SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Young women find dogs sexier than smartphones.

The bad news for geeks was released Thursday in a Retrevo.com study aimed at finding out whether gadgets make people more attractive as love interests.

While about half of men surveyed in the "Gadgetology" study thought seeing someone using a hip smartphone was attractive, only 36 percent of women shared that sentiment.

"More women under 35 say they are more attracted to someone walking a dog than someone using a cool phone," Retrevo said in an "iPads Don't Make You Look as Cool as You Think" titled blog post detailing the study results.

Retrevo found that both men and women felt it was slightly more alluring to see someone reading a book than wielding one of Apple's coveted iPad tablet computers.

Flashing sophisticated gizmos did appeal to the more affluent, with people earning more than $200,000 dollars annually inclined to think others more attractive if they had slick smartphones, laptops or iPads, the study found.

When all genders and income brackets were combined, gadgets were more of a turn-off than a turn-on, according to the research inspired by St. Valentine's Day.

Retrevo.com is a consumer electronics shopping website.