LG G Pad 8.3
LG G Pad 8.3 review
8.4
Too bad, though, Canadians had to wait until 2014 for that that tablet, the G Pad 8.3, to become available. LG’s first foray into Android tablets since the 2011’s ill-fated Optimus Pad is well-designed, sufficiently fast, with software that, while resembling the G2, is less constrained by screen size.
At $350, though, the G Pad 8.3 is significantly more expensive than the Nexus 7 and lacks the direct-from-Google software updates. So is there a reason to get excited about LG’s newest tablet? Let’s take a look.
What Works
When first picking up the G Pad, you notice its heft and solidness. It’s a compact tablet with excellent weight distribution, thanks to a sheet of aluminum that covers the back. It’s the addition of metal that separates the G Pad from Samsung’s line of Galaxy Tabs, and sets it apart from the 2013 Nexus 7; LG’s offering has better hardware than anything Samsung or Asus has put out in over two years.Turning the slate over reveals an 8.3-inch IPS display with a 1920×1200 pixel resolution. Rather than focus on the numbers, though, LG has outfitted the G Pad with one of the best tablet displays we’ve ever seen; like the G2, it’s not a stretch to say this is at the top of its class. Touch responsiveness, too, is also tops, lending itself to a better gaming experience.
It’s also one of the more compact 8-inch tablets we’ve seen, owing to barely-there bezels on the vertical and diminutive gaps on the horizontal. At 216.8 x 126.5 x 8.3 mm, it’s only 16mm taller than the iPad mini but remains narrower and only slightly thicker; this is every bit a one-handed tablet.
And while there are gimmicks embedded in the Android 4.2.2 build, many of which are shared between it and the G2, they seem less intrusive on the G Pad, as if the extra screen real estate lends itself better to LG’s app focus. For example, Quick Memo, an underused and fairly useless addition to LG’s smartphones, finds a place on the G Pad as a screenshot and PDF annotator — even the lack of a stylus isn’t an impediment.
The tablet also pairs with a compatible smartphone over Bluetooth to mirror call, text and app notifications, something that comes in handy when using the G Pad on the couch with a smartphone tucked away in a pocket, or charging across the room. QPair, like Quick Memo, is a small but tangibly useful feature.
That’s what the G Pad does best: even running an older version of Android, and with slightly aged internal hardware (a 1.7Ghz quad-core Snapdragon 600 SoC, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage), it provides a great experience without reinventing the wheel. With stereo speakers and a microSD slot, too, the G Pad manages to be an amazing media consumption device: just drag and drop movies and TV shows onto a cheap 64GB media card, load up MX Player and away you go.
What Needs Work
If you’re looking for a tablet with a great camera (and why would you be?), the G Pad 8.3 is not recommended (nor are most Android tablets, for that matter). Despite a competent camera app, photos taken from the 5MP rear sensor are abominably bad, full of grain and dim colours.The 4,600mAh battery cell inside the G Pad 8.3 is neither big nor small, lasting just over a day of consistent usage when connected to WiFi. Standby time is astonishingly good — the tablet lost only 30% of its charge in a week while off the grid — but this isn’t Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition territory here. Heck, the battery is barely 50% larger than the one in the G2.
My biggest gripe with the G Pad is that it will likely stay on Android 4.2.2 long after its smartphone partner is updated; OEMs have a poor history of updating tablets with custom skins. The Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 still runs Android 4.1.2, as an example. This may not be a big deal as long as apps continue to support the software version, but the longer the G Pad goes without KitKat, the longer users miss out on Immersive Mode and some of those extra performance boosts.
Conclusions
The G Pad is a great tablet, but it does nothing better than the Google Play-sold Nexus 7 despite costing significantly more. That continues to be a problem with the Android tablet market: unlike high-end carrier-sold smartphones, whose higher costs are proportionally subsidized, Google is fine cannibalizing tablet sales with its own hardware.We really enjoyed our time with the G Pad 8.3, as it fits perfectly in the middle of the size spectrum: big enough to take on the iPad mini with Retina at a lower cost, and a better media consumption device than the smaller, lighter Nexus 7.
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