The Razer Phone 2 is the second iteration to its first-gen gaming-focused Razer Phone. The device comes with improved features, particularly in the aspects of overall body aesthetics and gaming performance. Designed for absolute smartphone gamers, the Razer Phone is one of the best gaming smartphone money can buy you in 2018, rivaling big sharks like the Xiaomi Black Shark Helo and Asus ROG Phone.
Razer Phone 2 Key Specifications
Dimension: 158.5 x 78.9 x 8.5 mm
Display: 5.72 inches LCD display with 2560 x 1440 resolution and 120Hz refresh rate
CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 845
Memory: 8GB
Storage: 64GB, 128GB option with satin finish model
MicroSD storage: Yes, up to 1TB
Screen size: 5.72 inches
Resolution: 2560 x 1440
Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0, USB-C
Battery: 4,000mAh
Size: 158.5 x 78.9 x 8.5 mm
Operating system: Android 8.1 Oreo
Design
The Razer Phone 2 retains the same aluminum frame, glass front covering, and box/rectangular brick building form of its predecessor. But this time, the Razer Phone 2 looks more visually appealing and built with unique design features meant to give it off as a gaming phone at first sight. The rear is now made of glass to allow the Razer Phone 2 charge wirelessly. To add, the Razer Chroma Logo on the rear is now RGB illuminated and supports breathing, spectrum, and static color profiles. The three-headed snake logo on the rear logo also doubles as a notification light and can also be customized to stay on at all time or only when the screen is active.
As an icing on the cake, the Razer Phone 2 now comes with IP67 certification which makes it resistant to water and dust, just like Xiaomi’s Black Shark 2. The top and bottom bezels of the device are occupied by the dual front-facing stereo speakers for loud, crisp, and balanced sound production.
Display
The Razer Phone 2 sports the same screen size in the same 16:9 aspect ratio as its predecessor but Razer has cranked up the brightness from 380 nits to 580 nits for improved visibility during outdoor usage. The 5.7-inch LCD display has a 2,560 x 1,440 pixels resolution and carries Corning’s Gorilla Glass 5. The 120Hz refresh rate of the display will also allow for smoother gaming and fluid usage when running basic operations on the device.
Processor and Storage
Powering the Razer Phone 2 is the same Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 system-on-chip on the first Razer Phone. Clock speed has been increased to max at 2.8GHz for faster gaming and processing. Handling graphics is the Adreno 630 GPU and the Android Oreo v8.1 is the out-of-the-box operating system. Razer , however, says the gaming flagship phone can be upgraded to the latest Android 9 Pie.
About storage, the Razer Phone 2 comes in a single variant with 8GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. There’s a “Rugged Satin” colour variant with 128GB internal storage, though. The built-in storage can, however, be beefed up to 512GB using the dedicated micro SD card slot.
To handle heat dissipation and thermal throttling on this device, Razer brings on a Vapor Chamber cooling system to reduce the phone’s temperature to a mild level during gaming and when running other demanding apps.
Camera
On the rear of this device is a dual camera set up made of two 12-megapixels sensor with the same aperture and pixel size as its predecessor Razer used Sony lenses with IMX sensors on the Razer gaming phone this time and the primary sensor has been engineered to support optical image stabilization while the secondary lens remains a 2x optical zoom lens.
Basically, it almost the same camera but with an improved interface and users should now get slightly better images and ability to record in 4K. The front-facing camera is an 8-megapixel sensor with f/2.0 aperture and ability to record 1080P videos.
Battery
The battery is impressive: 4,000mAh battery with wireless charging and support for Quick Charge 4.0 which charges the battery to about 50% in half an hour. The device also comes with a number of options to tone down battery consumption so users can get the most of their device. Refresh rate, for example, can be turned off for more battery power. And as mentioned earlier, the RGB illumination of the Three-snaked Razer logo can also be turned off to get more juice out of the battery.
Price
The Razer Phone 2 is available in Mirror Black and Rugged Satin colour options. The base Mirror Black variant costs $799 while the Rugged Satin coloured Razer Phone 2 cost $100 more than the base model, taking it’s price to $899.
