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LGE launches 8.3-inch G Pad in Korea

Oct. 7, 2013 - 21:29 By Korea Herald
Kim Jong-hoon, executive vice president of LGE’s global marketing communications (LG Electronics)
LG Electronics on Monday revealed its latest tablet to the Korean media ahead of the global launch scheduled for next month.

With a high resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels, the 8.3-inch tablet is the first among 8-inch tablets to offer a full HD screen. The bezel has been minimized to fit into one’s hand, while the weight of just over 330 grams is the same as a newspaper.

“Although there are so many tablets out there, enough to threaten the PC market, consumers still want more, more in terms of picture quality and portability, which is why we wanted to offer a completely new kind of tablet experience,” said Kim Jong-hoon, executive vice president of LGE’s global marketing communications.

The G Pad 8.3 marks LG’s re-entry into the tablet industry, following the lackluster performance of the Optimus Pad in 2011.

The tablets will hit shelves here on Oct. 14, priced at 550,000 won. Only a Wifi-enabled version will be released for the time being, LG said. The global monthly sales target is 100,000 units based on LG figures that the world’s tablet sales will reach around 350 million units by 2015.

High portability was another important issue LG grappled with, as users said they wanted a tablet that was small enough to carry with ease, yet not too small as to compromise the functionality.

Q Pair, which promises seamless connectivity between smartphones and the new G Pad, was another key function LG introduced.

The key allows users to see everything they see on their smartphones from their tablets, and vice versa.

However, users can’t receive or make calls from the tablet ― LG is reportedly working on the phone technology.

Q Pair also won’t work on phones not running on the Android operating system of 4.1 and above, meaning all Apple phones are out of the picture.

The camera is likely to be another point of criticism, with its specs, 1.3 megapixels in the front and 5 megapixels in the back, making it likely to produce grainy pictures.

By Kim Ji-hyun (jemmie@heraldcorp.com)