Razer — the company that has become a benchmark of sorts when it comes to gaming — has launched its new gaming smartphone, the Razer Phone 2. The phone is an obvious successor to the Razer Phone 1 launched last year. Compared to its predecessor, the Razer Phone 2 comes with improved design, upgraded specifications and some new unique features.
The gaming devices maker has been pegging its smartphones more superior to gaming. That does become an uphill task though, considering that most flagships these days come with top-of-the-line specifications. Still there are companies like Razer — and more recently ROG — which are trying to carve out a niche, in a manner similar to how they did it in the PC business.
The phone now features a glass back instead of the metal, giving it a premium look and enabling wireless charging. The phone is IP67 certified for dust and water resistance. On the back, there’s Razer logo with RGB effect that can be customised.
To differentiate itself, it comes with a 5.7-inch IGZO LCD display by Sharp, producing 2560 x 1440 pixels screen resolution and supports 16:9 aspect ratio. It offers a refresh rate of 120Hz and carries support for HDR and DCI-P3 color gamut. That refresh rate is something which you might not generally encounter in flagships, due to multiple other feature-laden apps. The Razer Phone 2 display is protected by a layer of Gorilla Glass 5 on top.
Under the hood, the Snapdragon 845 flagship chipset powers the phone, coupled with 8GB of RAM. There are two internal storage options — 64GB and 128GB, with support for expandable storage. Razer has included graphite-based vapor chamber cooling system for temperature control.
As for the camera, the device comes with 12-megapixel dual camera setup on the back. It includes a wide-angle 12-megapixel Sony IMX363 with f/1.7 aperture as the main sensor and a 12-megapixel Sony IMX351 telephoto lens with f/2.6 aperture. On the front side, the handset is equipped with an 8-megapixel fixed focus camera.
The Razer Phone 2 is equipped with Dolby Atmos support for its dual front-firing speakers which is equipped with a dedicated amplifier. The connectivity features on the device include 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC, GPS and USB Type-C port.
The phone runs a near-stock version of Android 8.1 Oreo operating system and the company has promised an update to Android Pie at the earliest. Razer says that the phone is the only one that supports Netflix certified HDR video with Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound.
The handset is fuelled by a 4,000mAh battery, similar to the original model. It is equipped with support for Quick Charge 4+ and 15W wireless charging. The company claims that the phone can offer nearly 10 hours of on-screen time at the display refresh rate of 120Hz.
The Mirror Glass edition is priced at $799 while the Stain Glass edition with 128GB storage costs $899. The pre-orders will begin at 12:01 AM PT in the U.S on Oct. 11. The handset will be also get launched in Asia-Pacific and European markets in the near future.
