LG Just Announced Its Highly-Anticipated iPad Rival, The 'G Pad'

LG Electronics is coming out with an Android tablet to try and steal marketshare from Apple's iPads.

The company officially announced the highly anticipated device today. The Next Web spotted the news.

The tablet will be called the G Pad 8.3 and it will have a big shiny launch announcement at IFA 2013 next week. The tablet will join LG's suite of other G products, including the big-screen phone, the LP Optimus G Pro, which some like even better than Sumsung's Galaxy phablets (tablet-like phones).

This isn't LG's first tablet. Its last tablet, the Optimus Pad LTE 8.9, was larger than the G Pad and came out over one year ago, in January 2012.

LG promises its G Pad will be slim and sleek with a powerful 4600mAh battery. Its size and weight are nestled perfectly between Apple's iPad Mini and iPad 2. The device will weigh 338 grams (for comparison, that's nearly half the weight of Apple's iPad 2, which weighs 613 grams but heavier than the iPad Mini).

It will have a 16 GB memory, a front and rear camera, and HD display. The G Pad will be a little smaller than the iPad but larger than the Mini, at about 8.5 inches. It will come in black and white and run on the Android Jelly Bean 4.2 operating system.

G Pad Features will include "KnockON," which lets users shut down the tablet by tapping twice on the screen, and the ability to "slide aside" apps that are open to open a new one. Another cool feature is its integration with the app, QPair. While users won't be able to accept calls on the G Pad, they'll be able to see calls and messages come in to their phones and text back responses from the tablet. Also, with QSlide, G Pad users will be able to have up to three apps open and showing on the same window at once.

The G Pad's price hasn't been announced yet but it will be available in time for the holiday season this year.

LG was expected to come out with some sort of tablet after a YouTube ad was leaked that showed users discussing their experiences with other tablets. It also registered for the trademark, "GPad," which got people buzzing a few months ago.

Here's the video teaser, below. And here's LG's official G Pad announcement.