Early this year, Razer acquired Nextbit, makers of the cloud phone – the Nextbit Robin. The acquisition spurred rumors that Razer was going to release its own smartphone. Tonight, at an event in London the gaming manufacturer unveiled its first smartphone – the Razer Phone.
The design of the Razer Phone reminds you of a Sony Xperia phone with its large bezels; and a black Nextbit Robin with the button and camera placements. Its body is built of anodized aluminum and comes in thick at 8mm. It weighs 197g and like some Xperia phones, can stand on its own in portrait or landscape mode.
Razer Phone Specs
The highlight of the Razer Phone is its display. Supplied by SHARP, the 5.7” QHD IGZO screen is the first globally available smartphone with a 120Hz refresh rate. Razer calls it an Ultramotion Display and likens it to NVIDIA’s G-SYNC. No lags, no tearing, and no buffering, all for a smooth gaming experience. Surprisingly, the display is protected by Gorilla Glass 3.
Like most Android flagships this year, the Razer phone is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835. It comes with 8GB of RAM as standard and 64GB of expandable storage.
The Razer phone also joins the bandwagon by coming with dual rear cameras. One is a 12MP F/1.75 wide angle lens and the other is a 12MP F/2.6 telephoto lens with 2X zoom. Razer says the camera has features like portrait mode and seamless zoom. The front camera is an 8MP F/2.2 sensor.
For a phone targeted at gamers, it is necessary it packs a sufficiently large battery. Razer doesn’t disappoint and includes a 4,000mAh battery. It also comes with support for Quick Charge 4.0+, making it the first phone to ship with the new fast-charging technology with a supported charger included. Quick Charge 4.0+ means you can go from 0 to 85% in just 1 hour.
A great gaming experience is incomplete without great audio. For the Razer Phone, there are dual front-facing speakers. The speakers occupy the whole length where you would usually find the bezels. The speakers have dedicated amplifiers, Dolby Atmos, and are certified by THX, another of Razer’s acquisitions.
The phone doesn’t have an audio jack, so you either have to use Bluetooth headphones (Bluetooth 4.2 with AptX) or USB-C earphones. However, it comes with a 3.5mm to USB-C audio connector with a 24-bit DAC. There is a fingerprint scanner embedded in its power button and a USB-C port at the bottom. It also has NFC.
The Razer Phone runs Android 7.1.1 Nougat out of the box with a custom Razer version of the popular launcher, Nova Launcher Prime. Razer says the phone will receive an update to Oreo in Q1 2018.
The phone has a library of specially made games that take advantage of its Ultramotion Display. Some of the games announced during the launch include Tekken, Final Fantasy XV, and Arena of Valor. A brand new game called Ultra Hunt was also demoed at the launch.
READ MORE: Razer Unveils a New Laptop With Three Screens Dubbed Project Valerie
Price and Availability
The Razer phone will sell for $699. Pre-orders begin today and it will start shipping 17th of November. It will be exclusive to Microsoft Stores in the US and Canada, and Three Network in Europe.
There is also a special edition of the Razer Phone that has a green Razer logo instead of silver like the standard variant. There are only about 1000 units available and they will be sold in Razer stores, select Microsoft stores in San Francisco, and Three stores in Europe.
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