Nvidia's Tegra 4i Finally Lands in a Phone with Wiko Wax
The first phone to use Nvidia's Tegra Ti is coming soon.
This week during Mobile World Congress 2014, Nvidia revealed that the Wiko WAX phone launching in Europe features the company's Tegra 4i system-on-a-chip (SoC), a first for the GPU/SoC maker.
As a refresher, this is the chip Nvidia specifically built for mid-range and lower phones, packing four Cortex-A9-based cores, a fifth battery saving core, 60 GPU cores and an integrated version of Nvidia's i500 LTE modem. By comparison, the Tegra 4 chip built for high-end phones, tablets and other form factors have Cortex-A15-based CPU cores and 72 GPU cores.
Full details on the hardware are rather slim at the moment, but Nvidia reveals a 4.7-inch screen, a 720p display, an 8MP camera on the back and support for LTE and HSPA+. Starting in April, this phone will be available throughout Europe, including France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Italy, UK and Belgium.
"Within two short years, Wiko has become a major player by providing unlocked phones with sophisticated design, outstanding performance and the newest technologies. It has more than two million users in France and is expanding overseas fast," reads Nvidia's blog.
The phone will arrive with Tegra Zone already installed. This is a handy tool that lists all games loaded on Google Play that take advantage of the Tegra 4i's unique hardware. The app also provides news that focuses on Android gaming, and spotlights a number of popular apps such as Horn, Alpha Wave, GTA: San Andreas and more.
This new Tegra 4i phone from Wiko follows Xiaomi's Mi3 "super phone" launched back in September. A version of the device for China Mobile (TD-SCDMA) sports Nvidia's Tegra 4 but uses a modem provided by a different vendor (non-Nvidia). Features include a 5-inch IPS screen, 2 GB of LPDDR3 RAM, at least 16 GB of storage, dual-band Wi-Fi, NFC and more.
So far, the pricing for Wiko's WAX is unknown, so those in the regions mentioned above should stay tuned for more info in the coming weeks.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.