LG G Pad 8.3 hands-on

G Pad 8.3 hands-on: software

The LG G Pad 8.3 is powered by Snapdragon 600 - a conscious decision by LG, as the Snapdragon 800 would have been too power hungry. The company says the Snapdragon 600 is fast enough and while it is indeed fast, we did feel a small difference between it and the Sony Xperia Z Ultra when using the browser. The battery has 4,600mAh capacity by the way.

LG G Pad 8.3 runs Android 4.2.2 with LG customizations

We ran some benchmarks on the G Pad 8.3, but we'll do more when we get our hands on a proper review unit.

Benchmark Pi

Lower is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  98
• LG G2
  99
• Sony Xperia Z1
  115
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  115
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Active
  130
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)
  132
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  132
• LG G Pad 8.3
  133
• HTC Butterfly S
  135
• LG Optimus G Pro
  147
• HTC One
  151
• Samsung Galaxy S4 mini
  166
• Nexus 7 (2013)
  211
• Sony Xperia Z
  264
• Sony Xperia Tablet Z
  262
• HTC Butterfly
  266
• HTC One X+
  280
• LG Optimus G
  285
• HTC One mini
  293
• Samsung Galaxy Note II
  305
• Nexus 4
  431

AnTuTu

Higher is better

• LG G2
  35444
• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  32907
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  29185
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa)
  26275
• Sony Xperia Z1
  25909
• HTC Butterfly S
  25357
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  24716
• HTC One
  22678
• LG G Pad 8.3
  22512
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Active
  21363
• Sony Xperia Z
  20794
• Sony Xperia Tablet Z
  20216
• LG Optimus G Pro
  20056
• HTC Butterfly
  19513
• Nexus 7 (2013)
  19131

SunSpider

Lower is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note 3
  648
• Sony Xperia Z Ultra
  750
• Sony Xperia Z1
  830
• LG G2
  902
• LG G Pad 8.3
  907
• Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
  1046
• Nexus 7 (2013)
  1150
• HTC One
  1174
• LG Optimus G
  1293
• LG Nexus 4
  1379
• HTC Butterfly
  1397
• Sony Xperia Tablet Z
  1629

The G Pad 8.3 runs Android 4.2.2 and the user interface feels quite familiar as it should to anyone who has used LG's custom Android UI. It borrows the KnockON feature from the LG G2, so you can tap the screen to wake it up. Another custom feature is Slide Aside, which allows you to switch between up to three apps easily with a three finger swipe.

QPair is a really interesting feature - it pairs the G Pad 8.3 with an Android smartphone, even a non-LG phone (Android Jelly Bean is recommended). QPair will display notifications from the phone on the tablet like incoming calls or messages (SMS and from social networks) and even let you respond.

There's more - you can open a tab in the browser or an image in the gallery on the phone and then transfer it to the tablet. This works for any app that's installed on both devices, but since QPair relies on the app to sync the content it won't work with all third-party apps.

Any QMemos you scribble to on the tablet are synced on the phone as well and you get a one click option to toggle the Wi-Fi hotspot on the phone and share its Internet connection with the G Pad 8.3.

We also managed to snap a few camera samples with the G Pad 8.3. Keep in mind that these lighting conditions are far from ideal.

LG G Pad 8.3 camera samples