The 8.3-inch LG G Pad is now official
We’ve been expecting it for a couple of weeks, and now the new LG G Pad 8.3, LG’s entry into the small to medium tablet space, has finally been made official. It will be released in Q4 of this year to most markets, though it isn’t clear yet when it will come to the USA.
As far as hardware, the tablet naturally has an 8.3-inch display. With a resolution of 1920 x 1200, it equals the Nexus 4 in absolute terms of resolution, but because the G Pad has a larger display, the pixel density is a slightly lower 273ppi. A 1.7Ghz quad-core processor provides the computing power, backed up by 2GB of RAM. The 4,600mAh battery should be able to keep the device running quite a while, though the real-life battery performance may be different.
Since the G Pad has an uncommon 8.3-inch display, I’m going to take a minute to also look at the physical dimensions of the tablet as well. The G Pad is 8.5-inches tall while the Nexus 7 and iPad Mini are only 7.9, and is 4.98-inches wide to the Nexus 7’s 4.48 and iPad Mini’s 5.3. At 8.3mm thick, it is between the Nexus 7 and iPad Mini’s measurements, and weighs just about 30 grams or 1 ounce more than the iPad Mini. So, while the tablet will still certainly be portable, it is also definitely bigger than the competition in terms of foot print.
The G Pad is currently powered by Android 4.2, but should get somewhat timely updates despite not being a Nexus device. LG does include a custom app called QPair, which shows calls and message on the larger screen and should work with any Jelly Bean device. Though it isn’t necessary for anyone who uses Google Voice, the idea of closer phone/tablet integration isn’t a bad one.
I’m not yet totally convinced, but so far the LG G Pad seems to have comparable specifications to the Nexus 7, only with a much better (in my opinion) 8.3-inch display. Of course, we don’t know if the tablet will include Qi charging or NFC, and the price will make a big difference in whether or not this is a good buy, but so far everything looks good. What do you think of an 8.3-inch tablet instead of the more standard 7-inch tablet?
[CNET]
