LG’s new Android tablet is powered by an Intel Core i5 processor

LG-Tab-Book

LG today launched a new, super-sized Android tablet that aims to compete with devices like the Samsung Galaxy TabPRO 12.2, and to ensure it’s the most powerful slate on the market, it has been equipped with an Intel Core i5 processor — a chip that’s traditionally used to power notebooks and desktop PCs.

It’s called the Tab Book, and it has an 11.6-inch display with a 1920×1080 resolution. It’s clearly a tablet on the outside, and it runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean (not KitKat), but its specifications sheet suggests it wants to be a notebook instead — and it can be, thanks to a build-in keyboard that slides out from the back.

In addition to its Intel Core i5 processor, which is clocked at 2.6GHz, the Tab Book has an HD Graphics 4400 GPU, 4GB of RAM, and a massive 128GB solid-state drive — all of which seem slightly unnecessary for an Android tablet that’s unable to run desktop-class software.

LG hasn’t announced the Tab Book’s price yet — or whether it will be available outside of Korea — but it does offer other Tab Books that run Windows 8, and they usually sell for around $1,900. We expect the Android-powered version to be slightly less expensive, but with internals like this, it’s never going to be the most affordable tablet on the market.