LG G Pad 5: Yet another Android tablet that’s probably not worth getting excited about

LG hasn’t released a tablet for a couple of years, but rumour has it that it’s about to release a brand new one onto the market — with a surprising spec.

According to GSMArena, LG will release a brand new tablet after its two-year hiatus, potentially called the LG G Pad 5 — but in a bizarre twist, it’s set to tote an ancient Snapdragon 821 processor.

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At more than three years old, it puzzles us as to why it would be included on the model — could that spec alone be enough to mark the tablet as dead on arrival?

Other specs for the tablet look more attuned to our expectations: the device will reportedly have a 10.1-inch, 1920 x 1200 resolution display with a 16:10 aspect ratio. It will have a fingerprint scanner and LTE connectivity, but it will lack NFC. It will run Android 9, with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage, and it will be available with two different battery capacities: 6000mAh and 8200mAh.

So far our highest-rated Android tablet is the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4, and one of the features holding it back is the poor Android software.

Based on the spec information we have seen so far it’s difficult to see LG troubling this rival device in our ranking, and what’s more, it could well suffer from the same software problems too, due to sharing the same Android operating system.

The specs certainly seem puzzling, which doesn’t bode well if LG wish for this to be a comeback in the Android tablets market. This is disappointing but not particularly surprising when you bear in mind LG’s travails when it comes to smartphones.

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We described the LG G8 as “overpriced and forgettable” despite its good audio performance, and the recent 5G phone, the LG V50, only had a modest spec bump accompanied by a gimmicky second screen. LG will have to improve the quality of its products if its fortunes are to improve.