LG V500 vs iPad mini 2, One of them is better for gaming. Which one?

As the title says, so which one between LG V500 and iPad mini 2 that is better for gaming? Well, we're get more on that later. First, I'm going to show you the whole thing about these 2 devices.

Hi guys, welcome back to this site!

Despite not having the same popularity and sales number, plus market share just like the iPads, i think it’s amazing that LG could come up with an iPad mini contender that just doesn’t suck.

And that shows from the whole aspect of LG’s latest offering on tablet market - LG V500.
Not only is this tablet great in terms of spec sheet and features, but amazingly, it’s also really impressive when it comes to design.

It’s made out of aluminum materials all over the place, which feels really solid, sturdy and really premium even as premium as the iPad mini Retina.


On the other hand, iPad mini Retina – which has stepped to the third-generation this year – has already been known as a great quality tablet all around the world, even until today.

It has powerful specs, it has solid build quality and the most importantly, it’s amazing as a media-consumption device. There’s no doubt about that.

This is the reason why today, i’m really interested to bring up these 2 awesome premium quality tablets into my next comparison review.

Comparing between LG V500 and iPad mini Retina is probably a good idea because both tablets are adopting around 8-inch display and both are also intended purely as media-consumption devices.

Well, if you want to know more about my comparison of each aspect on these 2 tablets, including their gaming performance as well as gaming experience as a whole, then check this one out, my comparison review between LG G Pad and iPad mini Retina.


No one’s gonna argue that (even Android die-hard fans out there) iPad mini Retina is the most beautiful tablet on the market today.

It has elegant design, solid build material and of course, premium feel all over the place.

Not to mention, the newer-gen iPad mini Retina is now much thinner than before – which actually is the thing that Apple has always been trying to improve on its iPads for years.

However, besides Apple with its iPad mini Retina, there’s also one other tablet – which in my opinion – is also as premium as this mini iPad.

And that tablet is interesting coming from a manufacturer that is not really active on tablet market – LG.

Yes, i’m talking about LG V500.

Similar just like iPad mini Retina, this LG V500 impressively also shares the same aluminum material all over its body, which feels really sturdy and premium just like the mini iPad.

And i think, this is amazing because it’s still pretty rare to find Android tablets that are made out of aluminum material entirely.

But that’s not the only thing that makes the design of LG V500 look impressive.

Besides its premium aluminum material, this LG’s tablet also looks really elegant with its round-curved rectangular design all over the bezels.

And thanks to the use of 4:3 aspect ratio on its screen, it makes this tablet look much wider just like the iPad mini Retina.

However, the comparison between LG V500 and iPad mini Retina is not mostly about their designs. There’s still a lot more to explore from both of these tablets.

One of them is definitely on their performance.

If iPad mini Retina is more prominent with its A7 chipset plus PowerVR G6430 GPU, then LG V500 counts its entire performance on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 600 processor and Adreno 320 GPU.

So when it comes to gaming, there’s no doubt that both tablets really excel on that department.

But the questions remain. With all of the great things found on both devices,

which one between LG V500 and iPad mini Retina that deserves to be the best gaming tablet in this comparison review?

Which one that is a better tablet in the whole aspect, especially as a media-consumption device?

Is it worth it to buy any of these devices?

Well, if you're still eager to know what's my answers of these questions, as well as my final conclusion of this review, be sure to read the rest of this post.


Ever since LG became really popular with its G series smartphones, this manufacturer started putting focus mostly on the design of its devices, of course with specs and features being the other important priorities as well.

And LG did the same thing on its tablet.

I personally think – you probably too – that LG did such a great job with the design of this tablet. I mean, as the manufacturer that’s not prominent for its tablets – in fact, LG G Slate and this LG V500 were the only tablets that LG ever released -, i’m really impressed with how LG could come up with a tablet that looks elegant, fun and premium at the same time.

LG V500

LG V500

'

iPad Air

Yeah, that’s LG V500 i’m talking about. Not only does this tablet look really solid with its fully-aluminum material, but it also feels really sturdy and premium just like the iPad mini Retina.

But that’s not the only thing that makes this tablet look awesome.

The entire design of LG V500 also looks really attractive and has its own characteristic than most of its counterparts out there.

More impressively is, LG doesn’t try to blatantly copy the design of iPad mini on this LG V500 – despite using the same 4:3 aspect ratio.

I know that there are many other Android devices besides LG V500 that are also made out of fully-aluminum materials and unique plus premium design, like Lenovo Yoga 10 Tablet or Archos Gen 10 XS – which both look impressive and premium just like LG V500.

And not to mention, there have been some improvements especially on the design of Samsung latest GALAXY devices.

So i’m really excited to see the improvements of Android tablets in the near future, especially on the design department.

It goes the same with iPad mini Retina. Similar just like the rest of iPads ever released by Apple on tablet market, this second-gen iPad mini still inherits the same premium design and solid build quality of its predecessors.

And that’s not shocking because this device – first of all – is expensive and also, Apple has been really good at making premium devices for the past few years (with the exception iPhone 5C of course. lol).

So between LG V500 and iPad mini Retina, i think both devices look and feel great, plus premium.

And this is probably really important to help customers in the first decision process of buying tablets, of course, besides performance and experience as well.

Back to Top

LG G Pad 8.3

Apple iPad mini 2 Retina

Released 2013, October 338 g Weight No SIM 8.3 inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 1200 x 1920 pixels (~273 ppi pixel density) 16M colors Platform OS Android OS, v4.2.2 (Jelly Bean), upgradable to v4.4.2 (KitKat), planned upgrade to v5.0 (Lollipop) Quad-core 1.7 GHz Krait 300 Qualcomm APQ8064 Pro Snapdragon 600 Chipset Adreno 320 GPU microSD card slot for up to 64 GB 16 GB Internal storage 2 GB RAM 5 MP rear-facing camera 1.3 MP front-facing camerea (720p video recording) Infrared No Radio microUSB v2.0 (SlimPort) Accelerometer, gyro, compass Sensors Java MIDP emulator Non-removable Li-Po 4600 mAh battery

LTE Released November 2013 Nano-SIM 7.9 inch LED-backlit IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen 1536 x 2048 pixels (~324 ppi pixel density) 16M colors iOS 7 (upgradable to iOS 8.1.2) Apple A7 Dual-core 1.3 GHz Cyclone (ARM v8-based) Chipset PowerVR G6430 quad-core GPU No micro card slot 16/32/64/128 GB Internal storage 1 GB RAM DDR3 5 MP rear-facing camera 1.2 MP front-facing camera (720p@30fps video recording) No Radio USB v2.0 Accelerometer, gyro, compass Sensors HTML5 (Safari) Browser No Java Non-removable Li-Po 6470 mAh battery (24.3 Wh) Talk time (multimedia): for up to 10 hours

Unlike Android tablet manufacturers, Apple has always been really great at making premium quality devices for customers without enticing them with monster specs.

And that’s what Apple does again on its iPad mini Retina.

This device may not have some monster quad-core processor or 2.5K super-razor-sharp display of Samsung flagship tablets, but amazingly, even with just a dual-core processor and Retina Display (which is higher than full HD 1080p resolution), this tablet is still selling like hotcakes all across the world.

Million units of iPad mini Retina are shipped every quarter of each year, and the trend still continues with the new-gen iPad mini 3.

iPad mini Retina comes with a 7.9-inch display sporting the unique 1536x2048 resolution or so called “Retina Display”, a dual-core A7 SoC (system-on-chip) coupled with PowerVR G6430 GPU, 1GB of RAM, iOS 7 out of the box (upgradeable to iOS 8), 5MP iSight camera on the back (which takes great shots) and many more.

For today’s standards, this type of hardware specs is actually still considered as high-class of specs.

But i really hope that Apple will up its game much even further in the near future for the next-gen iPads especially to compete neck-to-neck with other Android rivals, even only ‘on paper’.

Meanwhile, LG V500 is also not to shabby at all when it comes to specs.

LG V500 is equipped with an 8.3-inch display sporting the full HD resolution (1920x1200 pixels), a quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor, Adreno 320 GPU, 2GB of RAM, 5MP rear-facing camera, 1.3MP front-camera, Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean pre-installed, 16GB of native storage with microSD card slot and 4600mAh battery.

In my opinion, i think LG V500 is more prominent than iPad mini Retina in terms of software features and of course, microSD card slot.

Meanwhile, iPad mini Retina is more superior than LG V500 especially on the sectors of display, processor and gaming experience as a whole (but we’ll talk more on that later).

And i also think that the simple-to-use UI of iOS 7 could turn out to be the main strength of iPad mini compared to LG V500, as it’s more attractive to vast majority tablet shoppers out there on the market.


Retina Display has always been the trademark of iPads – in fact, all Apple devices.

Basically, the term of “Retina Display” is not tied to the specific screen resolution, but it’s more of a general term that Apple has been using for the past few years to describe how sharp the displays of its devices really are.

That’s why even the display of iPhone that has lower-resolution than iPads is still called as “Retina Display” by this company, as long as it looks sharp for most of customers.

iPad mini Retina is no different. Thanks to this Retina Display, the screen of this iPad mini just looks sharp and crisp.

Image looks great and text is readable even from far distance. So as a result, watching HD movies will be amazing, reading books is enjoying to do and browsing the web is such a pleasing experience.

Meanwhile, despite using ‘only’ full HD 1080p display, LG V500 actually still excels on this display department.

And that’s not shocking given that LG makes its own screen for this device. In fact, LG has been one of the screen suppliers of Apple for its iPads.

Not to mention, along with Samsung, LG has also been developing the OLED technology of its screen.

So with that being said, then LG V500 is still superior with its screen, just like iPad mini Retina.

The mini Retina iPad may have the sharpness, but the screen of LG V500 is also really sharp though; the colors look popping out and everything just looks really crisp on this device.

Either for watching HD movies, reading books/magazines, browsing the web, editing documents or even playing games, this tablet will surely deliver a pleasing experience to the users.


LG V500 and iPad mini Retina definitely runs on entirely 2 different paths when it comes to UI.

iPad mini Retina is more prominent with its simple-to-use iOS 7 (which is upgradeable to iOS 8), while LG V500 comes pre-installed with LG’s customized Android UI, along with all of its standard Jelly Bean features plus some addition goodies from LG.

However, both tablets are still great with their UIs. The iOS 7 UI of iPad mini Retina is simple yet elegant with its icon-grid design layout, while the Android UI of LG V500 has a bunch of attractive features and visual presentations (like 3-finger gesture, multi-window mode, etc) all over the place.

But for me personally, i think i have to go with LG V500 on this UI department because in my opinion – its richness of features can be really handy in the long term use of the device, while iOS 7 could somehow become really boring in the long run.

But that’s just my opinion though.

Back to Top
As i mentioned above, Apple has always been great at making devices that are reliable and powerful in performance, yet with ‘mediocre’ specs on paper. And iPad mini Retina is no different.

This device may only have a dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM – compared to quad/octa/hexa-core processor and big fat RAM on Android flagship tablets out there -, but in terms of performance and graphical power, this device is amazingly more superior than its rivals.

And that shows on many benchmark tests of this tablet – along with iPad Air -, that could top even most of flagship tablets on the market today especially on the graphical department (but probably not anymore with the arrival of Tegra K1 processor).

And that’s thanks to Apple’s expertise in designing its own A7 chipset and of course, in tweaking the software of this tablet to make use the full potential of its GPU.

Accompanied with an advanced PowerVR G6430 GPU and 1GB of RAM, this tablet really excels on the sector of performance. It runs really fast, smooth and really fluid with iOS 7 on board.

So basically, everything that you throw on this tablet – from watching HD movies, browsing the web or even playing games -, all can be perfectly executed in buttery smooth performance with no lag whatsoever.

It goes the same when playing games with this device. With that type of hardware specs, plus huge support from all app/game developers -, iPad mini Retina can be a perfect machine for gaming.

Games like Modern Combat 5, Asphalt 8: Airborne, GTA San Andreas and even Bioshock (ported from console by the way) will surely run smoothly and in full highest graphics on this mini iPad.

Meanwhile, LG V500 is also as great as iPad mini Retina when it comes to gaming experience.

Thanks to its Snapdragon 600 processor, coupled with 2GB of RAM and Adreno 320 GPU, games like Modern Combat 4, Asphalt 8: Airborne, Need for Speed Most Wanted or GTA Vice City, can all be executed on this tablet perfectly and even in full highest graphics.

However, when pitted side-by-side with iPad mini Retina, this LG V500 is definitely not on par in gaming performance.

Even though Snapdragon 600 and Adreno 320 is powerful for today’s standards, heavy game like GTA San Andreas will likely run laggy on this device in full highest graphics (full visual effects, shadows, objects, textures, resolution, etc).

This actually also happens to other device with Adreno 320 GPU like Google Nexus 7 (2013), which really suffer a LOT when running GTA San Andreas in full highest graphics.

The game runs extremely slow and laggy, and it’s just not playable for human being (unless if you’re living in slo-mo world! lol).

But i could be wrong about that because LG G Pad is packing a more powerful Snapdragon 600 processor – as opposed to the Snapdragon S4 Pro inside Nexus 7.

Plus, this GTA game probably has been updated by Rockstar to run smoothly in full highest graphics either on LG V500 or Nexus 7 tablet. And this also happens to The Dark Knight Rises the game (made by Gameloft), which runs really smooth in full highest graphics on Nexus 10 after the updates arrived from the developer.

Anyway, between LG V500 and iPad mini Retina – in terms of gaming performance -, i think it’s no-brainer that mini iPad is the clear winner here.

And it’s not only because its powerful gaming performance, but also, the gaming experience of this device as a whole – from its thinner design (which feels really comfortable even for gaming in many hours), longer battery life, huge well-optimized game catalog for this tablet, huge support from game developers (especially with Metal API on iOS 8) and its much sharper display.

LG V500, however, is also a great gaming tablet though.

It’s capable to run many latest heavy games and it also has comfortable design for playing games, not to mention, its screen is really sharp.

But of course, in this comparison review, i think it’s quite obvious that iPad mini Retina is a much better gaming tablet in the whole aspect than LG V500.


The camera of iPads – especially the rear one – have always been one of the main selling points for this tablet for years. And Apple still continues that tradition on this second-gen iPad mini Retina.

Thanks to its 5MP iSight rear-facing camera, taking photos and recording videos with this tablet are such a pleasing experience because its camera quality of this device is just top notch.

So if you happen to love photography, then you’re definitely in great hands with this device.

The story is also similar with LG V500. This tablet comes with the same 5MP rear-facing camera just like iPad mini Retina.

Even though the photo/video quality taken by the camera of LG V500 is not up to par with the camera of iPad mini Retina, but overall, this tablet is still capable to take some decent quality shots for most of users.

And with LG’s experience and camera technology embedded on this device, you’ll surely be guaranteed top notch quality of photos and videos from its camera.


Despite using a smaller battery capacity than its sibling, this iPad mini Retina is no doubt really strong when it comes to battery life.

Even if you use it intensively for doing some heavy stuff – like longer watching or gaming session -, this tablet just cannot be killed, even in heavy use.

So if you’re still in the search for a tablet with solid battery life, then iPad mini Retina could be a great choice for you.

Meanwhile, LG V500 – with its 4600mAh battery inside – is also really good at surviving for many hours in a solid day – of course, on a full charge.

So basically, you can expect to see it last all day long, especially if you only use to do some basic daily stuff in moderate use.

However, its battery life could drop drastically to probably around 5 to 7 hours when used for doing some heavy intense tasks without resting the screen at all – like watching HD movies in marathon or playing games in the row.

Between LG V500 and iPad mini Retina – on the battery department -, i think i have to go with Apple’s tablet here because it has much longer battery life – it even could last more than 1 day in heavy use, according to some reviews on YouTube -.

This is probably because Apple is really good at designing its own A7 processor and optimizing the software of this device, making it powerful in performance yet efficient with the use of battery.


So in conclusion, i think both tablets are equally great in whole aspect.

They have sharp display, great camera, fast and smooth experience, powerful gaming performance, solid battery life, amazing UI and of course, premium design.

They both have their own strengths and their own weaknesses, like for example: iPad mini Retina has much sharper screen than LG G Pad, LG V500 has microSD card slot while iPad mini don’t, iOS 7 UI is faster and smoother but LG G Pad has more features on its UI and many other more.

However, in the overall aspect of both devices, i think iPad mini Retina is more superior than LG V500.

I mean, it may not have microSD card slot and full-featured UI just like on LG G Pad, however, iPad mini Retina still excels on the sectors of display, graphical performance, camera, battery life and well-optimized game/app catalog.

And all of these already ensure a pleasing experience to vast majority of users out there.

It goes the same with the gaming experience of this device.

Thanks to huge support from all game developers, plus the release of Metal API for these game/app makers, not to mention its powerful graphical performance, iPad mini Retina is just a perfect machine for playing games.

All iOS games run perfectly on this device and of course in full highest graphics (especially when all of these iOS apps have been well-optimized by developers).

But that’s not it. There’s more. Thanks to its thinner and light-in-weight design, plus its strong battery life, iPad mini Retina is just an ideal tablet for gaming, besides as a media-consumption device of course.

However, for playing games, LG V500 is also really great for that matter. It has powerful processor, great GPU, huge RAM, sharp 1080p display, comfortable design for gaming and good battery life – which are really vital in whole aspect of gaming experience.

But when this device is put on the table side-by-side with iPad mini Retina, it’s just no-brainer that this mini iPad Retina is a much better gaming tablet than LG V500.

The good thing is, LG V500 still has some great things to brag in front of iPad mini Retina. And they are its microSD card slot and its software features.

It may not have the same sharp display and powerful gaming performance of iPad mini, but thanks to its fully-featured Android plus microSD card slot, this LG V500 can still be a better tablet than iPad mini Retina.

Besides, they both are made out of aluminum material – which feels really sturdy, solid and premium -, so both of these devices are still ‘on the same page’ when it comes to build quality and design.

Have any question? Leave your comment here!