Weight Of The LG G Pad IV 8.0 FHD Is The Same As A Soda Can

While the trend in smartphones is to push bezels out of the way, the trend in tablets is to push out weight. Admittedly, save for a very small number, Android tablets are missing out on that trend. The comes along LG with its 4th gen G Pad tablet that boasts of a weight of 290 g. That almost just as much as a can of Coca Cola, or so LG says. It doesn’t hurt that this is an 8-inch tablet with a 6.9 mm thickness as well. 

What does hurt is that the fact that the LG G Pad IV 8.0 FHD is a mid-range tablet through and through. It is powered by Qualcomm’s mid-range mobile processor, the Snapdragon 435 with only 2 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal storage. And if the name didn’t give it away, it only has a 1920×1080 pixel resolution. Admittedly, at that smaller 8.0-inch size, it’s going to be actually decent. 


This 4th gen G Pad’s saving grace is its software. It has Android 7.0 right off the bad. It’s not the latest 7.1.1 but at least not a Marshmallow only. That does mean it has “dual window” split screen functionality from the get go. LG also throws in an “Easy Mode”, its version of a blue light filter for reading, which has a dedicated physical “Q button” at the side of the tablet. And, of course, its usual Knock Code for quickly unlocking the device in a secure fashion.


Unlike most mid-tier tablets, the G Pad IV has LTE built-in which, according to LG, can also be used for phone calls, making it a very large tablet. The LG G Pad IV 8.0 FHD (LTE) goes on sale in Korea on the 4th of July for 352,000 KRW ($310), directly from LG U+ stores. No word yet on international availability.

LG is also making available a “PlusPack” accessory for 82,000 KRW ($72). This big but still portable box does multiple duties of being a stand, speaker, external battery and even additional USB ports for the tablet. This, however, can only be bought from LG’s SmartWorld mobile app.

SOURCE: LG

Qualcomm Launches Snapdragon 450 Specially For Mid-range Devices

When we’re talking about mobile processors, a lot of attention is paid to the high-end, like Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835. The mid-range is just as important to many phone manufacturers, however, and Qualcomm wants its processors to feature in those devices as well. With that in mind, Qualcomm has launched its new Snapdragon 450 at Mobile World Congress Shanghai.

There are four main talking points Qualcomm has chosen to focus on with the Snapdragon 450. The first, obviously, is the improved CPU and GPU. Qualcomm says that the octa-core ARM Cortex A53 CPU offers a 25% jump in compute performance over the Snapdragon 435, while the Adreno 506 GPU shows a similar increase in graphics performance. So, while we’re not talking leaps and bounds here, it sounds like the Snapdragon 450 provides a considerable increase in performance. 


Battery life is the second area of focus in the 450, with Qualcomm boasting a 4 hour increase in overall live as compared to the 435. Just as well, power consumption while gaming has been decreased by as much as 30%. Of course, the Snapdragon 450 is compatible with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0, but that’s to be expected of most Qualcomm SoCs in this day and age.

Though you wouldn’t necessarily expect high quality cameras on a mid-range phone, the Snapdragon 450 seems to have that covered anyway. Qualcomm says that the 450 can support dual-lens cameras of up to 13MP for each sensor, or single-lens cameras up to 21MP. Where the 450 shows its mid-range chops, however, is in the fact that it can only support 1080p video capture and displays with a resolution of up to 1920×1200. So, no 4K video recording or support for UHD displays, though it should be noted that it can capture that 1080p video at 60 frames per second.

Finally, the 450 will use the Snapdragon X9 LTE modem. 2x20MHz carrier aggregation should result in download speeds of up to 300Mbps and peak upload speeds of 150Mbps. It also supports USB 3.0, so expect to see more support for the latest USB standard to pop up on mid-range devices.

All in all, it doesn’t sound like too bad of a SoC, and hopefully it continues to blur the once distinct line between high-end and mid-range phones and tablets. We won’t see this new CPU for a little while yet, though – Qualcomm says that commercial sampling for the Snapdragon 450 won’t begin until Q3 2017. Devices featuring the Snapdragon 450 should then follow by the end of 2017.