In February, LG introduced its own take on the tablet, called the Optimus Pad. It was rumoured to be the first tablet to include a 3D video capture with glasses-free 3D display.
However, the pre-release version are not quite what everyone expected—the Optimus Pad is capable of capturing 3D videos but the display is not 3D in any way. The Optimus Pad only has a standard 8.9-inch LCD touchscreen with a 15:9 aspect ratio and a totally adequate 1280 x 768 WXGA resolution.
The device does not offer anything new when it comes to look and feel—no wow factor, no extraordinary sleekness present in most of its competitors. The Optimus Pad is thicker and heavier than most other tablets out in the market. Despite feeling a bit plasticky, though, it is easy to handle and feels just right for holding in one hand. The Optimus Pad only has the On/Off/Standby and volume controls for physical buttons on this tablet. Other hardware features are the charging port sitting near the power button, the USB, the HDMI, and the speakers on each side.
The Optimus LG has neither custom menus nor overlay. It does not have anything extra—like, perhaps, LG widgets—making it practically a clone of other Android tablets. What little was done to tweak the interface was devoted to the 3D cameras’s image capture and playback functions. There is also the Polaris Office, the same one included in the Asus Eee Pad Transformer. It also allows users to open and edit Microsoft Office documents, which ups its usability factor.
The Optimus Pad’s screen is very good although it does not offer anything truly awe-inspiring. It has a good resolution that is apt for its 8.9-inch display and its display looks sharp and vibrant indoors and at night. However, the Optimus Pad’s display quality suffers and cannot give bright enough images in direct sunlight. The screen is sensitive and responds easily to the press of a finger—no lag at all. It handles motion quite well, too, which is a definite plus for a portable gadget. Other positives for the Optimus Pad’s screen: it is particularly good for watching movies and is good at repelling fingerprint.
There are a few minor problems with the Optimus Pad’s pre-release test units which are expected to be corrected when the final releases came out. Most of these are related to how the Android 3.0 operating system was married to the LG hardware. For example, the volume up button turns down the volume and vice-versa.
Aside from these little technical details, it should be noted the the Optimus Pad’s performance of basic functions is pretty good. The start-up is fast, the hardware works fine, wireless network connects quickly and the 3G performance is remarkably good as long as the signal is strong. The battery life is comparable to those of other Android 3.0 tablets and energy reserves are not easily depleted.
The Optimus Pad’s two cameras are quite harder to assess. The five-megapixel rear camera is a pretty standard one which can capture videos and stills. The two-megapixel camera facing the front uses LG’s very own 3DCamcorder application. LG is betting that this is what will make the Optimus Pad stand out from other tablets. The success of this decision, however, can only be judged when LG starts wide distribution of the device.
The Optimus Pad’s functions are pretty standard, average for an Adroid 3.0 tablet, but there are admittedly very few comparisons that can be made between its two cameras and those of others. In any case, the cameras’ performance must be rated, and the first point that have to be made is the oddity of having a gadget with 3D-video recording capabilities but without 3D-playback ability. There are four options in the 3DCamcorder app to set up the tablet’s screen: Mixed (images from two cameras combined to create one image), Anaglyph (red-cyan combination image, as is used in old-style 3D), Single (only one image, and Side by Side (two images placed side by side). Depth and white balance can be customized for the video recording. Video quality can also be adjusted and the audio recording can be turned on or off. The resulting 3D footage is good enough, but still cannot compare to full-fledged 3D camcorders. The resolution in the images is also not that good. Used for capturing still images, the Optimus Pad’s camera is a lot better than that of iPad 2 although it still does not match up to compact digital cameras.
The LG Optimus Pad is known as the T-Mobile G-Slate in the US and costs $529.99 for a 2 year contract – T-Mobile
Tech Radar gave the Optimus Pad 3 Stars out of 5 and its rumoured to cost £749.99 from Launch (quite a bit more than the iPad 2.)
May 26, 2011
Android Tablet Reviews