The Razer Phone's specs are a challenge to its competition. And if the design looks familiar, maybe you've heard of the Nextbit Robin?Because where most new flagship phones
are shiny rounded rectangles with curved screens, Razer's first phone
is unabashedly a black brick. It flaunts sharp 90-degree corners instead
of curved edges. You can even stand the phone on end. The 5.7-inch,
2,560x1,440-resolution screen is flat as a pancake, and you'll find
giant bezels above and below that screen, too -- just when we thought bezels were going out of style.
The Razer Phone is not exactly what you'd
call stunning, and the phrase "breath of fresh air" doesn't really feel
right either, even if the phone is pretty different from anything else on the market.
But there's another trite phrase that might accurately convey the Razer Phone: "It's what's on the inside that counts."
When the Razer Phone ships
Nov. 17 for $699 or £699 -- no plans for Australia at launch -- the
company says it'll be the first phone with a display that refreshes 120
times per second, like a high-end PC gaming monitor or Apple's iPad Pro. And combined with a dynamic refresh technique Razer's calling Ultramotion (think Nvidia G-Sync), it can mean beautiful, butter-smooth scrolling down websites and apps, and glossy mobile gameplay.
That's
what Tom Moss is talking about when he says I'm "going to be upset." He
believes that after using this phone with its 120Hz screen, other phones
will feel terrible. And while I haven't used the Razer Phone for a week
yet -- only 15 minutes or so -- it definitely feels incredibly smooth.
I'm already a fan of the side-mounted power button, with the fingerprint
sensor built right in, too.
Then
there are the speakers. Remember those giant bezels that flank the
screen? There's a reason they exist: they house a pair of front-facing
speakers that get louder than you'd imagine a phone has any right to be.
When Moss fires up the Dolby Atmos app in a big ol' conference room in
Razer's San Francisco offices, I can't believe how well they fill the
room. (Do they actually sound good? We'll need to do some testing.)
As
we run down the spec sheet, it's clear that Razer focused on meeting or
exceeding the competition in other ways as well. It's got 8GB of RAM.
There's a 4,000mAh battery. A 12-megapixel dual camera with both a
wide-angle lens and2x optical zoom. Two years of guaranteed
software updates -- though it ships with last year's Android 7.1.1
Nougat, with Oreo coming next spring -- and 64GB of storage by default,
with a microSD slot to add up to 2TB more.
And though the phone has the same Qualcomm
Snapdragon 835 chip you'll find in most of today's flagship phones,
Razer claims theirs will perform better than the competition -- by
borrowing some of the thermal engineering know-how the company uses for
its high-end laptops, including an actual heatpipe (admittedly not a first for phones) to draw heat away from the chips.
Again, we'll have to do some testing to see how true that is.
Not for everyone
Mind
you, there's no waterproofing to be had here, no wireless charging, and
no 3.5mm headphone jack. (Razer says the giant speakers weren't
compatible with the idea of waterproofing, the all-aluminum chassis
doesn't have a spot to pass the wireless charging signal, and there's a
USB-C to 3.5mm headphone adapter dongle in the box.) Perhaps more
importantly, prospective US buyers should know it won't support CDMA
carriers like Verizon or Sprint. Like the OnePlus 5, our favorite budget powerhouse, the Razer Phone is strictly a GSM-only affair.
And
honestly, it's not yet clear what, beyond the Razer brand, makes this a
gaming phone. When we ask, Moss downplays that idea a bit. "It
shouldn't just be a gaming phone, it should be a phone for gamers," he
tells us.
The Razer Phone aims to present the best gaming experience on a mobile device.
Josh Miller/CNET
"It's
the best landscape mode phone, it's the best audio quality, it's the
best for movies," he adds, noting that the big, speaker-filled bezels
aren't just there for audio -- they're a way to hold the phone
comfortably in landscape without blocking the screen.
When Razer purchased tiny phone maker Nextbit in January, I had my doubts. I wrote
how Razer has a long track record of revealing crazy products that
never make it to market, or only see extremely limited release, in order
to draw attention to its brand.
Even now, I still wonder if Razer
might be building this phone primarily for attention's sake: It hasn't
been lost on me that Razer will launch an initial public offering (IPO) on the Hong Kong stock exchange on Nov. 13 -- which could make co-founder Min-Liang Tan a billionaire.
Moss,
who used to be CEO of Nextbit, doesn't have a great answer when pressed
further about why Razer wants to build a phone -- beyond the simple
fact that for younger generations, and in some countries, the phone is
the primary way people play games, and Razer needs to follow its
audience. (He also says the company's getting a few game developers on
board: as one example, Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition will support the
120Hz screen.)
But when I really think about it, the Razer Phone isn't anywhere near as wacky as the company's typical stunt products, like a triple-screen laptop or a totally modular PC. It feels real. I wonder if it has a chance against the Samsungs of the world.
We'll find out soon. The phone will ship Nov. 17 from Razer's website,
Amazon and some Microsoft Stores. In Europe, it'll exclusively be
available at retail from Three, where pre-orders begin today.
Razer Phone specs compared to iPhone X, Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus, Google Pixel 2 XL and OnePlus 5
Razer Phone
iPhone X
Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus
Google Pixel 2 XL
OnePlus 5
Display size, resolution
5.72-inch; 2,560x1,440 pixels
5.8-inch; 2,436x1,125 pixels
6.2-inch; 2,960x1,440 pixels
6-inch; 2,880x1,440 pixels
5.5-inch; 1,920x1,080 pixels
Pixel density
514ppi
458ppi
529ppi
538ppi
401ppi
Dimensions (Inches)
6.2x3.1x0.31 in
5.7x2.79x0.30 in
6.3x2.9x0.32 in
6.2x3.0x0.3 in
6.1x2.92x0.29 in
Dimensions (Millimeters)
158.5x77.7x8 mm
143.6x70.9x7.7 mm
159.5x73.4x8.1 mm
157.9x76.7x7.9 mm
154.2x74.1x7.3 mm
Weight (Ounces, Grams)
6.95 oz; 197g
6.14 oz; 174g
6.1 oz; 173g
6.17 oz; 175g
5.4 oz; 153g
Mobile software
Android 7.1.1 Nougat
iOS 11
Android 7.0 Nougat
Android 8 Oreo
Android 7.1.1 Nougat
Camera
Dual 12-megapixel (wide/zoom)
Dual 12-megapixel
12-megapixel
12-megapixel
16-megapixel standard, 20-megapixel telephoto
Front-facing camera
8-megapixel
7-megapixel
8-megapixel
8-megapixel
16-megapixel
Video capture
TBD
4K
4K
4K
4K
Processor
Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835
Apple A11 Bionic
Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 or Octa-core Samsung Exynos 8895
Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835
2.45GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 835
Storage
64GB
64GB, 256GB
64GB
64GB, 128GB
64GB, 128GB
RAM
8GB
TBD
4GB
4GB
6GB, 8GB
Expandable storage
Up to 2TB
None
Up to 2TB
None
None
Battery
4,000mAh
TBD
3,500mAh
3,520mAh
3,300mAh
Fingerprint sensor
Power button
None (Face ID via TrueDepth camera)
Back
Back cover
Home button
Connector
USB-C
Lightning
USB-C
USB-C
USB-C
Headphone jack
No
No
Yes
No
Yes
Special features
120Hz screen, dual front-facing stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos
Water resistant (IP67), wireless Qi charge compatible, TrueDepth
front-facing camera adds Face ID for payments and enables front-facing
AR effects
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