LG G Pad 8.3 is official, has Full HD screen, pairing skills

LG has announced the G Pad 8.3, which has a Full HD screen, and a natty pairing option that means it effectively doubles as a phone.

Joe Svetlik

Joe has been writing about consumer tech for nearly seven years now, but his liking for all things shiny goes back to the Gameboy he received aged eight (and that he still plays on at family gatherings, much to the annoyance of his parents). His pride and joy is an Infocus projector, whose 80-inch picture elevates movie nights to a whole new level.

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Joe Svetlik

Sept. 1, 2013 4:00 a.m. PT

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IFA doesn't start until next week, but LG has jumped the gun and announced its G Pad 8.3 early. We saw the teaser trailer last week, but now we've got the full specs.

As expected, the G Pad features an 8.3-inch screen, and it has a resolution of 1,920x1,200 pixels. LG claims that's the first Full HD resolution screen of this size in a tablet -- the new Nexus 7 matches the pixel count, but in a slightly smaller display.

One intriguing feature of the G Pad is QPair. Using the dedicated app, you can sync your calls and messages from your phone onto your tablet. You don't need an LG phone to use it either, though you will have to have an Android mobile, and the Jelly Bean version of the OS is recommended. I suppose it could come in handy if you're using your tablet and don't want to have to root around in your pocket for your phone.

Otherwise, the specs are pretty healthy. A 4600mAh battery should give you plenty of juice, and the G Pad weighs 338g, which LG claims is as light as a newspaper. It is slightly heavier than the iPad mini, though Apple's device is a little smaller, with a 7.9-inch screen.

Inside is a 1.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor, 16GB of memory, and 2GB of RAM. A 5-megapixel camera sits on the back, and a 1.3-megapixel jobby on the front. It runs Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2, and comes in black or white.

Apple is expected to send out invites any day now for an event on 10 September, when it'll announce the next iPhone, and possibly the next iPad mini. Though one report reckons we won't see new Apple slates until later in the year.

We'll be on hand at IFA next week to bring you all the tech news as it happens. What do you think of the G Pad 8.3? Can it compete with other tablets around that size? Let me know in the comments, or on our Facebook page.