new form factors seem to be leading the overall recov

More major e-commerce platforms are offering new services for grocery shoppers as demand for fresh food in online shopping continues to rise amid the ongoing pandemic, according to industry sources. In September, WeMakePrice announced it would start offering a full refund to shoppers who are dissatisfied with the quality of perishable goods sold on its website. The return rate was nearly zero percent during the trial period of the quality assurance service, one official at the company explain

Chuseok is Korea’s autumnal holiday, a time for sharing the year’s harvest together with family. It is the perfect time to offer gifts to family elders, business partners and anyone you’d like to be on extra good terms with -- or just to prove you’re now legitimately in the adulting phase of life. 1. Cash Who doesn’t love cash? Cash gifts are arguably the most preferred way of showing a person that you genuinely care in South Korea. Because by giving them the mon

5 games to play during the Korean Thanksgiving holiday

South Koreans' direct purchases from overseas online malls more than doubled in the past five years in terms of value, a ruling party lawmaker said Wednesday.  Rep. Park Hong-geun of the ruling Democratic Party said the number of Koreans' overseas online direct buying jumped to 42.99 million in 2019 from 15.84 million in 2015, citing data from the Korea Customs Service (KCS). The value of foreign direct buying also soared to $3.14 billion from $1.51 billion over the cited period, the data