Wikipad Hands-On: $499 Android Gaming Tablet and Controller
By Michael A. Prospero - LAPTOP Reviews Editor 25 September 2012
Although we first saw it at E3, we more recently got some extended hands-on time with an almost-finished Wikipad, a 10-inch Android tablet that comes with detachable hand controls.
The Wikipad weighs about 1.2 pounds, which makes it about a tenth of a pound lighter than other 10-inch tablets on the market. Inside is a 1.4GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 T30S processor, which should put it in the same company as the ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity TF700. Unlike that tablet, though, the Wikipad's screen will only have a resolution of 1280 x 800--hopefully the next version will have a 1920 x 1200 display. Fortunately, it will ship with Jellybean installed.
In addition to having access to games in the Google Play and Nvidia Tegra Zone, the Wikipad will also be PlayStation-certified, meaning that it will be able to access content--such as games--from PlayStation Mobile, Sony's cloud service.
We got to play around with a near-final preproduction sample; while the analog controls were a little loose, a Wikipad representative said they would be much tighter in the production version. Overall, though, the grips and controls were comfortable, and we liked that two audio ports directed the Wikipad's formidable speakers directly at us. As you can see from the video below, gameplay was smooth, too.
When it goes on sale on October 31 (Gamestop has been announced as a retail partner), the tablet and the controller bundle will cost $499.
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