Razer Phone Review: Not Only For Hardcore Gamers

Most of us expect the same thing from a premium smartphone, the slick, glamorous, and ergonomic design like that of a Galaxy S8 or the power of an iPhone X. but could be excuse an ugly design in favor of a smartphone made for gamers even if it means that we will have to shell out less than what other flagships ask for?

Well, this is what Razer Phone is all about!!

Razer is renowned for its gaming PCs, but we knew what its acquisition of Nextbit, a smartphone startup meant, the company was planning to try its hands in handsets, as well. However, the big question was, will Razer, which glorifies itself as a gamer-focused company, could actually build a gamer-focused smartphone?

To say the least, what we have now is a gaming smartphone for which you don’t have to be a gamer to wait for its launch on 17th November.

That said, in the past couple of months, what we have seen could be termed as an evolution in smartphone business as the likes of OnePlus 5, Nokia 8, Huawei Mate 10 Pro, LG V30 as well as the higher end offering Apple iPhone X and Samsung Galaxy Note 8, have made their presence felt with a big thump.

With such a fierce competition in the segment, will Razer Phone be able to create a niche of its own? Let’s see

Razer Phone Specifications

• 5.72-inch (2560×1440) Quad HD IGZO LCD UltraMotion display protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 3, offering 513 ppi and 73.22 % screen-to-body ratio.

• 64-bit Octa-Core Snapdragon 835 SoC coupled with Adreno 540 GPU

• 8GB LPDDR4 RAM and 64GB (UFS) internal storage, expandable up to 2TB via microSD
• 120hz refresh rate for smooth graphics as well as to prevent frame drops or lags.

• Android 7.1.1 Nougat out of the box, upgradable to Android Oreo

• 12MP front camera with f/1.75 wide-angle lens and a 12MP secondary camera with f/2.6 aperture for 2x zoom, PDAF, dual-tone LED flash, High Dynamic Range mode (HDR) and 4K video support at 30fps.

• 8MP front camera with fixed focus and f/2.0 aperture.

• 4000mAh battery with Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+ support

• Fingerprint sensor embedded in power button

• Stereo front-facing speakers, Dual amplifiers and Audio adapter with THX-certified DAC

• Razer Phone measures 158.5 x 77.7 x 8mm and weighs 197g

• 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, GPS/ GLONASS, USB Type-C and NFC support.

Razer Phone Price And Availability

The Razer Phone will be launched in the US and Europe on 17th November with prices starting from $700 (Rs. 45,160 roughly), €750 (Rs. 56,350 roughly) and £700 (Rs. 59,940 approx.), while pre-orders have already begun. with pre-orders starting today.

Moreover, 1,337 units of Razer Phone Special Edition bearing Razer’s iconic triple-headed green snake logo rather than the chrome triple-headed snake logo.

For those unknown, Razer Phone has been introduced as a GSM smartphone which means that those who are tied to their mobile carriers will need to wait for the company to launch a CDMA version.

Razer Phone Review

What we like about Razer Phone

• The 120 Hz refresh rate is a blessing if you’re looking for the best multimedia consumption as it enables smoother animations, without the struggles of image tearing or lag.

• While the design seems to be old school, as far as the display is concerned, it is aptly bright and offers unmatched viewing angles.

• The reason why Razer Phone has avoided the bezel-less trend is because of the high-quality stereo speakers and dedicated dual amplifiers. In order to extract the most volume as well as clarity out of the two speakers Dolby Atmos technology has also been infused for “true cinematic audio”.

• While Android 7.1.1 Nougat doesn’t offer the ‘pure feel’, there are quite a lot customisation that takes advantage of the hardware, like users can change the screen resolution as well as its refresh rate and an app called Game Booster will let them customize frame rates, resolution as well as processor clock speed on per-app basis.

• When it comes to battery backup, anything less than 4000mAh wouldn’t have sufficed and we love Razer Phone for that. Moreover, we also get the higher end Quick Charge 4+ support.

• Coming to its USP, the performance package that includes, SD 835, 8GB of RAM and 64Gb of expandable storage has been the success mantra in this segment and with more power under the hood, the device completely stands out in the hoard.

• The dual rear cameras work as icing on the cake as they offer class-leading results and in-demand features like Bokeh mode, beautification options, facial recognition etc. In nutshell, yes the rear sensors can be compared to that of iPhones.

• The front shooter is also no exception to greatness as it offers great low-light results as well as sharp color production.

What we didn’t like about Razer Phone

• There is no 3.5mm Audio jack and we will have to make do with the USB Type-C audio adapter (THX-certified) and 24-bit DAC.

• The Oreo update will not come before 2018.

• Despite the advantages of this bulky and rather dull design, we miss the ‘premium feel’ that other competitors offer.

Verdict

Available at $700, Razer Phone has come very close to becoming the perfect Android-powered flagship smartphone however, it’s the bulky design that asks for some compromise. Otherwise, while we have seen many other 8GB RAM smartphones recently, Razer Phone is indeed a device for gaming enthusiast that doesn’t compromise on camera capabilities and multimedia consumption.

Moreover, while Razer was looking for a gaming-focus smartphone, they have unintentionally produced a device for everyone.

P.S. Razer Phone can easily be termed as the ‘Bold But Not Beautiful’.