Wiko Wax Hands-On: First Tegra 4i Phone Targets Budget Shoppers

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Nvidia released some technically impressive mobile processors in the past few years, but the company has had few smartphone design wins to show for its efforts. At last year’s Mobile World Congress, the company showed off  its Tegra 4i platform for the first time, and now that low-cost, small form-factor SoC with integrated LTE has found a home in a pair of upcoming handsets. We had a chance to spend a few minutes with the Wiko Wax, which along with Latin American versions of the LG G2 mini, will be the first phone to sport a Tegra 4i processor and take note of its smooth performance.

The product of Wiko, a French manufacturer of unlocked phones that sell in Europe only, the Wax sports a 4.7-inch, 720p display, an 8-MP rear camera and a 5-MP front-facer for taking sharp selfies. We were impressed with the phone’s subtle but stylish black, soft-touch chassis, which has subtle curves that reminded us of the HTC One’s shape along with a snazzy gray accent stripe in the bottom bezel. 

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Though the display was only 720p, images like the background wallpaper, looked particularly sharp and colorful. The screen also seemed to have a more matte finish than most handsets as overhead lights in the room produced very little glare. 

The phone was running a stock version of Android Jellybean, which was skinned only with an Nvidia-themed wallpaper. The unit did not have much in the way of preloade software, but it did have TegraZone for downloading the latest games and a copy of “Real Boxing” which we used to try out the phone’s graphics capabilities.

When we fired up “Real Boxing,” a game with 3D rendered characters and fast action, images were smooth and fine details like the boxer’s skin seemed particularly detailed. Though not as fast as its big-brother, the Tegra 4, the Tegra 4i contains 60 GPU cores, which should provide really strong gaming and video playback experiences. 

For Nvidia’s Tegra 4i platform to succeed, the chip needs to appear in some more widely-distributed phones, but with the Wiko Wax, it looks like it’s off to a decent start. The Wax will start selling throughout Europe this April.

The official Geeks Geek, as his weekly column is titled, Avram Piltch has guided the editorial and production of Laptopmag.com since 2007. With his technical knowledge and passion for testing, Avram programmed several of LAPTOP's real-world benchmarks, including the LAPTOP Battery Test. He holds a master’s degree in English from NYU.

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Secretive Shoppers Prefer Using Mobile Apps

Mobile devices may take an even more important role in the annual holiday shopping spree this year. In addition to finding deals-on-the-go, a new survey reveals some additional reasons that make shopping from a handheld device more appealing than from a computer — all of which involve keeping certain parties in the dark.

A new survey of 2,200 U.S. adults released today (Aug. 23) predicts that three out of five mobile app users would consider purchasing their holiday gifts on a mobile device, be that an iPhone, iPad or Android phone or tablet. The survey was conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Apigee, a company that builds the software to fuel mobile shopping apps for companies including Gilt, Walgreens and eBay. Books, electronics and gift cards were the top three gifts mentioned by the respondents.

The survey also included questions about the appeal of mobile shopping in general. Along with the well-known benefits of browsing for deals wherever you are, checking prices in stores in search of a better deal and locating the closest store, people liked the idea of shopping in secret.

Who knows what you’re doing on your phone in the middle of a meeting? Sure, you could be checking vital email, but you could just as easily be eyeing a new pair of boots. Twelve percent of respondents confessed to shopping on their devices at work, and 14 percent said they shop from their phones or tablets to avoid buying embarrassing or personal items from a work computer where an employer could see transactions.

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And the intrigue continued at home. Twenty-five percent of mobile app users said they liked to shop on their handheld devices to hide their shopping from their spouses — whether that was for a surprise gift or an item outside the agreed-on family budget remained a mystery.

Article provided by TechNewsDaily, a sister site to Laptopmag.com.

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Attention Walmart, Best Buy Shoppers: New iPad on Sale Starting at Midnight

Want a new iPad, but don’t want to stand in a ridiculously long line that wraps around the building at least three times? Smart shoppers can calmly stroll into their local Wal-Mart 1 minute past midnight to pick up the new iPad. According to Bloomberg, Wal-Mart will have a limited amount of the treasured tech on sale starting at 12:01 — eight hours ahead of the legions of Apple fanboys and girls camped out at Apple stores nationwide. 

If you live near a Best Buy that’s open at midnight such as the Union Square store here in New York, you’ll also be able to buy an iPad at the stroke of midnight.

Since there’s a limited supply, we’re not sure if every Wal-Mart will have the new iPad. However, we called our neighborhood Wal-Mart in Neptune, New Jersey and received a cheerful comfirmation from the helpful lady in the electronics section. So, if you’re looking to beat the crowds, give your Wal-Mart a call and try to arrive a little early.

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