Event Coverage

Hands-on with the Razer Phone: Big bezels, big sound, big ambitions

By Koh Wanzi - 6 Nov 2017

Design language & phone features

Design language & phone features

Design-wise, the phone is reminiscent of Sony’s Xperia models, which sport a similar no-nonsense angular design. Eagle-eyed observers will also pick out similarities to the Nextbit Robin, which featured the same straight-laced aesthetic and a fingerprint sensor integrated into the power button.

Razer Phone

Nevertheless, Razer SVP Tom Moss tells us that the phone drew more inspiration from Razer’s own Blade laptops, and it’s not difficult to see the resemblance when you look at the chrome triple-headed snake logo on the back.

Razer Phone

However, compared to glamorous, glass-backed rivals like the Samsung Galaxy Note8 and iPhone X, the Razer Phone can look almost boring. But I’ve always favored metal over glass, and the aluminum body of the Razer Phone feels solid and reassuring, with a nice heft to it. That said, this is also a rather wide phone, so it doesn't lend itself as well to single-handed use.

It’s plain compared to some of the competition, but there’s a certain elegance to its simplicity. The matte black coating also staves off fingerprints quite well, and that’s always a welcome thing to have.

Nevertheless, some people will no doubt take offense at the sizeable bezels at the top and bottom of the screen, especially considering that most 2017 flagships have favored nearly bezel-free designs.

But unlike those on the Google Pixel 2, the bezels on the Razer Phone aren’t gratuitous and actually serve a functional purpose. They house the dual front-facing stereo speakers, which may ironically be one of the best features of the phone.

Razer Phone

Each speaker is powered by its own dedicated amplifier, and they’re more than capable of filling a room with your tunes. They produce rich and full-bodied sound, and may very well be one of the best phone speakers out there.

There’s even support for Dolby Atmos, which provides more accurate positional audio. However, this particular implementation of Atmos is supposedly optimized for things like games, and less so for Netflix and its titles that support Atmos (these have been tuned more for home theater setups).

It’s not just the speakers that have gotten a boost however, and the Razer Phone ships with a THX-certified USB-C-to-headphone adapter. It looks like we’re discarding the 3.5mm jack with impunity now, and headphone adapters are going to be the new normal.

Razer’s adapter isn’t just a regular one though, and it also comes with a 24-bit DAC to pump better-sounding tunes to your headphones.

Razer Phone adapter

But what if you wanted to game on your headphones and keep the 4,000mAh battery juiced up at the same time? Razer hasn't seemed to have thought of that, and it seems counter-intuitive that a phone for gamers wouldn't easily allow you to plug into the wall and your headphones for long gaming sessions.

One saving grace is the inclusion of Quick Charge 4+, the first phone to do so. Razer says the phone can go from zero to 85 per cent in one hour, so you should have minimal downtime.

And even though you might expect a phone for gamers to come with a ton of storage, the Razer Phone is available in just the 64GB capacity. The microSD expansion slot on the right will make up for any storage shortfalls, taking cards up to 2TB. The microSD tray also doubles as the nano-SIM slot, as seen in the picture below.

Razer Phone

When it comes to the camera, Razer falls short of what we’ve come to expect from flagship phones. It uses a dual-camera setup comprising a wide-angle and telephoto lens with 2x zoom, but the camera app is still quite sparse at the moment, with no manual controls or custom filters. There's no OIS built into the camera either, and Razer has gone with EIS instead.

It’s also missing features like slow-motion recording and portrait mode, but the good thing is that these and more will be arriving in the form of software updates over the next couple of months. Razer apparently designed the camera app with ease-of-use in mind, so that partly explains how spartan it is.

Razer Phone camera

However, what the phone could really use are some image quality improvements. In the short time I’ve had with the phone so far, I’ve already become annoyed by the obvious delay between when you hit the shutter and when the phone actually takes a picture.

For instance, I’d line up a shot of an empty street and hit the shutter button, only to have the camera take its time and take a picture when a car had zoomed into the frame. This is mostly present in low-light shots, and the speed improves when you get better lighting.

But overall, image quality was mediocre, and imaging doesn't seem like it is going to be a particular strength of the phone.

To Razer’s credit, the phone ships with stock Android Nougat 7.1.1, with Android Oreo slated to arrive sometime in Q1 2018. The interface is blissfully clean, and the only skinning you get are small things like the green brightness adjustment bar in the notification shade.

Another thing I really like is the inclusion of Nova Launcher Prime by default. This is a special Razer Edition version of the launcher with a dark menu and green settings icons, but the rest of it is good’ ol Nova.

This puts plenty of customization options within reach, and you can customize grid sizes on your home screen and drawer, resize widgets and icons, and pick your transition effects.

For something simpler, there’s the Razer Theme store, which is stocked with ready-made themes for specific games. Applying a theme from here will switch out your wallpaper and skin your icons, so it’s quick way to get a new look.

All things considered, this is a decent first attempt from Razer. It falls short conspicuously on certain fronts, such as the camera. And for a phone designed expressly for gamers, it lacks a notable piece of performance hardware, such as an especially powerful chip that's a cut above what the competition is offering. But it attempts to make its case with a compelling visual and audio experience and strategic partnerships, in addition to a nice stock Android experience. 

It'll be going up against contenders like the LG V30, Samsung Galaxy Note8, and Huawei Mate 10 Pro, which means it's got a tough battle to fight. At the end of the day, it may be its surprisingly palatable price that helps it out the most.

 

Price and availability

The phone will cost US$699 and will be available to buy on 17 November in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Denmark and Sweden. Customers in launch countries can also reserve the phone on Razer’s website. And as a nod to its fans, Razer is making just 1,337 units of a special limited edition model with the Razer logo in its original bright green. 

There’s no news yet on local price and availability yet, but we’ll update once we know more.

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