Wikipad is an Android tablet with real gaming controls for $500

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Wikipad is an Android tablet with real gaming controls for $500

With newer versions of tablets boasting near console grade graphics, it may still be hard to take tablets as a serious gaming platform if all you’re doing is tapping at the screen like a daft pigeon. But with the Wikipad, you not only get a pretty good Android tablet, you get a full sized game controls add-on with extra speakers.

Wikipad Inc. has announced that its gaming-focused Android tablet and detachable game controller combination, called the Wikipad, will be launching exclusively through GameStop stores for $499 on October 31.

While the Wikipad can be used as a standard Android tablet, the unit’s standout feature is the detachable shell that slides on to the bottom. That shell sports two analog sticks, four face buttons, four shoulder buttons, and a directional pad. While most games in the Google Play marketplace haven’t been coded to support those buttons, the controller will work with dozens of PlayStation Mobile games, including many original PlayStation classics. The controller can also be used on a variety of streaming games and demos released through the newly Sony-owned Gaikai cloud gaming service, provided your broadband connection is up for it.

The Android 4.1 tablet sports an NVIDIA Tegra 3 graphics processor powering a 1280x800 IPS display, which is missing the glasses-free stereoscopic 3D that was present when the tablet was first shown at CES in January. Wikipad boasts six hours of continuous game time or eight hours of video watching on a single charge. It weighs 560g (1.23lb) with the controller, making it about twice as heavy as the Nintendo 3DS or PlayStation Vita. The tablet only comes in a single WiFi-only configuration with 16GB of onboard storage, expandable through a MicroSD slot.

Via