LG Optimus Pad review

The tablet market is beginning to get rather crowded right now. The release of the iPad 2 was quickly followed by Android 3 offerings from Motorola, Acer and Asus, then BlackBerry and HP pitched in with proprietary offerings, and recently Samsung has lit the blue touchpaper with its excellent, yet temporarily banned, Galaxy Tab 10.1.

LG looks to be coming to the party pretty late with the Optimus Pad, and so has a couple of special tricks up its sleeve with which to woo potential customers. Its first unusual feature is its size – with its 8.9in 1,280 x 768 screen, the Optimus Pad sits entirely on its own, with every other manufacturer on the market producing either 7in or 10in models at the moment.

For our money, it’s a reasonable compromise between the two, but not without its problems. On the plus side, it’s a little more portable than most 10in tablets, and thus better suited to reading on the go. It’s more comfortable for browsing the web than a 7in tablet, too. The disappointments start with the thickness and weight. At 18mm its girth is more than double that of the iPad 2 and Galaxy Tab 10.1, and at 620g it’s heavier than both.

We’re not over-keen on the the extra-wide aspect ratio display, either, which makes it even less conducive to using in portrait mode than the 1,280 x 800 screen on models such as the Galaxy Tab and Asus Eee Pad Transformer. Finally, the tighter pixel pitch also means buttons and onscreen options are generally fiddlier to use too.

The other prong to LG’s unusual approach is 3D, and alas it’s just as hit and miss. As with its Optimus 3D smartphone, the Pad boasts a pair of beady eyes on its rear – two 5-megapixel digital cameras – and these allow the tablet to shoot video in stereoscopic 3D at 720p.

Unlike its smaller cousin, however, the pad has a standard TFT screen, so to view this footage you either have to hook the tablet up to a proper 3D-enabled TV via the tablet’s HDMI output, or don the red and blue anaglyph glasses provided in the box, and prepare for 1980s-style 3D.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the software integration is very light indeed. To shoot, browse and play 3D footage on the tablet itself you have to use separate applications to the standard Honeycomb ones, and within these there are no options to directly upload the footage to YouTube and share it with friends. You have to use the standard Honeycomb app for that.

Same old, same old?

Aside from the disappointing headline features, though, the LG Optimus Pad is a perfectly solid tablet. It appears to be well made – the soft plastic rear doesn’t creak or bend, and the finish makes it grippy and comfortable to hold. The display itself is bright and clear – we measured it at an iPad 2-beating maximum brightness of 398cd/m[sup]2[/sup] and a sound 622:1 contrast ratio.

Inside the chassis, the Optimus is powered by the same dual-core, 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 technology that all other Android 3 tablets have used so far, and the figures show it’s just as nippy. In the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark, the LG gained a result of 1,994ms, loading the BBC homepage in an average time of six seconds over a fast Wi-Fi connection, and achieved 1,923 points in the Android Quadrant benchmark. Again, all pretty standard results.

The 5mp camera, used in 2D mode, produces good quality shots – as good as any we’ve seen from a tablet so far (although it has a tendency to underexpose a touch), and it records smooth, crisp and detailed 1080p video. Under a small plastic panel at the rear, lurks a slot for a SIM card, allowing you to untether the tablet from your Wi-Fi network and use it anywhere you can get a mobile phone signal. And there’s a decent 32GB of storage on board.

Battery life is average, though: in our looping low-resolution video test, the Optimus lasted 7hrs 24mins – significantly short of the iPad 2 (16hrs 47mins) and Motorola Xoom.

Verdict

There’s no microSD slot – a mild disappointment to go with the underwhelming 3D and design – but even taken all together, this is not enough to put us off the LG Optimus Pad. Despite a few foibles, it’s a solid product with sound performance, good battery life and a decent camera. What isn’t so attractive is the price.

There are two ways of buying the Pad: on a 24-month contract, it will set you back some £40 per month, plus £230 up front (that’s £1,190 over two years); SIM free, you’re looking at £750. Frankly, either price is ludicrous – higher than every other non-Windows tablet on the market today, and for a tablet that’s solid rather than spectacular.

Until the price falls, then, we’d urge you look elsewhere. For a quality compact Android tablet, the HTC Flyer represents far better value, and for a larger screened tablet the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 knocks spots off it in most departments.

Detail
Warranty	1yr on-site
Physical
Dimensions	244 x 18 x 150mm (WDH)
Weight	620g
Display
Primary keyboard	On-screen
Screen size	8.9in
Resolution screen horizontal	1,280
Resolution screen vertical	768
Panel technology	TFT
Battery
Battery capacity	6,400mAh
Core specifications
CPU frequency, MHz	1,000MHz
Integrated memory	32.0GB
Camera
Camera megapixel rating	5.0mp
Focus type	Autofocus
Built-in flash?	yes
Built-in flash type	LED
Front-facing camera?	yes
Video capture?	yes
Other
WiFi standard	802.11n
Bluetooth support	yes
Integrated GPS	yes
Upstream USB ports	0
HDMI output?	yes
Video/TV output?	no
Software
Mobile operating system	Android 3.0
Contract details
Cheapest price on contract	£230
Contract monthly charge	£40.00
Contract period	24 months
Contract provider	www.carphonewarehouse.co.uk