Apart from having quite the name, the G Pad 2 8.3 LTE occupies a strange middle ground between the G Pad 2 10.1 and its 8-inch compatriot, with the G Pad 2 8.3 LTE retaining the footprint of the latter while packing somewhat similar hardware to the former. In this case, the G Pad 2 8.3 LTE keeps the 1,920 x 1,200 resolution display as its bigger sibling, though, as the name implies, it’s an 8.3-inch display.
Taking a peek under the hood reveals an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor, again providing a middle ground between the weaker quad-core Snapdragon 400 in the G Pad 2 8.0 and the quad-core Snapdragon 800 in the G Pad 2 10.1. Elsewhere, the 2GB of RAM should be sufficient for multitasking, while the 4,800mAh battery should be enough to keep the lights on from dawn to dusk.
Those who take pictures with their tablets will be happy to find an 8-megapixel camera on the back and a 2-megapixel camera on the front. Software aficionados,though, will be sad to know that the G Pad 2 8.3 LTE runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop, though we assume that an update to Marshmallow is on the horizon.
Thanks to LG’s partnership with Microsoft, the G Pad 2 8.3 LTE comes with Microsoft Office apps pre-installed, though it’s unknown whether you can delete them from the tablet to get more out of the 16GB of storage. In addition, the tablet comes with a built-in stylus, but based on the appearance of the stylus itself, there doesn’t seem to be any specialized hardware allowing users to take advantage of it à la Microsoft Surface Pro 4 and Surface 3.
South Korean wireless carrier LG U+ started selling the G Pad 2 8.3 LTE today, December 23, though there’s no word if or when the tablet will make its way to the West.
