Razer Phone: 5 Things to Know

The Razer Phone is real, it’s packing impressive firsts and it’s only $699. The new Razer phone isn’t a gaming phone, but it is a gamer’s phone. Here’s what that means and what you need to know about the new Razer smartphone.

You get a 120hz display a massive battery, 8GB of RAM and the latest Qualcomm 835 processor. The Razer Phone looks like they shrunk down a Razer Laptop in the all the right ways, though there is no Chroma. Unlike most phones, Razer designed this one to be used in landscape mode, placing the buttons so you don’t accidentally press them while you are gaming or watching a movie.

Here’s what you need to know about the Razer Phone, and why it’s ready to compete with the iPhone 8 Plus, Galaxy S8 and top smartphones.

Razer Phone Release Date

The Razer Phone release date is November 17th. It is coming to the North America and Europe and pre-orders go live right as you are reading this.  If you buy it right away, you get a special edition with the green Razer logo on the back. The standard version will include a silver logo like you find on the Razer Blade Stealth.

Razer Phone Price

The Razer Phone is $699 and it is available from the Razer Store in U.S. and at Three. In the U.S. you can buy it outright. It is not on sale at any U.S. carriers at this time.

Razer Phone Features

The Razer Phone is the first phone to use a 120Hz Ultramotion display. While most phones today refresh at 60hz, the Razer Phone does 120Hz which delivers a faster refresh for your gaming and every day use. This uses tech that is similar to gSync to allow the display and processors to talk faster and deliver this higher rate. The display is a 5.7-inch 2K IGZO display with a wide color gamut.

You get support for Dolby Atmos and the phone is is THX certified. There is no 3.5mm jack, but there is an included adapter that has a THX certified DAC to deliver better sound when you plug in headphones. There are two front facing stereo speakers that Razer tells us are very loud without losing audio quality.

Inside is a Snapdragon 835 and 8GB of RAM that lead the powerful specs. It comes with 64GB UFS internal storage and there is a microSD card slot to add more storage. There is also a 4,000mAh battery and this phone supports QuickCharge 4.0. That means you can charge up to 50% of that huge battery in 30 minutes. Everything you need to fast charge is in the box.

Razer packs in a dual 12MP camera system on the back, similar to what you would find on the iPhone 8 Plus or Note 8 with a wide angle and a telephoto lens. This can seamlessly zoom between the two lenses. Razer can add in support for a portrait mode later, but for now is focused on delivering good image quality.

The phone charges with USB C. There are volume buttons on the middle of one side and a fingerprint scanner and power button on the other side. The placement is towards the center of the phone so that you can hold it in landscape mode while watching a movie or playing a game and not worry about hitting a button.

Razer Phone Software

On the software side the phone is running Android 7.1.1 and it comes with a free premium version of Noca Launcher. There will be a Razer Theme Store that delivers gaming themes for the phone with themes that change your icons and system style to match popular games. Razer is leveraging contacts in the gaming industry to bring a lot of cool themes.

From a gaming perspective you have the power to play Final Fantasy XV at 2K at 60 frames per second or higher in the palm of your hand. Games like Gear Club and others will be ready to go full blast on this powerful hardware. There is a Razer Game Booster app that can optimize the phone for games to delivery the FPS and quality you want.

Razer Phone Specs

There’s a good chance you want to know about the specs of this phone, and we have a full set of Razer Phone specs that you can check out and compare to your current phone.

Processor	Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 835 Mobile Platform
System Memory	8GB dual channel (LPDDR4, 1600MHz)
Storage	Internal: 64GB UFS External: microSD (class 10, 2TB max.)
Display	5.72-inch IGZO LCD 1440 x 2560 120 Hz, Wide Color Gamut (WCG) Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Rear Cameras	12MP AF f1.75 Wide 12MP AF f2.6 Zoom Dual PDAF Dual tone, dual LED flash
Front Camera	8MP FF f2.0
Sound	Stereo Front facing speakers Dual Amplifiers Audio Adapter with THX certified DAC
Power	4000 mAh lithium-ion battery Qualcomm QuickCharge 4.0+
Wireless	802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Bluetooth 4.2 NFC
Bands	GSM: Quad-band GSMUMTS: B1/2/3/4/5/8 LTE:B1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/17/19/20/25/26/28/29/30/66 TDD LTE: B38/39/40/41TD-SCDMA: B34/39
Size	158.5 x 77.7 x 8 mm 6.24 x 3.06 x 0.31 in 197g
Android Version	Nougat 7.1.1

With support for MicroSD cards, you can expand your storage up to 2GB. The Razer Phone will be on sale in the Razer Store in the U.S. later today.

iPhone 8 Plus

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The iPhone 8 Plus isn't an afterthought by Apple. It's definitely not the best, but it is the best iPhone X alternative you can buy and stay on the iOS platform.  You get a great looking 5.5-inch display with True-Tone technology, Portrait mode photos with the rear camera, wireless charging, fast charging and the same super fast A11 Bionic processor as the iPhone X. You also get TouchID, that is not coming to the iPhone X, so if you love buttons it's a plus for the iPhone X.  Like the iPhone X, the iPhone 8 Plus includes a dual camera system on the back so you can use all the cool new Portrait Lighting and Portrait Mode features to take stunning pictures. You can't use these on the front camera of the iPhone 8 Plus, and you don't get FaceID.  One catch is that the iPhone 8 Plus is much larger than the iPhone X, despite having a smaller screen. If the iPhone 8 Plus is too big, our next pick is the best option for you to get a new iPhone and skip the iPhone X.  You can buy the iPhone 8 Plus at Apple and from major carriers. Here are the best iPhone 8 Plus deals.

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