To date, Google has kept its lineup of Nexus phones and tablets pretty simple. There's a phone, a small tablet, and a big tablet. Only one device in each category is offered for sale at any given time. The wider Android ecosystem is more diverse than that, though, and the operating system's biggest power users demand more choices. Different form factors, bigger screens, and SD card slots are all common requests. The problem is that non-Nexus devices that support these features lack the clean, "stock" Android of the Nexus lineup, and they rarely get prompt operating system updates.

Body, build quality, and screen: More good news than bad

Specs at a glance: LG G Pad 8.3, Google Play edition Screen 1920×1200 8.3" (273 PPI) IPS LCD OS Android 4.4 KitKat CPU Quad-core 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 RAM 2GB GPU Qualcomm Adreno 320 Storage 16GB, upgradeable via up to 64GB microSD Networking 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 Ports Micro-USB, headphones, microSD Camera 5MP rear camera, 1.3MP front camera Size 8.54" × 4.98" × 0.33" (216.8 x 126.5 x 8.3 mm) Weight 11.9 oz. (338 g) Battery 4600 mAh Starting price $349

Enter the Google Play edition (GPe) program, which lets these people have their cake and eat it too. While the Google Play edition gadgets lack the wallet-friendly pricing of the Nexuses, they run a Google-style version of Android bereft of skins and bloatware, and they get updates much faster than they otherwise would. GPe devices got Android 4.3 just eight days after it rolled out to the Nexuses, and they got 4.4 about two weeks after it came to older Nexus hardware. Even more importantly, the Google Play edition hardware can fill niches that the Nexus doesn't serve: the 6.4-inch Sony Z Ultra is the "Nexus" that "phablet" fans have always wanted, and LG's G Pad 8.3 is a tablet that slots almost exactly in between the great-but-smaller Nexus 7 and the large-and-aging Nexus 10 . We never took a look at the standard G Pad, so we'll be giving the Google Play edition the full hardware and software review treatment.

The so-called "Nexus 8" that set the rumor mill a-buzzing ended up being nothing but a bad Photoshop job, but if the prospect of an 8-inch Nexus got you excited, the G Pad is a nice consolation prize.

The all-black tablet uses plastic around the sides and on the top and bottom, but most of the back is made of a black brushed metal that looks and feels nice even though it's a fingerprint magnet. It's not as stiff or rigid as the aluminum Apple uses in the Retina iPad mini or the iPad Air, but it makes the tablet feel sturdy. We like the all-plastic construction of the 2013 Nexus 7, but if you like metal more, the G Pad delivers.

The tablet is closer in size to a Retina iPad mini than a Nexus 7, though the different screen aspect ratios (16:10 in the G Pad, 4:3 in the iPad) means there are still differences. The G Pad is narrower than the iPad—narrow enough that palming it is possible with some effort if you have medium-sized or large hands—but it's a little taller. The two are virtually identical in weight, and though the iPad is thinner, the difference is less than a millimeter.

The G Pad's display bezels are also more iPad-like—the device lacks the large top and bottom bezels of the 2013 Nexus 7 and its side bezels are even thinner. This can actually cause some usability problems—while the iPad mini and iOS are great at detecting and ignoring a thumb pressed down on the edge of the display, the G Pad had a harder time. Some apps seemed a little better at ignoring extraneous input than others. Chrome behaved pretty well when I had about a third of my thumb touching the display, while the Kindle app was less well-behaved. Your experience may differ from ours based on what apps you use. The issues are avoidable if you're careful about where you place your thumb, but on the iPad you don't really have to worry about this stuff.

Aside from the different dimensions, the G Pad does have a couple of features that the Nexus 7 and iPad mini lack. It has a vibration motor that will let you know when new notifications come in (and provides haptic feedback for the keyboard and other things). Like some of LG's other efforts (the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5), it doesn't have the satisfying buzz of an iPhone or Moto X, but it is nevertheless an appreciated addition. There's also a microSD card slot tucked away beneath a plastic door on the top of the tablet—more on that in a minute. There's no notification light, however.

The screen uses the same 1920×1200 display resolution as the 2013 Nexus 7, which at 8.3 inches gives it a lower-but-still-crisp density of 273 PPI. It's not as sharp as either the Nexus or the Retina iPad mini, but it's pretty close to the 264 PPI iPad Air. Text and high-PPI-optimized images are all crisp and clear, and you won't really miss the drop in density from the Nexus.

More noticeable is the drop in brightness. Whites are less white on the G Pad than they are on the Nexus 7, and while blacks are blacker, the distinction between gray and black is much less pronounced. I generally find that auto-brightness on Android phones and tablets is a little too aggressive, making the screens look dimmer than on equivalent iOS devices, but the G Pad made me even more eager to disable auto-brightness and crank the setting up to maximum.

Camera and sound

The G Pad includes a pair of speakers mounted on the back (they're on the right side if you're looking at the back of the tablet, the left side if you're looking at the front). The positioning is preferable to the edge-mounted speakers on the Nexus or the iPad since they're less likely to get muffled by your hands (in landscape mode) or a surface you're resting the tablet on (in portrait mode). However, the speakers aren't very good—their sound is muffled and a little hissy, and the problem is especially pronounced at lower volumes. For example, it's hard to pick hi-hat sounds out of a song unless you have the speakers up around 50 percent. Bring your headphones.

The 5MP rear camera is similarly perfunctory, but it's joined in its mediocrity by most other tablets. Even though most manufacturers include a rear camera on their tablets now, even Apple doesn't seem particularly interested in pushing the quality envelope. A quick test of the camera indoors shows that it can do better than the Nexus 7, but it's far from perfect.