LG G Pad 8.3 review: Couch surfer

Couch surfer

GSMArena team, 25 October 2013.

As an integral part of Android Jelly Bean, Google Now is present on the G Pad 8.3. You can get to it by swiping up from the home button.

In addition to being able to recognize voice commands, Google Now will learn from your usage patterns and display relevant information. For example, if you search for a particular sports team frequently, Google Now will display information for upcoming games you might want to watch.

LG G Pad 83 LG G Pad 83 LG G Pad 83 LG G Pad 83
Google Now

The service interacts with you by generating cards which are displayed on your screen and give you a short overview of information it believes is relevant to you. Going to work in the morning? Google Now knows this and lets you know there's a big traffic jam on your usual way to the office, and will offer you an alternate route. This extends to a multitude of other areas, including weather, traffic, public transit stations, and nearby points of interest.

You can either type or talk to Google Now and the app will give you one of its aforementioned info cards (if available) and read you its contents aloud (you can disable this from the app settings). If there's no card to help with the answer to your question, Google Now will simply initiate a Google web search instead.

There is also a Google Now widget which generates information for you based on what your interests are.

Synthetic benchmarks

The LG G Pad 8.3 boasts a Snapdragon 600 chipset with four Krait 300 cores clocked at 1.7GHz, 2GB of RAM and the Adreno 320 GPU. This is identical to what powers the Optimus G Pro, so we expect numbers more or less in line with those of the 5.5-inch phablet, with most difference due to the fact that the G Pad has to some more pixels to push.

The G Pad 8.3 managed to join its G Pro brethren on top of the Benchmark Pi and Linpack tests, and was also able to beat out the Nexus 7 and Galaxy Note 8.0.

Benchmark Pi

Lower is better

  • LG G Pad 8.3
    131
  • LG Optimus G Pro
    147
  • Asus Nexus 7 (2013)
    211
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0
    324
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
    351
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus
    470
  • Samsung Galaxy 3 7.0
    483
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 Plus
    488
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0
    499
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7
    520
  • Huawei MediaPad
    703

Linpack

Higher is better

  • LG Optimus G Pro
    743
  • LG G Pad 8.3
    736
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0
    324
  • Asus Nexus 7 (2013)
    263
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1 Plus
    222
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
    185
  • Google Nexus 7
    124
  • Samsung Galaxy Note
    105
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7
    86
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0
    96
  • Samsung Galaxy 3 7.0
    78

In our compound benchmarks, the G Pad did well once again, scoring towards the top of the charts in AnTuTu, Geekbench 3, and Quadrant. It handily outclassed its main rivals in the form of the Nexus 7 and Galaxy Note 8.0.

AnTuTu

Higher is better

  • Samsung Galaxy S4
    24716
  • LG G Pad 8.3
    24440
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1
    24236
  • Sony Xperia ZL
    20743
  • Sony Xperia Tablet Z
    20216
  • LG Optimus G Pro
    20056
  • HTC Butterfly
    19513
  • Asus Nexus 7 (2013)
    19131
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0
    17159
  • Oppo Find 5
    15167
  • Google Nexus 10
    12695
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0
    9070

Geekbench 3

Higher is better

  • Samsung Galaxy Note 3
    2937
  • LG G2
    2243
  • HTC One
    1972
  • LG G Pad 8.3
    1950
  • HTC One Max
    1899
  • LG Optimus G
    1623
  • LG Nexus 4
    1288
  • HTC Butterfly
    1257

Quadrant

Higher is better

  • LG Optimus G Pro
    12105
  • HTC One
    11746
  • LG G Pad 8.3
    11804
  • Sony Xperia Z
    8075
  • LG Optimus G
    7439
  • Sony Xperia Tablet Z
    7215
  • Oppo Find 5
    7111
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0
    6942
  • Samsung Galaxy Note II
    5916
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1
    5864
  • Asus Nexus 7 (2013)
    5552
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0
    4627
  • Nexus 4
    4567
  • Google Nexus 10
    4385

We ran GFXBench (formerly GLBenchmark) tests off-screen, which means we're testing at a fixed resolution and getting numbers for raw GPU power. The G Pad 8.3 didn't disappoint, and even outdoes the Optimus G Pro in the less-intensive Egypt test.

GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt (1080p off-screen)

Higher is better

  • Apple iPad 4
    54.4
  • Google Nexus 10
    40
  • Samsung Galaxy S4
    40
  • LG G Pad 8.3
    39
  • Asus Nexus 7 (2013)
    39
  • Sony Xperia Tablet Z
    32
  • Asus Padfone 2
    31
  • Oppo Find 5
    30
  • LG Optimus G Pro
    29
  • Sony Xperia ZL
    29
  • Sony Xperia Z
    29
  • LG Optimus G
    29
  • HTC Butterfly
    27.9
  • Apple iPhone 5
    27
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1
    26
  • Nexus 4
    26
  • Samsung Galaxy Note II
    17
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0
    16
  • Samsung Galaxy S III
    15
  • HTC One X+
    12
  • HTC One X
    9

GLBenchmark 2.7 T-Rex (1080p off-screen)

Higher is better

  • Samsung Galaxy S4
    17.1
  • Apple iPad 4
    16.8
  • Asus Nexus 7 (2013)
    15
  • LG G Pad 8.3
    15
  • Google Nexus 10
    13.9
  • Sony Xperia Z
    13.5
  • Sony Xperia Tablet Z
    13
  • Sony Xperia ZL
    12.8
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1
    7.0
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0
    4.0

But video benchmarks running at native resolution will give the most accurate portrayal of real world performance, which is why we've included the Unreal Engine 3-powered Epic Citadel benchmark. Unreal Engine is popular with mobile game makers, so it's a pretty important test. Here is where the G Pad 8.3 failed to top our charts this time around, but still posted a respectable score of 36.3 fps, which is quite playable.

Epic Citadel

Higher is better

  • Sony Xperia Z1
    54.9
  • Sony Xperia Z Ultra
    54.9
  • LG G2
    51
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 3
    47.7
  • Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600)
    37.2
  • LG G Pad 8.3
    36.3
  • HTC One
    35.6
  • HTC One Max
    34.9
  • HTC Butterfly
    29.6

Our browser benchmarks show some great numbers from the G Pad 8.3, with the tablet scoring near the top of the category in the SunSpider web benchmark. With HTML 5 thrown into the mix in Browsermark and Vellamo, the G Pad does even better.

SunSpider

Lower is better

  • LG Optimus G Pro
    1011
  • Asus Nexus 7 (2013)
    1150
  • LG G Pad 8.3
    1190
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1
    1233
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0
    1366
  • Google Nexus 7
    1703
  • new Apple iPad
    1722
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
    1891
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7
    1953
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus
    1992
  • Galaxy Tab 2 7.0
    2253
  • Huawei MediaPad
    2490

BrowserMark 2

Higher is better

  • LG G Pad 8.3
    2664
  • Asus Nexus 7 (2013)
    2386
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0
    2228
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1
    2363
  • HTC One
    2262
  • Sony Xperia Tablet Z
    2170
  • LG Optimus G Pro
    1801
  • Oppo Find 5
    1797
  • Google Nexus 10
    1773
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0
    1612
  • HTC Butterfly
    1475

Vellamo

Higher is better

  • LG G Pad 8.3
    2505
  • Samsung Galaxy Note II
    2418
  • HTC One
    2382
  • Sony Xperia Tablet Z
    2265
  • Samsung Galaxy S4
    2060
  • Google Nexus 10
    1929
  • HTC Butterfly
    1866
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 8.0
    1633
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 10.1
    1777
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0
    1440
  • Samsung Galaxy S III
    1641
  • Asus Nexus 7 (2013)
    1597

Overall, the Snapdragon 600 platform performs admirably on the LG G Pad 8.3. If you're planning on doing a lot of web surfing, the G Pad provided some excellent results, while the CPU also held firm in its own benchmarks. The real-time GPU performance is not stellar, but the results we achieved were still more than adequate.

Reader comments

  • AnonD-142628
  • 19 Dec 2013
  • xpA

People complaing bout poor camera quality? well i don't care about the camera on a tablet. who takes pics with a tablet anyway....thats stupid.

  • AnonD-142628
  • 19 Dec 2013
  • xpA

Great review. Sounds like serious competition for Nexus 7 2013. I was about to buy nexus 7, but i'll wait and try out LG G Pad first.I like the bigger screen..it's much wider. Only thing i don't like is LG UI. Nexus is 32 GB, LG only 16 GB, but LG is...

  • vicky
  • 16 Nov 2013
  • 956

good