Wikipad’s 7-inch Android gaming tablet will hit retailers in spring for $249

Console-style gaming on an Android tablet finally gets a start date now that Wikipad (the company) has set a new release window for its 7-inch slate with video-game-controller-style buttons.

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Wikipad (the product) will debut at retail in spring for $249. The hardware company previously introduced a 10-inch tablet, which is still coming, but it plans to revamp its specs.

“We wanted to get Wikipad into our community’s hands, and what we found was that the smaller, 7-inch form factor just seemed right,’” Wikipad president of sales Fraser Townley said in a statement. “The smaller frame delivers an aggressive price while keeping the same amazing specs.”

The Wikipad has full access to the Google Play market, the PlayStation Mobile store, the Nvidia Tegrazone, and more. While the Google Play market is crowded and focused on touch-control games, every game on PlayStation Mobile is controller optimized.

To provide the best gaming experience, this Android device comes wrapped in a shell that provides full physical controls. The tablet runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean on an Nvidia Tegra 3 processor with 16GB of storage and 1GB of RAM. It’s slightly more powerful than Google’s own Nexus 7.

Nvidia recently announced plans for Tegra 4 at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). It’s significantly more powerful than the previous chip. While Tegra 3 is no slouch and should provide great performance in games, it wouldn’t surprise me to find the 10-inch Wikipad is using that technology.

The company would only say that the 10-inch device is still evolving to include the latest and greatest specs.

Wikipad’s 10-inch tablet was due out late last year, but the company discovered a flaw in pilot production. This sent the design team back to improving the design of the controller shell.

That delay is probably for the best.

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The 7-inch Wikipad is now aggressively price at $249. That’s the same price as a 32GB Nexus 7, and while Wikipad is a gaming-first product, it is also fully capable as an Android tablet.