LG G Pad 8.3 Pro Reviews

The G Pad 8.3 is undoubtedly LG's best tablet to date and at £199 it's a bit of a steal. A nice selection of hardware and software make this a great choice for a small tablet. However, occasionally laggy performance means the Nexus 7 might be a better choice.

The LG G Pad 8.3 is powerful and slim, but its display is not bright. Thanks to its quad-core processor with a relatively high clock rate, its performance belongs to the upper class and is even comparable with the Google Nexus 7's. In addition, LG reasonably enhanced Android and included a good software bundle. We appreciate the reliable touchscreen, the sturdy and slim case, and the high-res screen with strong colors. Although the display is darker than many competitors' are, this is not a serious problem indoors. The speakers are not a delight. Since LG incorporated two speakers, they should have also cared whether these fulfill the expectations they raised. In addition, the LG does also not perform too well in power consumption, which is higher than usual. As a result, the battery life is just acceptable. Overall, the LG G Pad 8.3 is recommendable for those who usually use their tablet with headphones, indoors and not too far away from the next power outlet. These will get a more than solidly designed, fast tablet with Full HD display. However, the Google Nexus 7 still has the better price-performance ratio.

Good performance and a great custom skin makes this the best 8in Android tablet

It's a very good tablet, but when you factor in costs, it gets a bit murky. At $350, it's $120 more expensive than the $230 Nexus 7. While it's faster than the Nexus 7 and has a larger screen, the less-accurate/sharp screen, poor audio quality, and slightly more awkward form-factor put it on roughly even footing. That's not to say that $350 is expensive for a tablet of this caliber, it's just that $230 for the Nexus 7 is an insanely good deal for a tablet that awesome. If you definitely need a bigger display, the G Pad will be a better buy than the iPad mini for most people. It's more real estate for 50 bucks cheaper. This especially holds true if you already have an Android phone; it's generally easiest to stick within the same ecosystem so you don't have to re-buy your favorite apps.

When the LG G Pad 8.3 initially launched, I said it was expensive compared to its rivals, which at the time included the iPad Mini, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3, and the Google Nexus 7. The 7 had the most glaring price difference: if you choose the equivalent 16GB, Wi-Fi only model, it was $121 less than the G Pad, and had all the software benefits of a Google-branded device. With the Play Edition of the G Pad, however, things get a bit more nuanced. Since it's sized between the 7 and 10 tablets, its price falls somewhere in the middle too. Though $350 is still a decent amount of money to fork over, Android fans will enjoy the extra inches of screen real-estate, software updates, and simplified UI. Plus, the faster performance speeds should be welcomed by all, no matter how much you like the vanilla OS. However, with the launch of Google's G Pad, comes a lower $299 price with LG's original model. That's $50 back in your pocket for essentially the same tablet -- a tablet that was fast and reliable to begin with. If you're looking to save dough and don't mind a smaller screen, the Nexus 7 is still the reigning king of small-sized tablets. But if you want something a bigger, can live without pure Android, and don't need updates the moment they're available, go for LG's original G Pad version. If you're set on the stock Android version of the OS, however, and the Nexus 7 just isn't big enough, then Google's edition of the G Pad will be worth the extra $50.

The LG G Pad 8.3 Google Play Edition is a boon for die-hard stock Android fans, but it's missing some of the features that made the original tablet compelling in the first place.

The Apple iPad mini with Retina Display is perhaps the best small tablet money can buy at the moment, and it shows in the $399 basic price. It has an extremely high resolution display, premium design, blazing 64-bit chipset, very long battery life, and can take full advantage of more than 400,000 iOS apps written exclusively for tablets. LG G Pad 8.3 fights back with a lower $299-$349 price tag, depending on the retailer, or whether you want the Google Play Edition version. The tablet still flaunts a great high-res display, svelte design, and adds some extra functionality with the IR blaster at the top, and the microSD slot for cheaper storage expansion. It, however, doesn't offer a version with cellular connectivity. Its Android interface overlay offers some nifty features for easier multitasking, like a Qslide set of hovering apps, and a widget system, both of which come very handy on a tablet, but the Play Store has yet to offer more apps that are written from the ground up for a larger screen real estate. Thus, unless you deem the iPad mini 2 uncomfortable to use with one hand on account of the wider chassis, or need some of the extra G Pad 8.3 functionality, the iPad mini 2 with Retina Display is your better bet on a futureproof small tablet - if you can stomach the higher price tag, of course.

The LG G Pad represents a strong return to the tablet market for LG. We hope the firm carries on making devices of this calibre - it feels premium thanks to top build quality and has enough strong features to make it well worthy of consideration - but that will, of course, depend on how well it sells. So it's over to you, dear reader. We love the G Pad's QPair functionality to hook up with an Android phone for easy-to-use connectivity features, while we continue to be impressed by LG's gesture and "wake-by-tap" option too. We're also impressed by the speed and battery life. It might not be the very fastest processor out there, but we rarely noticed. But if that has a knock-on effect to battery life then we definitely noticed: because the G Pad can last out for days with the right kind of use. A real reason to consider the G Pad as a commuter device. But as much as we're big fans of the G Pad, for us one of the problems we think it will face comes down to its 8-inch size. Had LG opted for a 7-inch device with the same specs and build ethics, we think it would be a no-brainer, buy-on-sight device - as long as the price was controlled. As it is we just felt it was a little large and heavy, to the point we'd be more likely to reach for the Nexus 7 first. But that's a reflection of our thoughts, and others will disagree because optimal tablet size is a matter of personal taste. If you want something a bit different, that's bigger than a Nexus 7, smaller than an iPad mini and a noticeable amount smaller than one of the many 10-inch tablets out there then the G Pad could be the one for you.

If LG continues participating in the tablet industry, the G Pad 8.3 is a solid restart. Its zippy performance, expandable memory, and crystal-clear screen fulfill most of what users are looking for. However, $350 is a lot to shell out for a small, Wi-Fi-only tablet. Consider another expensive tablet: the Apple iPad Mini with Retina Display is only $50 more, but features supreme build quality, a brighter, more vivid screen, and access to the largest app ecosystem. But again, you don't have to pay that much for a tablet that's comparable to the G Pad. The original iPad Mini is currently priced at $299, and even though the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 didn't score as well as the G Pad in our benchmark tests, it's still a smooth performer. It also meets the 8-inch screen standard (if you're into a that), and has expandable memory -- all for $299.99 or less. The best alternative to the G Pad, however, is the Google Nexus 7. True, it has a smaller screen and lacks microSD support, but it boasts a superior internal performance. The Nexus is also aesthetically appealing, and as a Google-branded device, it'll receive OS updates the moment they roll out. And most importantly: it's cheaper. With the same $350 you'd spend on a G Pad, you can get a 32GB Nexus with carrier support. If you'd prefer to only stick with Wi-Fi, the 32GB model is still $80 less than the G Pad. With all these factors, it's no wonder why, in terms of Android tablets, the Nexus 7 remains the standard to beat.

The LG G Pad 8.3 is a very cool tablet. Without a doubt, its main differentiating factor is the premium design, which is unrivaled by any other Android tablet so far. With its slim profile and high-quality materials involved in its construction, the G Pad 8.3 can easily become an object of intense desire. Under the hood, the tablet may not be positioned on the bleeding edge of technology, it's still very powerful with its Snapdragon 600, allowing us to enjoy the Android experience in its full beauty. Well, you really have to be into LG's UI design style for this to happen, but if not, you can always get a nice third-party launcher from the Play Store and you're set. LG has really taken the Android tablet market by surprise with the G Pad 8.3 and hopefully it'll be able to penetrate through that bubble of low-cost offerings and make itself visible for consumers. Good job, LG!