14 DAY TRIAL // We saw the Wikipad last month, but the new wave of details shows that the product has undergone a significant physical transformation: it measures 10.1 inches in diagonal instead of 7.
The Wikipad is a sort of hybrid tablet that hasn't been done before. While most so-called crossbreeds try to combine the idea of a laptop with that of a slate, this one does it to a tablet and a game controller.
Indeed, the main body is that of a tablet, but it did not prevent WikiPad (the company and the tablet have the same name) from adding a couple of triggers, bumpers, joysticks and the start/select buttons on the sides.
We have to say that this is the sort of design we would not have been surprised to see earlier.
While touch-based games have become quite common, tablets have the hardware and software necessary for significantly more varied, and more demanding titles than those.
Thus, integrating gamepad-like controls in a tablet opens new doors for entertainment.
WikiPad chose the NVIDIA Tegra 3 T30 SoC (system-on-chip) as the heart of the consumer electronic. It has four ARM cores working at 1.4 GHz, plus a GPU.
That said, 1 GB of DDR3 RAM (random access memory) backs up the chip, while 16 GB of NAND Flash storage holds the Android operating system and whatever else owners copy or download onto it.
Speaking of which, the exact version of the Android OS is 4.1, otherwise known as Jelly Bean.
Moving on, WikiPad chose to give its creation two cameras: a 2-megapixel webcam on the front (for video calls and such) and an 8-megapixel camera at the back (for photos, videos, etc.).
Finally, the aforementioned 10.1-inch LCD has a native resolution of 1,280 x 800, which is perfect for high-quality video. The normal HQ resolution is 1,280 x 720, but WikIPad features 1,280 x 800 due to its slightly different aspect ratio (16:10 rather than 16:9).
Unfortunately, the folks at Venture Beat, who got their hands on all this info, could not discover what price WikiPad would bear, or when shipments would begin. Hopefully, the 560 grams (1.2 pounds) weight won't put too many people off.