Seoul, South Korea — LG, which reentered the tablet market late last year with a single 8.3-inch model, will expand its tablet selection with three new models in 7-, 8- and 10.1-inch sizes.
The G Pad tablets will be unveiled at the MedPI 2014 IT/tech trade show in Monaco. The show runs from May 13-16.
Full details and regional availability dates for the Android tablets will be announced in the coming weeks, the company said.
LG reentered the U.S. tablet market last November with the launch of the $349-suggested G Pad 8.3. The company’s first foray into tablets came in 2011, when it launched the 8.9-inch 3D Optimus Pad, which became available in the U.S. as T-Mobile’s 3D G-Slate.
With the new tablets, LG will target a diverse audience, some of whom “prioritize portability while others want the best multimedia experience possible,” said Dr. Jong-seok Park, president/CEO of the LG Electronics Mobile Communications. The G Pad 7.0, for instance, is designed for one-hand use and is positioned as an “on-the-go entertainment hub,” the company said.
The G Pad 8.0 midsized tablet “offers an immersive multimedia experience and smooth multitasking,” and the G Pad 10.1 features the lineup’s largest display and battery, the company said.
Like the current model, the new tablets offer LG’s proprietary QPair 2.0 and Knock Code UI features. The updated Qpair uses Bluetooth to connect the tablets to an Android smartphone, turning the tablets into an extension of a user’s phone. The tablets will receive notifications of a smartphone’s calls and texts, enable users to respond to texts, and provide simultaneous access to recently opened apps, among other things.
Knock Code lets users power on and unlock the tablet by tapping the screen using one of more than 80,000 possible “knock” combinations. A knock pattern using from two to eight taps can be entered on any area of the screen, even if the display is off.
Details of the new tablets weren’t released, but the current tablet was launched with Android 4.2.2 OS, 1.7GHz quad-core CPU, 8.3-inch FullHD 1,920 by 1,200 display with 273 ppi, 2GB RAM, 16GB embedded memory, 4,600 mAh battery, rear 5-megapixel camera and 1.3-megapixel front camera.
