Last Updated on April 6, 2017 by Mathew Diekhake
Owners of the LG G Pad 8.3 should keep checking the system notification for a new Android 4.4.2 KitKat software update arriving over the air. The build number is VK81023A and it brings LTE roaming.
The G pad 8.3 is one of the best tablets in the “life’s Good” companies range. However, it still sits on the middle stages of KitKat even though the latest Android is 5.0.1 Lollipop with that soon to be 5.0.2 Lollipop for numerous devices in the coming weeks. That’s the bad news. The good news is that there isn’t much by the way of features following 4.4.2 until you reach Lollipop where you’ll find a new material design user interface, new material design in the app drawer, Android Beam, Android RunTime (ART) replacing the Dalvik, a Flappy Bird clone Easter Egg and more.
Android 4.4.2 KitKat firmware is well-known for bringing a new location menu, white status bar icons, white navigation panel, immersive mode, cloud printing, wireless printing, full screen movie art from the lock screen, bug fixes, performance enhancements and more. The new VK81023A firmware comes with 4G LTE roaming for data in selected markets, power on issues fixed and RedBox instant is gone. For those of you who don’t already know, RedBox is one of the largest online movie websites which lets users hire out DVD and Blue-Ray disks.
The new over the air (OTA) update is rolling out in periods to all owners with the aforementioned tablet. That means nobody knows when it’s arriving for you apart from the ‘Big Red” who come up with the selective algorithm. You have to wait until it comes in your direction. You don’t have to do anything. It comes as an automatic notification alerting you on the display. From there you choose to put it on hold for later or tap the “download” and “install now’ options on the display.
We recommend installing the OTA using the WiFi network and not the mobile data. Mobile data comes with the usual unwanted data charges by Verizon if you go over the allocated data amount. Furthermore, the networks usually busy from others choosing to download the update using mobile data which results in high traffic. By electing to install yours using the WiFi you are bypassing the high traffic and the unstable data connection.
The people erring on the side of caution should think about backing up the device data to the internal memory before accepting the file. That means if you are applying a factory reset you have backup copies. You don’t automatically lose any data by accepting the software update by Verizon. However, if something goes wrong it’s possible you lose data such as phone contacts, pictures and video.
Read what Verizon has to say about the new firmware by checking out the official changelog here.