Google and LG have been getting awfully cozy lately — the web giant tasked the Korean company with delivering its two most recent Nexus smartphones, and if you’re the type to put stock in rumors, it seemed like a new Nexus tablet (bearing the model number “LG-V510″) would be the next fruit of their union.
Well, according some files posted to LG’s own site, it isn’t. Not exactly, anyway. Some industrious redditors (via Droid-Life) discovered that LG posted a source code update for that very device on its Open Source Code Distribution page, and a little bit of unzipping revealed the truth of the matter. The tablet in question isn’t a shiny new Nexus model, it’s a version of the company’s 8.3-inch G-Pad that’s getting the Google Play Edition treatment.
Google launched the Google Play Edition initiative earlier this year with special versions of the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy S 4 that featured nearly-stock versions of Android instead of the highly-customized builds that their cousins ship with. I’d argue the benefits only really appeal to the real nerds and tinkerers among you — being SIM unlocked is nice, but more importantly those GPE phones generally get updates awfully quickly to boot. Granted, the update process isn’t quite as fast it is for members the Nexus line since their software build contains small additions to power non-standard features like the One’s BoomSound speakers.
Still, this is a pretty big deal for a company that doesn’t have much experience in crafting tablets. Like the One and the Galaxy S 4 before it, the G-Pad is no slouch: it sports an 8.3-inch IPS display running at 1920 x 1200, along with a Snapdragon 600 chipset, and early reviews of the thing are generally positive. If anything, it’s been dinged for its relatively lofty price tag, but we’ll see what (if anything) Google does with that. I’ve reached out to Google for comment, and will update this story if/when they respond.
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