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LG G Pad 8.3 vs Google Nexus 7 2 - Which Is The Better Tablet ?

LG G Pad 8.3 vs Google Nexus 7 2


It's the battle of the tiny tablets. LG has just announced its new super-small, tablet super-power the LG G Pad 8.3. So we're pitching it against the current supreme super-small leader the Google Nexus 7 2, which in official Google parlance is called the Nexus 7 (2013). So which is better? There's only one way to find out...


Display and size


On raw display technology both tablets offers tantalising firsts. The LG G Pad 8.3 is the first 8-inch tablet to utilise a Full HD beating 1920x1200 resolution, though it's going to be interesting to see what the Apple iPad mini 2 can pull out of the bag, later this year. The Nexus 7 is the first 7-inch tablet to use a 1920x1200 resolution display, but in a case of one-upmanship boasts the highest ppi (323) of any 7-inch device versus the 265ppi of the LG. Both displays use LCD IPS technology, to produce amongst the best levels of brightness and colour reproduction with a fast response for moving images.

So there's little to distinguish them on display, it's perhaps the size that could sway purchases. The extra inch of the LG does make a significant difference in usable display size, while the drop in ppi makes little discernible difference to image quality. The flip side is at 7-inches, the Nexus 7 really is portable, happily sliding into back pockets, satchels and handbags.
 

Power & Storage


Things are similarly close when it comes to the power-houses inside both tablets. The Google Nexus 7 is running a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro, against the LG running a 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600. Both processors use the identical Krait 300 instruction set, with the identical 400MHz Adeno 320 graphics chipset. So the LG G Pad 8.3 does edge it with a slender 200MHz advantage. Both come with a decent 2GB of memory, a base 16GB of storage and no expansion slot.

New Nexus 7

Cameras


Google took the smart move with the Nexus 7 2 of adding a rear camera. On the original Nexus 7 it had the bizarre excuse of it not being technically possible - whatever Google! The new model now had a rear 5MP camera capable of 1080p video, with an upgraded front 1.2MP camera capable of 720p video. Unfortunately we've had some hands-on time with the Nexus 7 2 and the image quality is really rather poor.

Despite the LG G Pad 8.3 having a near identical load-out of a rear 5MP camera and a 1.3MP front camera with the same video capabilities, we can only hope its image-quality performance is better than the Nexus 7 2.
 

Connectivity and battery life


The LG appears to have a slight advantage on the battery life front, sporting a 4600mAh battery pack, against the seemingly smaller 3950mAh in the Nexus 7 2. You'd call this a 15 percent advantage, until you realise the LG's display is 15 percent bigger, so draws 15 percent more power and as that's the main contributor to battery drain isn't as decisive as you might think. But bigger is better, left in a sleep mode the LG is going to last longer than the Nexus 7.

Connectivity is on an equal footing, as most of this is supplied by the near-identical Qualcomm chipsets. Dual-band 2.4/5GHz 802.11n wireless networking is great from both, Bluetooth v4 and A-GSP.

The Nexus 7 does offer a USB-based Slimport for HDMI output, NFC for contactless transfers and Qi wireless charging, none of which the LG appears to support. The Nexus 7 will also shortly offer a 4G LTE model, while the LG G Pad 8.3 will stay firmly Wi-Fi only.
 

Interface and design


The Google Nexus 7 isn't anything to look at, it takes the minimalist route when it comes to design, with a plain-black rubber back. Despite its blandness, it is easy to hold and the new stereo speakers are positioned well, producing decent sound. The big advantage is the Nexus range receives the latest releases of Android first and the Nexus 7 2 ships with Android 4.3, in its vanilla form with no additional manufacturer “shovelware”.
 

LG G Pad 8.3 White

LG isn't known for its revolutionary design and it looks like the LG G Pad 8.3 does little to change that, being almost as inoffensive as the Nexus 7. It ships with Android 4.2.2, but to try and sweeten things LG is including a number of interesting apps to help enhance your productivity Amongst these is a phone-pairing app that will help synchronise messages and contacts.


Conclusion


Both the Google Nexus 7 (2013) and the LG G Pad 8.3 are incredibly and closely well specced mini-tablets. It's in fact hard to draw real space between the two and we feel a final buying decision will come down to either the portability of the 7-inch Nexus, or the larger and more productive 8-inches of the G Pad 8.3. Ultimately for many people the Google Nexus 7 2 is going to win on price, with the 4G LTE model, the additional connectivity flourishes and the vanilla Android 4.3 OS.

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