Seoul, South Korea — LG will re-enter the tablet market at this week’s IFA 2013 trade show, where it will show an 8.3-inch Android tablet.
The unit will be rolled out globally in North America, Europe, Asia as well as other regions starting in the fourth quarter. Pricing of the LG G Pad 8.3 was not announced.
The Android 4.2.2 device, part of the company’s flagship G series of mobile devices, is promoted as the first 8-inch tablet with FullHD display.
The device features 1.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 CPU, 8.3-inch WUXGA 1,920 by 1,200 display with 273 ppi, 2GB RAM, 16GB embedded memory, 4,600 mAh battery, rear 5-megapixel camera, 1.3-megapixel front camera, and black or white color. It measures 8.5 inches by 5 inches by 0.3 inches and weighs 11.9 ounces.
The tablet features QPair, which enables calls and messages received on a smartphone to appear on the G Pad. The QPair app also lets the G Pad connect to other manufacturers’ smartphone and tablets (Jelly Bean OS recommended). Notes created on the G Pad’s QMemo app can be saved into users’ smartphones and shared from either device.
Another feature, Slide Aside, lets users to multitask by “sliding” currently open apps off to the side via a three-finger swipe.
As with LG cellphones, QSlide controls up to three different apps in one window. KnockOn turns the device on and off by tapping the display twice.
The company’s first foray into tablets came in 2011, when it launched the 8.9-inch 3D Optimus Pad, which became available in the U.S. as T-Mobile’s 3D G-Slate. It captured 3D video in 720p for viewing with 3D glasses on the device’s 8.9-inch 720p display. The tablet’s rear-facing stereoscopic video camera also captured non-3D 1080p, and its stored 1080p content could be displayed on a TV connected to the tablet’s HDMI output. The device, which was the first tablet for both T-Mobile and LG, featured the Android 3.0 operating system.
