Razer Phone review: A compromised powerhouse By Android Police

This is the razor phone. Well I can't say: I expected this phone to come out, I can't say I am glad that it did so. If you somehow didn't already know, gaming company Racer bought out next bit makers of that cloud-based Robin phone we saw years ago, and while the racer phone takes a lot of the design cues from the Robin, it's built. Nothing like it. As you've probably already heard this phone is built like an absolute tank, it uses very nice premium materials. The phone feels great in the hand.

It's one of those phones, I feel comfortable using without a case and or a screen protector, and overall it really stands out from the rest of the phones out there. With it's a squared off sharp chocolate bar design, it's got racer branding on the back that I wish could light up. That would be so cool dual cameras right above that a 5.7 inch display up front sandwiched in between these giant speakers on the top and the bottom which I will get to in a little. Sadly, the phone doesn't have a headphone jack, which isn't all that surprising, but I do find it to be interesting, seeing as how this is supposed to be a phone for gaming and media consumption, but what it does have is expandable storage, which is nice to see, and it's got a side mounted fingerprint reader housed in the power button. This is something we've seen Sony do with some of their phones, and it's what I think Apple should have tried with the iPhone 10.

So it's not to completely get rid of touch ID at first I didn't think the scanner would be all that accurate and thought it had potential to be a bit of a hassle, but the complete opposite was what I experienced in terms of accuracy. It's pretty much spot-on. Almost every time and I got used to it right away, I liked it upon unlocking the phone you'll be greeted by none other than Nova Launcher. Yes, racer blew the socks off both myself and the rest of the customization freaks out there when they opted to go with Nova, which is arguably the best launcher on the market. Best known for its customization options, as for the rest of the software, everything is pretty much stock.

Aside from a few tweaks, it's a very clean and familiar experience, but the experience gets much better because of what this particular display is capable of. At a glance, the display looks very solid: it's IPS LCD, it's sharp. The colors are nice and fairly accurate, it's clean, but when you start scrolling around you'll notice, that things are a lot smoother and that's because this is a 120 Hertz display the first on any smartphone. Now, unfortunately, you won't get the full effect in this video, but trust me when I say if there were any phone that would be the king of straight butter. It would undoubtedly be the razor normal everyday tasks and things as little as opening up the app door and scrolling through Twitter are forever changed.

Thanks to this display and I really hope, manufacturers use 120 Hertz displays in their phones in 2018. It's something else, and I am definitely spoiled by it. Now, of course, this phone was geared towards gaming, which means it needs to be a great performer, and it is it'll play all of your normal games, no problem, and it even comes with some pre-loaded games that really show off what the phone is capable of. All of this is being run by the Snapdragon 835 processor, Arena, 540 GPU, a whopping 8 gigabytes of RAM and a massive 4000 William hour battery, it's safe to say that overall performance on this phone is really, really good. Now it's not blazing fast to the point where it'll just beat out every other Android phone out there, but because of that 120 hertz display it really takes things to the next level.

I will say that battery life isn't as good as I had hoped with that huge battery, but in comparison to other phones, I could average results around four and a half to five hours of screen on time with 120 Hertz enabled the phone also recharges very quickly, with quick charge for plus, and with this you can get from zero to 100% in no time now quickly. Touching on these speakers, there really isn't much to say other than these are the best speakers on any smartphone of 2017 they're, the loudest and most powerful. They sound super crisp and clear they sound great, and they should sound great, seeing as how they take up a big portion of the front of the phone. This takes me to consumption to another level. The user experience is great, watching videos, TV shows and movies from playing games with these speakers directed right at your face is awesome.

Unfortunately, though, it's not all good with a razor film. There are a couple of things that and while they may not be deal-breakers I'm, really just not a fan of first, the display doesn't get as bright as I'd like it to now, it's not super dim to the point where it becomes unusable outdoors, but I really wish it could be brighter than it is. Second, the volume buttons on the left there. These tiny dots that are nice and tactile, but, like I, said, they're, tiny and the placement is a little too low. Definitely would have preferred a volume rocker.

Now, one of the biggest downsides of this phone, in my opinion, has to be its vibration. Motor. There are a handful of phones out there with great solid motors that tie-in with the user experience very nicely. Then there are phones that have some pretty sad and cheesy motors and the one on the razor phone yeah. It's pretty stinking bad check this out, yeah at first I thought the phone was damaged or something but nope.

So then I just assumed that it was a very small motor and that was confirmed in a teardown video by jury-rigged everything for some this may be considered nitpicking, but for a phone that is built this well, it's pretty sad that it sounds like a rattle when somebody's calling you or your alarm goes off. Oh, and the cameras, the cameras aren't that good either. This is what holds the phone back the most, and it's what will end up being the deciding factor for a lot of people now in the right conditions, you can get some decent, looking pictures, it's not like they're, absolutely unusable or anything, but compared to the rest of the competition and even some phones that cost less than the razor phone. You might just want to forget about this phone. If you take a lot of pictures now, you can grab the modded Google, camera APK and just use that to get some improved results, but I just feel like it's an extra step that users shouldn't have to go through.

But if you're not a heavy picture taker- and you only need the occasional snapshot, then this is definitely a phone. You should try out sure it doesn't have a bezel S design, and it may not be as pretty as other phones. It isn't water-resistant, there's no headphone jack and there's no wireless charging. But what you're getting is a beast of a phone wrapped up in some very solid hardware for a price. That's well below some competition, the 120 Hertz display- and these speakers are really things you have to try out in person, tie that in with expandable storage, a huge battery superfast charging, and you're in for a treat with a razor phone.

It's not a phone for everyone, but it happens to be one of my favorite phones of the year. I, definitely think it's worth the look and I can't wait to see what razor has in store moving forward. So what do you guys think of the razor phone? Let us know your thoughts by dropping them down below in the comments. As always, we love to hear your feedback, but anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the video if you did feel free to hit that like button subscribe to the Android police channel, if you haven't already that does it for me. I'll talk to you guys later, and thank you so much for watching you.

Source : Android Police