LG Optimus Pad review: Glasses on

Introduction

Tablets are killing netbooks, pundits say, and all gadget makers are jumping on the bandwagon. LG, it seemed, were in no particular hurry but now that their Optimus Pad is here, it shows they mean business. The 8.9" tablet is powered by Tegra 2 and adds a bit of stereoscopic 3D for a dash of excitement.

   
LG Optimus Pad official shots

On paper, the LG Optimus Pad is a beast. Other tablets lose out on quite a few specs. The Optimus Pad is powered by NVIDIA's Tegra 2 chipset, which is the norm for droid tablets, as is Android Honeycomb.

5MP cameras are fairly rare though, dual-5MP cameras even harder to find. And they'll record 1080p in 2D mode when most others stop at 720p. And there’s 720p 3D video capture. The 2MP front-facing camera promises solid video calling experience.

Also, a standard miniHDMI port will sure save some adapter-related headaches. There's USB On-The-Go too, with a cable for that and a miniHDMI cable both included in the bundle. The LG Optimus Pad has the richest tablet package we've seen yet.

So, the Optimus Pad has a few more tricks than your average tablet. Here's the summary, along with the downsides.

Key features

• 8.9" 16M-color TFT LCD capacitive touchscreen of WXGA (1280 x 768 pixels) resolution
• Tegra 2 chipset: Dual-core 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor; 1GB of RAM; ULP GeForce GPU
• Android 3.0.1 Honeycomb
• GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 900/2100 MHz, HSDPA 10.2 Mbps, HSUPA 2 Mbps
• 32GB of built-in memory
• Dual 5 MP 2592x1944 pixels resolution autofocus cameras; geotagging
• 2.0 MP front-facing camera; Video calls
• 1080p FullHD video recording @ 24fps (2D), 720p HD 3D video recording @ 30fps
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n with hotspot functionality; DLNA
• microUSB port; USB On-The-Go support
• Stereo Bluetooth v2.1
• miniHDMI port, HDMI v1.4
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
• Flash 10.1 support
• GPS with A-GPS support; digital compass
• Accelerometer and proximity sensor; Gyroscope sensor
• Document viewing and editing out of the box
• 6400 mAh Li-Ion rechargeable battery

Main disadvantages

• Quite expensive
• Camera can't shoot 3D stills
• Non-replaceable battery
• No microSD card slot
• Screen is regular 2D, 3D viewing with anaglyph glasses
• No DivX/XviD support
• No telephony

The Optimus Pad and Optimus 3D are leading LG's charge into mobile stereoscopic imaging. Unlike the phone however, the Pad doesn’t have a goggle-free screen - it uses anaglyph glasses (unfortunately, there aren’t any to be found in the box), which spoils the viewing experience somewhat.

On the upside, the Optimus Pad is capable of playing 3D over HDMI, which can quickly turn it into your 3D movie player of choice. And if you don't have a 3D TV, you can use the same anaglyph glasses you use with the Pad itself.

  
LG Optimus Pad visits our office

Up next on the Optimus Pad channel is unboxing, followed by The Screen Show and General hardware overview, Season 2.

Rich retail package

The retail package of the LG Optimus Pad is fairly rich. You get the basics such as a charger (the size of a laptop charger), a microUSB cable and some manuals. You also get niceties like a USB On-The-Go cable and a miniHDMI cable.

It's the richest tablet box we've seen so far. Now, anaglyph glasses are said to be part of the standard package, but our box came without them even though we have a retail product fresh off the street. It's a good idea to check that before buying your Pad.

  
Rich retail package

Pixel-rich screen suffers outdoors

The LG Optimus Pad has an 8.9" screen at 1280 x 768, which means a pixel density of 167ppi. That’s higher than the iPad, the Motorola XOOM and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 - enough for comfortable reading.

It’s a plain TFT unit though (not IPS, that is), and viewing angles are a little limited. Contrast deteriorates the further you move away from the dead-on angle, but overall the screen holds up very well. It's much better than what we experienced in the preview.

The Optimus Pad's display

Sunlight legibility is the display's weak spot. On a sunny day, it's very hard to see anything on the screen, which isn't helped by how reflective the screen is. Outdoors, you'll struggle to hit a good viewing angle.

Our display test table follows, to pit the LG Optimus Pad against some of the competing screens we’ve tested. The brightness results are pretty uniform across the sample of tablets, but the Optimus Pad comes out ahead by a whisker. The black pixels leak quite a bit of light, so contrast readings are not very impressive (still, a little better than the iPad 2 though).

Display test	50% brightness			100% brightness
	Black, cd/m2	White, cd/m2	Contrast ratio	Black, cd/m2	White, cd/m2	Contrast ratio
Motorola XOOM	0.12	216	1853	0.21	436	2041
LG Optimus Pad	0.19	170	889	0.57	458	811
Apple iPad 2	0.18	167	925	0.55	429	775
Apple iPad 2	0.18	178	834	0.53	410	776

Design and construction

The LG Optimus Pad looks for a design identity in the more recent batch of Optimus line smartphones. It may not be quite the classy stone-cold looker that the Motorola XOOM is, but it's not ugly by any means. In fact the LG tablet looks a bit better than the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9, which is the only other 8.9" droid slate at this point.

  
LG Optimus Pad

The front of the device has only a few things besides the screen itself: the 2MP front facing camera, an ambient light sensor and a small status LED. The typical Android keys have been moved to the screen as is the case with other Honeycomb tablets.

The video-call camera has two hidden companions - a status LED and an ambient light sensor

Let's talk about the equipment on the sides of the Optimus Pad. Assuming "top" is where the LG logo is, on the top of the device you'll find the charger plug, the 3.5mm audio jack and one of the loudspeaker grills.

Also here is the Power/Lock key, which is small and almost flush against the top of the Optimus Pad. It's comfortable to use and accidental presses are unlikely. Also, when you hold the tablet horizontally, the Power/Lock key goes on the left side and it's still alright to use.

 
The 3.5mm audio jack, the charger port and the third speaker along with the Power/Lock key

The left side of the tablet (or bottom when held horizontally) houses the microUSB port (you can't charge the Optimus Pad with it, even with a microUSB charger) and the miniHDMI port, both of which are left uncovered.

 
The left side is houses the microUSB and miniHDMI ports

The right side houses the volume rocker and the microphone which comes up on the top side of the tablet when you hold it horizontally.

 
The volume rocker and the mic hole on the right

The bottom of the tablet is home to two loudspeakers, which pushes the total to three. There's a good reason for that - if you hold the Optimus Pad upright (with the logo on top), it’s the two loudspeakers that play. But if you hold the Pad horizontally, only one of the two at the bottom remains active and it couples with the third loudspeaker on the far side of the tablet for better stereo sound.

The two speakers at the bottom

The back of the tablet is the more intriguing place. There we find the dual 5 MP camera lenses, fitted with a single LED flash. The lenses are symmetrically placed either side of a brushed metal strip - an accent found on recent Optimus smartphones.

However, the two cameras protrude quite a bit so the tablet ends up resting on them when you place it on a table. You need to take care, as that exposes them to scratches. Also, there's nothing to stop fingerprint smudges on the camera lenses.

 
The Optimus Pad's back • the dual 5 megapixel cameras

You can slide to open a tiny bit at the top to access the SIM compartment. There is no microSD card slot on the Optimus Pad, 32GB of inbuilt storage is all you get. The battery, as you might expect, is not user accessible.

Sliding the top cover reveals the lonely SIM bed

The 6400mAh battery is quoted at up to 9 hours and 20 minutes of calls or 273h of standby time. We also ran the browser battery test and compared the results to other tablets we've tested. The LG Optimus Pad came close to the other Android tablet we've tested, the Motorola XOOM, but both are two hours behind the Apple iPad 2.

Still, just over 7 hours of constant (and we do mean constant, the test script moves through pages faster than most people would) is enough to last you the whole day.

The LG Optimus Pad is a well-built device and we found an 8.9" screen to be very welcoming. The matte, rubbery finish on the back is quite pleasant to touch and great at hiding fingerprints. The brushed metal strip in the center is a nod at Optimus smartphones.

That said, the problem of the Optimus Pad is weight. At more or less the same size as its Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9, the LG tablet is a whole 150g heavier, which is a smartphone's worth of weight, even a bit more.

The LG Optimus Pad held in hands