The rumored LG V510 is probably not a new Nexus tablet. It’s a Google Play Edition LG G Pad 8.3. Sorry to burst your bubble.
The LG G Pad 8.3 has an 8.3-inch, full HD display and runs on a quad-core Snapdragon 600 SoC. It comes with at least 16 GB of internal storage, and will set you back about $300. That’s not a bad price for an 8-inch tablet, and the G Pad 8.3 is a solid one. The issue that some folks have with LG’s Android devices is their UI overlay. It’s snappy enough, but it can be a bit cluttered. If the V510 is actually a Google Play Edition tablet like we suspect, it would solve the problem of LG’s skin.
We’ve been hearing rumors about the LG V510 for a few weeks. It looked like a new Nexus tablet because it was rumored to be running stock Android. In the absence of this year’s Nexus 10, we wanted Google to launch a new tablet. It’s too close to the holidays, now, but some users were still holding on to the thought that Google could drop a new Nexus tablet on us by the end of the year. Redditor numerloburst that bubble by uncovering this source code for the LG V510 on LG’s website. It mentions the tablet being a Google Play Edition device several times, and seems to clear up all the questions that we’ve had about it. We are looking at a new 8.3-inch GPE tablet, not a new Nexus tablet made by LG.
The LG V510 is listed as running Android 4.4.1, but we assume that will be updated to 4.4.2 before it’s released. This is not the first GPE device to be released, but it would be the first GPE tablet to be released by a manufacturer. Both the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy S4 come in Play Edition flavors, but LG will be the first manufacturer to release a Play Edition Tablet. With the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5, they have a good working relationship with Google. We probably won’t see this GPE G Pad 8.3 released this year. It’s too close to the holidays now, but it could be announced at CES in the beginning of 2014.