LG has taken the wraps off its new G Pro 2 handset as expected, marking one of the first major smartphone launches of this year.

While the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2014 trade show is rapidly approaching, kicking off on Feb. 24 in Barcelona, Spain, LG has taken an early start and launched its LG G Pro 2 in Korea.

The new LG G Pro 2 comes as the successor to the high-end LG Optimus G Pro and is poised to go up against the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 phablet, as it boasts a massive 5.9-inch full HD display.

The super-sized smartphone enters the phablet trend of devices with increasingly bigger displays. If some consumers find the display too big, however, LG notes that a new software feature called Mini View allows users to shrink the display down to between 3.4 and 4.7 inches.

Other specs of the new LG G Pro 2 include a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor under the hood, paired with a hefty 3GB of RAM and Adreno 330 graphics. The smartphone will come in two storage configurations - 16GB and 32GB - and sport a microSD card slot for additional memory. A 3,200 mAh battery will keep things up and running and should provide decent battery life.

The LG G Pro 2 further comes with a 13-megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilization (OIS), 4K video recording capabilities, and 120fps slow-motion video, as well as a 2.1-megapixel front camera for video calls. On the software side, the smartphone ships with Android 4.4 KitKat out of the box. LG has yet to provide pricing details for its G Pro 2, but the company said that the smartphone will be available in black, silver, and white color options.

Although the LG G Pro 2 comes with high-end specs and features, it will likely not be LG's flagship for 2014, as the company is widely expected to unveil a top-notch LG G3 later on. As for the MWC 2014, LG has posted a teaser image touting an LG G2 Mini, which will be unveiled on Feb. 24 in Barcelona.