LG G Pad 8.3 16 GB (LG-V500) Review

LG has been under the shadow in the smartphone and tablet market for a while, but the cooperation with Google has led to a remarkable evolution in the past few years. After Apple released the iPad mini Retina, LG offered an alternative, low-cost option in the form of LG G Pad 8.3.

The LG G Pad 8.3 has a good quality build, with the top layer toughened with glass and the rear being a mix of plastic and aluminum. The rest of the area is metal, but has a similar feel to the iPad mini. Let’s dig deep on what it has to offer.

Design
Apart from the premium feel, the edges are a bit rounded like the Nexus 7, so it fits conveniently in the palm of your hand. Though it’s only slightly thinner than the older Nexus 7, it feels quite thin when held, probably because of its weight being distributed across a bigger surface.

The overall design is sleek and sophisticated, and though it’s big for content consumption and an enjoyable experience, it’s also small to fit in a pocket or held in one hand. The micro SD slot is placed on the top edge along with a tiny IR blaster, which lets the G Pad 8.3 function as a universal remote control.

Display resolution
One of the main highlights of the G Pad 8.3 is that it has the first FHD panel in a tablet this size. The screen is bright, and the 1920×1200 resolution looks pretty damn good on the 8.3-inch display. The viewing angles are excellent and the user interface text is amazingly sharp.

It has a 16:10 widescreen panel, and although the resolution is less pixel-dense than Nexus 7, it’s quite sharp and the color reproduction is also decent. The basic image quality is decent courtesy of the IPS panel, which provides fairly good viewing angles.

Software
The LG G Pad 8.3 features Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean out of the box and LG’s custom interface on top. LG allows for some customization on its native interface, such as providing an option to change system fonts and the appearance of the task bar.

The G Pad also includes 8 different options for home buttons, and each of them include a menu button. And there are also four options for themes – black gradation, white, white gradation, and black. A bunch of useful apps are pre-loaded, including the following:

• QPair: Uses Wifi to sync with your device and notify of text and calls on the tablet.
• QSlide: Provides a lot of options when it comes to floating apps, such as web browser, email, file manager, videos, etc.
• Voice Mate: Similarly to Google Now’s voice controls. It can be given verbal commands for execution.
• LG Backup: Automatically saves your calendar, settings, contacts and more to the cloud.
• KnockON: Enables you to tap on the display twice to switch it on or off.

Overall performance
The tablet is fast with its Snapdragon 600 processor and is able to handle everything the owner throws it at. Gaming is sleek on the 8.3 inch and it accommodates touch controls without things getting awkward, while displaying everything on the screen.

The navigation is fluid for day-to-day tasks like reading, browsing, playing games, etc. The tablet offers a good feature-performance radio with a quad-core processor clocking at 1.7 GHz, which is pretty high in system benchmarks. Only Amazon Kindle Fire’s HDX 7 CPU is faster.

The camera is present at the top part of the back frame and is 5 megapixels, with a resolution of 2560×1920. There’s no LED flash, but the sensor masters LED photos quite well. The front camera accommodates basic selfies and video conferencing. The battery capacity is above par in the same range of tablets; the tablet sports a built-in 4,800mAH unit, which the user doesn’t have access to.

Availability and price
Cyber Monday Deals are offering low prices on the LG G Pad 8.3, as well as similar deals around the web and in retail outlets. The refurbished 16 GB version is available for as low as $169.99 and also includes free shipping. Such deals can get you the lowest price possible for a G Pad 8.3 in a good working condition.

The market price started at $350 but the recent price cuts have seen the G Pad 8.3 retail for a standard $200. It means that the Nexus is no longer the only tablet in the lower price range delivering a good performance.

And if you’re a regular surfer of the web, the G Pad is right up there, because it performs well in terms of transfer rates and access times of the hard drive. The multi-tasking is seamless, the navigation is fast, and the browser and web pages load quick.

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