Trying the Razer Phone By Austin Evans

- Hey guys, this is Austin, and today I'm here with something just a little bit different. This is the Razer phone. So as you guys can probably tell, we're here at the Razer HQ where we get to do an exclusive unboxing of the new Razer phone that was just announced. So the idea here is that this is going to be a phone that is meant for gamers. So not only does it have a pretty interesting screen, which we'll discuss in a minute, but it has crazy speakers, and you can also see it is kind of built like a tank, look at that! So if you guys are familiar with Nextbit, Razer purchased them a little over a year ago, and you can see a lot of that DNA in the Razer phone. So it's very sort of squared off, but it also has a nice sort of metal texture, which feels exactly like the sort of finish that they have on their laptops.

So if you take a look at the phone, you'll see that it does have fairly large bezels, although that does house the dual front firing speakers, but what's really impressive about this is the display. It has a 5.8 inch 2560 by 1440p panel. What's really interesting is this can run at a full 120 hertz. Before we get too far into it though, let's see what else comes in the box. So we get some paperwork on the Razer phone, we also get the power adapter, so this phone is using USB-C, however what it doesn't have is a headphone jack.

So to be fair, they do include a USB-C headphone adapter in the box, and supposedly it's going to be pretty good with a 24 bit DAC, but the problem is, if you wanna actually play a game and listen to headphones, you're going to be doing something like this. It's not a deal breaker, but for a gaming phone, it's a little bit goofy. However, what is cool is the speakers that are built into the phone. Hey guys, this is Austin. This is the Google Pixel 2 and this is the Pixel 2 XL.

That's pretty loud. So yeah, I think it's actually pretty safe to say this is probably one of the loudest phones I've ever heard. I would still like to have a headphone jack, but that's a decent compromise. So just playing with the phone for a few minutes, I can immediately tell that the UltraMotion display actually does make a pretty big difference. So the idea here is that while it is a high resolution panel, it also can run it up to that 120 hertz refresh rate.

Basically all phones that you buy today are running at 60 hertz, which has been standard for a long time, but once you step up to 120 hertz, it actually is a lot smoother. So for basic stuff like web browsing or scrolling through menus, you can see that it does look a lot more fluid. Where you're really gonna see the advantage is in games. So for example here in Riptide Renegade, we're running anywhere between 90 to 100 frames per second, and because the display is not only going to be variable refresh rate, but it also can run up to 120 frames, we're seeing all of the performance here. I've gotta say, it actually does look noticeably smoother than a normal phone.

It's maybe not the biggest difference in the world, but you do notice that little bit of extra fluidity. Any game that has an unlocked frame rate right now will work out of the box on the Razer phone with these higher refresh rates, but even if it is going to be locked at 60 hertz, you're still going to get the benefits of having that variable refresh rate. So for example, if the frame rate drops a little bit lower, the screen is going to stay with it, exactly like something like FreeSync or G-Sync works on the desktop. Inside, the Razer phone has about as high end specs as you would imagine. So it has a Snapdragon 835 processor, a pretty impressive eight gigabytes of RAM, as well as 64 gigs of storage, and you can expand that via microSD.

And since this is a phone that's meant for gaming, it does have a pretty sizeable 4,000mAh battery, and that's backed up with Qualcomm's Quick Charge 4.0+, which should recharge the battery by about 50% in 30 minutes. As far as cameras go, around back you get a pair of 12 megapixel shooters, one wide angle, and one telephoto. So somewhat similar to the iPhone, what you're getting here, you can get a pretty decent wide shot, but if you zoom in a little bit, it switches automatically to the telephoto. Just considering the world. - Hey Austin, this is Razer.

- Boom. Got that Mark L. action. I can't judge the camera too much just yet, but it seems to be pretty decent, as long as you have good light like this. Now one thing I will say is that it would be nice to have a button to switch between the wide angle and the telephoto.

Right now you zoom in on the camera app, and it automatically switches. So it does have an eight megapixel front facing camera, but it looks a little bit soft. The Razer phone is available for pre-order starting today, and will be shipping on November 17th for $700. So this guy's going to ship unlocked, and will work on GSM carriers such at AT&T and T-Mobile. Now $700 is definitely a lot, but considering the specs, and especially considering just how good the screen and speakers are, it might be worth a look if you're interested in gaming, which you know, if you want a Razer phone, you probably are.

Anyway, what do you guys think about the Razer phone? Let me know in the comments below, and I will catch you in the next one.

Source : Austin Evans