LG G Pad 8.3 Review

LG has only had one attempt at making an Android tablet (the old Optimus Pad), and it was definitely a failed one. However, with LG's recent success in the smartphone department, it was only a matter of time before they took another shot at the tablet market, and so we have today the LG G Pad 8.3. As the name suggests, the LG slate falls within the 7"-8" segment, and that puts it in direct competition with the iPad mini and the Nexus 7. With a 8.3" display of 1920 x 1200 resolution, a powerful, if not slightly outdated, Snapdragon 600 processor and a reasonable starting price of $349, the G Pad 8.3 might be just what LG needs to gain some market share in the tablet space.

	LG G Pad 8.3	Apple iPad mini 2	Google Nexus 7 (2013)
Body	217 x 126.5 x 8.3mm, 338g	200 x 135 x 7.5mm, 331g (Wi-Fi)/341g (LTE)	200 x 114 x 8.7mm, 290g (Wi-Fi)/299g (LTE)
Display	8.3" IPS LCD 1920 x 1200 (273ppi)	7.9" IPS LCD 2048 x 1536 (324ppi)	7" IPS LCD 1920 x 1200 (323ppi) w/ Corning Gorilla Glass
Storage	16/32 GB, 2 GB RAM (microSD expandable)	16/32/64 GB, 1 GB RAM	16/32 GB, 2 GB RAM
Connectivity	Wi-Fi	Wi-Fi, GSM (2G), HSDPA (3G), LTE (4G)	Wi-Fi, GSM (2G), HSDPA (3G), LTE (4G)
Camera (Rear)	5 MP with HDR and 1080p@30fps video	5 MP with HDR and 1080p@30fps video	5 MP with 1080p@30fps video
Camera (Front)	1.3 MP	1.2 MP with 720p@30fps video	1.2 MP
OS	Android 4.2.2	iOS 7	Android 4.3
Processor	Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 APQ8064 (Quad-core Krait 300 @ 1.7GHz + Adreno 320 GPU)	Apple A7 (Dual-core Cyclone @ 1.4GHz + PowerVR G6430 GPU)	Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro (Quad-core Krait @ 1.5GHz + Adreno 320 GPU)
Battery	Li-Ion 4,600 mAh	Li-Po 6,430 mAh	Li-Ion 3,950 mAh
Starting Price	$349 (16 GB)	$399 (16 GB)	$229 (16 GB)

Design

One of the best things about the G Pad 8.3 is its amazing design. Many elements of the G Pad 8.3's design are somewhat similar to the iPad mini, for instance, the narrow side bezels and the aluminium construction. For its size, the G Pad 8.3 is very thin. Measuring just 8.3mm (yeah, just like the name of the tablet and the size of the display), it's slightly thinner than the 2013 Nexus 7, but still a bit thicker than the iPad mini. The G Pad 8.3 also weighs 338g, so it's significantly heftier than the Nexus 7 (of course, the Nexus 7 has a much smaller display and battery), and a few grams heavier than the new iPad mini (albeit with a much smaller battery than the iPad mini's). It's clearly not as svelte as the iPad mini, but for its size and price it's still very thin and light.

The G Pad is one of the few Android tablets that have a back cover made of aluminium. In the case of the G Pad, it's a brushed aluminium finish. On the very center, oriented vertically, is an LG logo, and the right side of the back contains one speaker, decently spaced apart. Obviously, the landscape positioning of the two speakers means you'll only get a stereo effect when you're holding the tablet in landscape mode, which makes sense, since watching videos and playing games is usually done in landscape mode. On the top-left corner sits a 5 MP camera that can shoot up to 1080p@30fps video. 

The front of the tablet makes it look a lot like a blown up LG G2. The 8.3" display is of IPS technology, which means excellent viewing angles and good color reproduction. The 1920 x 1200 resolution results in a very crisp pixel density of 273ppi. While the display is extremely sharp and it's almost impossible to be able to discern individual pixels with the naked eye, it still falls short of the iPad mini 2 and the 2013 Nexus 7, which have displays of 323ppi and 324ppi, respectively. While the difference between 273ppi and 323ppi sounds big, in most cases it's very hard to notice a difference in sharpness between them. 

Performance

That is the area where LG has compromised to keep the price of the G Pad 8.3 low. While lately we've only seen flagship devices be powered by the latest and greatest SoCs, like the Snapdragon 800 or the Tegra 4, the G Pad 8.3 sports a more modest Snapdragon 600 SoC. This processor is composed of four Krait 300 cores running at up to 1.7GHz plus an Adreno 320 GPU. This means that the G Pad will perform considerably worse than the iPad mini 2, but will still match the 2013 Nexus 7 on that area. While the G Pad is nowhere close to the current flagships in terms of processor power, it would be a lie to say that it's slow by any means. As long as LG doesn't bloat its custom UI too much (which it hasn't done), the G Pad 8.3 should offer smooth performance at all times.

Conclusion

LG's return to the tablet market has potential to be great. The G Pad 8.3, aka LG's first shot at making a tablet in years, excels in its design with a sufficiently thin and light aluminium chassis and has an excellent display. LG's choice of using a slightly older processor in the G Pad 8.3 might be a deal breaker to some, though. Priced at $349 for 16 GB, it isn't exactly overpriced, but it's not that cheap either, considering what it offers, but still, the G Pad 8.3 is currently the best 8-inch Android tablet available. If you can afford to spend an extra $50 though, I think the iPad mini 2 will be a better alternative when it becomes available. 

HTC One Max Officially Unvieled: 5.9" Display and Fingerprint Sensor

After the seemingly doomed HTC received a nice uplift thanks to its successful One flagship smartphone, it was sure to try to take on the phablet realm. As a result, HTC has announced today its first (real) phablet, the HTC One Max. With a display size that falls right into the phablet form factor, the One Max is here to compete with the Galaxy Note 3. In terms of design and specs, the One Max is just an enlarged HTC One, but the One Max also adds one nifty feature: a fingerprint sensor.

	HTC One Max	Samsung Galaxy Note 3
Body	165 x 83 x 10.3mm, 217g	151 x 79 x 8.3mm, 168g
Display	5.9" 1920 x 1080 (373ppi)	5.7" Super AMOLED 1920 x 1080 (386ppi)
Camera (Rear)	4 MP UltraPixel camera with 1/3" sensor size, 2µm pixel size, 1080p@30fps and 720p@60fps video + LED flash	13 MP 4K@30fps and 1080p@60fps video + LED flash
Camera (Front)	2.1 MP, 1080p video	2 MP, 1080p video
Connectivity	GSM, HSDPA, LTE	GSM, HSDPA, LTE
Storage	16/32 GB + microSD slot, 2 GB RAM	16/32/64 GB + microSD slot, 3 GB RAM
OS	Android 4.3 Jelly Bean	Android 4.3 Jelly Bean
Processor	Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 APQ8064: Quad-core Krait 300 @ 1.7GHz + Adreno 320	Exynos 5 Octa 5420 (N9000): Quad-core Cortex-A15 @ 1.9GHz and Quad-core Cortex-A7 @ 1.3GHz + Mali-T628 Qualcomm Snapdragon 800: Quad-core Krait 400 @ 2.3GHz + Adreno 330
Battery	Non-removable 3,300 mAh	Removable 3,200 mAh

Like I said before, the HTC One Max is practically a bigger HTC One. The phone is rather bulky even for its size, weighing 217g and measuring 10.3mm thick. The Galaxy Note 3, in comparison, is significantly lighter and thinner. I think that 217g crosses the line where the device's weight will start making it uncomfortable to use extensively.

The back of the phablet is made of the same silver-colored aluminium that made the HTC One so attractive, however, the aluminium cover is now removable. And as if HTC's making some sort of joke, even though the back cover is removable, the battery itself remains non-removable. As usual, the 4 MP UltraPixel camera is positioned in the top-center of the device, and below it is one nifty new addition: apparently in Apple's wake, HTC has decided to include a fingerprint sensor below the camera in the One Max. Unlike Apple's solution, though, the fingerprint scanner on the HTC One is activated by swiping your finger on top of the sensor, not just by touching it.

In an attempt to take full advantage of the fingerprint scanner's possibilities, HTC has included a nice new software feature, which uses the fingerprint scanner to launch one in a selection of apps of your choice depending on which finger you swipe on it.

The front of the device, again an enlarged version of the HTC One's front, consists of two BoomSound speakers located in the top and bottom of the device. The huge 5.9" display has a resolution of 1920 x 1080, equating to a crisp 373ppi pixel density.

One big issue I have with the One Max is that, unlike other phone manufacturers, which compensate for very large screens by drastically reducing bezel size, it still has large top and bottom bezels, due to the front-facing speakers, and even the left and right bezels aren't as narrow as the ones found on the Galaxy Note 3 and the LG G2. The combination of a huge 5.9" screen and not-so-narrow side bezels result in a device that may not be so comfortable to hold in one hand. 

One other complaint I have about the HTC One Max is that it carries a slightly outdated processor. The Snapdragon 600 CPU employed takes a back seat to the Snapdragon 800, which can be found in many of the most recent flagships, including the Galaxy Note 3. It's also noteworthy that the Snapdragon 600 in the One Max is absolutely no match for the Exynos 5 Octa 5420 chipset inside one particular variant of the Galaxy Note 3. It's a very odd decision by HTC, since it has become the norm that a flagship device needs to pack one of the newest SoCs available.

In any case, while the HTC One Max's chipset is definitely slower than both the ones in the Galaxy Note 3, it doesn't mean it's slow. The Snapdragon 600 is, even today, a very powerful SoC, and you shouldn't have any performance issues with it in terms of UI and app navigation and even in gaming. The Snapdragon 600 in the One Max should only be a deal breaker for you if you want some serious future-proofing or if you just absolutely need to have the latest and greatest in performance.

The HTC One Max should hit stores before the end of the year, but unfortunately there's no pricing info available as of yet. Now, the verdict on the One Max is that: it's a competent contender to the Galaxy Note 3, boasting a very good looking chassis, if not a little too heavy, and it combines a very good camera, a nifty fingerprint sensor, some seriously good front-facing speakers, and a large, beautiful display. You might be bugged by the fact that it doesn't pack the latest silicon, but it still contains enough transistors to provide a smooth experience with whatever you can throw at it. So, if you're on the market for a flagship phablet, the HTC One Max should be near the top of the list, beside the Galaxy Note 3.