Razer the most respected brand in the world of manufacturing gaming laptops and powerful desktops has come up with a phone or rather their first phone focussed on gaming. They had acquired NEXTBIT that came up with ROBIN which was focussed on cloud storage however it didn't turn out quite well for them which later lead themselves to be sold to Razer. Although the acquisition took place early in 2017 and now finally Razer has come up with their smartphone product and it's something that we cannot miss. They haven't named it anything specifically but just the RAZER PHONE.
Razer Phone Specifications:
Razer Phone Specifications:
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| The Razer Phone |
- 5.7 inch QHD IGZO LCD display (2560×1440) with 120Hz refresh rate and wide color gamut.
- Corning Gorilla Glass 3 Protection
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SOC with 4+4 cores clocked at 2.45 and 1.9 gHz with Adreno 540 GPU
- 8GB LPDDR4 RAM and 64GB UFS storage and expandable upto 2TB via sdcard
- 12MP f/1.75 rear camera with additional lens for 2X optical zoom
- 8MP f/2.0 lens front facing camera
- 4000 mAh battery with Qualcomm Quick Charge 4.0+ support
- WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac dual band support
- Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, NFC
- 8mm thick and weighs 197g
Design:
This device from the specs point of view seems like a powerhouse and outcasts many others in the specs department keeping in line with their laptops. As Razer had acquired NEXTBIT, their design seems to be quite inspired from the ROBIN which was announced last year however it was focussed on cloud based usage. The device unlike 2017's flagships from Samsung and Apple, is not deprived of bezels to pave the way for Stereo Speakers. It comes with Dolby Atmos and has THX certified audio. The THX certification indicates its superior audio quality and practically it indeed is superior. We can say that THX is like DxO for speakers.
The fingerprint sensor is located on the power button which is the same implementation that SONY did with most of its recently launched devices. Unfortunately Apple couldn't figure it out with its "X" :-P and on the same lines, inspite of it being thick, the 3.5 mm headphone jack is absent thereby depriving you of the basic necessity. Also the massive 4000mAh battery makes the device quite thick and with a rectangular slab like aluminium unibody design, its never meant for single handed usage.
Performance and Camera:
Now let's come to the most important part i.e the Performance aspect. The Razer Phone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SOC and comes with 8GB of LPDDR4 RAM. This SOC has to drive the 120 Hz display which is not the default setting that you would get initially. You would have to select the refresh rate from the settings where the available options are 60,90 and 120Hz. This bumped up refresh rate indicates more frames per second than the regular display and hence more smoother gameplay or rather media consumption. Only the iPad Pro 2017 comes with a 120Hz refresh rate display and the Razer Phone is just second to it.
The 8GB RAM should help in handling multiple tasks well and its quite expected. The launcher used is Nova Prime by default which is close to stock Android which must enhance the experience even further. As the device comes with Dolby Atmos, the speaker output can be further tweaked therby making the device an all-rounder in gaming since it takes care of the audio as well.
Coming to the cameras, the rear houses a horizontally aligned 12MP dual sensors along with the LED flash. One of the camera sensor consists of 2X optical zoom and the other is a regular lens. The main camera has a larger f/1.75 aperture which should allow for better low light images and the 2X zoom will work the same way as in the iPhone 8 Plus or even the Note 8. However, the quality can be judged only by using it in real life. The front facing camera is of 8MP and has an aperture size of f/2.0
Overall the camera specs seem interesting however the implementation of the dual cameras is nothing new.
Final thoughts:
The Razer Phone has great potential especially because of the main selling point being something different from the other contenders. The 8GB RAM devices are quite few although in practical many apps and games might not make use of the entire 8GB since its just a gimmick. The elimination of headphone jack and the design could be a let down. The massive battery has to power the QHd display with 120 Hz (although the refresh rate can be bought down) and hence hoping for good battery life would be too optimistic and finally with a price tag of $699 targeted for gaming audience is it justified? Do let is know about that in the comments below.
The fingerprint sensor is located on the power button which is the same implementation that SONY did with most of its recently launched devices. Unfortunately Apple couldn't figure it out with its "X" :-P and on the same lines, inspite of it being thick, the 3.5 mm headphone jack is absent thereby depriving you of the basic necessity. Also the massive 4000mAh battery makes the device quite thick and with a rectangular slab like aluminium unibody design, its never meant for single handed usage.
Performance and Camera:
Now let's come to the most important part i.e the Performance aspect. The Razer Phone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SOC and comes with 8GB of LPDDR4 RAM. This SOC has to drive the 120 Hz display which is not the default setting that you would get initially. You would have to select the refresh rate from the settings where the available options are 60,90 and 120Hz. This bumped up refresh rate indicates more frames per second than the regular display and hence more smoother gameplay or rather media consumption. Only the iPad Pro 2017 comes with a 120Hz refresh rate display and the Razer Phone is just second to it.
The 8GB RAM should help in handling multiple tasks well and its quite expected. The launcher used is Nova Prime by default which is close to stock Android which must enhance the experience even further. As the device comes with Dolby Atmos, the speaker output can be further tweaked therby making the device an all-rounder in gaming since it takes care of the audio as well.
Coming to the cameras, the rear houses a horizontally aligned 12MP dual sensors along with the LED flash. One of the camera sensor consists of 2X optical zoom and the other is a regular lens. The main camera has a larger f/1.75 aperture which should allow for better low light images and the 2X zoom will work the same way as in the iPhone 8 Plus or even the Note 8. However, the quality can be judged only by using it in real life. The front facing camera is of 8MP and has an aperture size of f/2.0
Overall the camera specs seem interesting however the implementation of the dual cameras is nothing new.
Final thoughts:
The Razer Phone has great potential especially because of the main selling point being something different from the other contenders. The 8GB RAM devices are quite few although in practical many apps and games might not make use of the entire 8GB since its just a gimmick. The elimination of headphone jack and the design could be a let down. The massive battery has to power the QHd display with 120 Hz (although the refresh rate can be bought down) and hence hoping for good battery life would be too optimistic and finally with a price tag of $699 targeted for gaming audience is it justified? Do let is know about that in the comments below.