Gadgetory

this past week we saw a couple new releases in the google play store in the form of Google Play editions now while these particular versions of these devices are basically made for developers so they can provide better software for those devices they are available in the Play Store for a price and the consumer can benefit from them should they hey it's Josh Flagg are from android authority what's going on everybody and this is your quick review of the LG G pad google play edition now as was the case with the samsung galaxy s4 and the HTC one before it the LG G pad n also the Sony Xperia Z ultra all come with stock Android built in and that is what we're going to focus on but in terms of the design we do want to just mention a couple of things about these google play editions they are literally the same as their original counterparts especially in the case of the LG G pad in which it has the mix of plastic with an aluminum slab on the back one thing i do like however is that the google play edition comes in black standard there is a black version of the original LG G pad but when I opened up the box and I found this black edition how this thing just looks really attractive after that you have the eight point three inch screen that brings 1920 x 1200 resolution and makes all of the elements look really great if you want to know more about the design and the display of the LG G pad then we have the full review that I did on the original here at the android authority channel underneath the surface we still have the Snapdragon 800 that powers a stock Android build and provides really good performance especially with the optimizations in android 4.4 point2 after that in the hardware expandable storage is available with a small slot that is found at the top of the device and then a 4600 milliamp hour battery Union provides very good longevity for battery life and now we get to the software in the camera where the differences start to show the google play edition of the LG G pad comes with stock Android which is what makes it pretty unique and after all the stock android build Android KitKat 4.4 point2 in this case shows that it has the same minimalistic build and just performs its very few tasks very well mainly different search functions this is compared to the LG G pad or Ridge which came with the Optimus UI that came with a lot of features so while this is basically not really a negative at all unless you really want all of those features we can look at the LG G pad the google play edition in terms of what it is lacking compared to the original it's pretty obvious what things are different between the two once you bring down the notification shades of course the stock Android built has just the original shade and then the flip over for the different power widgets however in the LG G pad you find that it has a lot of space taken up by its own version of the power widget and this includes not only all of the different topicals but also the Q apps yes the Q apps the qslide apps rather are what are missing here and while they did bring a lot of extra functionality in terms of multitasking with small overlays over what you're already doing it's definitely not available in the Google Play edition speaking of multitasking you are not going to have the slide aside which was an innovation brought in via the g2 and then brought over to the G pad in which you can put aside whole applications in order to create a stacked list of applications that you can easily bring over with a three-finger swipe no in the stock Android bill to the Google Play edition of the LG G pad your multitasking will be relegated to just using the recent apps button and actually in that regard it doesn't perform very badly at all it is about as fast as it should be and allows you to multitask between apps pretty easily actually the only thing that I would view as a bit of a loss is the lack of the knock-knock when it comes to a tablet like the LG G pad it is nice to just have the device on your table and then be able to double tap the screen in order to turn it on that is not available in the Google Play edition as I've tried to tap over and over again to see if it would turn on and it definitely did not in the camera situation it is pretty much the same situation after all the stock Android build does have a much more minimalistic camera and compared to the camera found in the original Optimus UI it loses a lot of the features that were included there however when it comes to the picture quality is about the same after all you have the same 5 megapixel shooter on the back on this tablet and that means that the picture quality is really only decent and we still wouldn't recommend you go out to shoot with a tablet especially one at eight point three inches like this of course aside from just the features that are included or not included in these versions of Android you can just look at the aesthetics the Optimus UI is pretty in-your-face when it comes to all that it can do and it might take on a pretty utilitarian look and on the other hand stock Android is a very elegant-looking a version of Android it is of course the quintessential Android experience that is available and that might sway you even more so depending on which one you think looks better or depending on which one has more features might be what's way you here in terms of the two versions of the LG G pad but compare this to the Nexus 7 now we're going to have a full comparison between the LG G pad and the Nexus 7 coming pretty soon but what I can tell you right now is at about a hundred dollars more for the g pad what you're going to get is not only a larger screen though with the same resolution you're also going to get expandable storage which is something that the Nexus line often doesn't come with and in that regard I do think that this is still a pretty valid value especially for those two editions on those two enhancements that you could pay an extra one hundred dollars for and so there you have it for this quick review of the LG G pad google play edition essentially it is the original G pad except it comes with stock Android as its software so if that is the only difference then that is what will sway you luckily both calm at the exact same price as always thank you guys very much for watching and keep it tuned to android authority for all of the best coverage from our reviews to our event coverage as CES is right around the corner but until then happy holidays to all of you out there no matter what holiday you celebrate and keep it into this channel because we are your source for all things Android