Razer Phone India Launch, Price, Specs, and Review

Credits: GSMArena

2017 has been a year of a lot of trends breaking for the Smartphone Industry. A lot of new entries and many new concepts. One of those new entries is the much anticipated Razer Phone, yes, you read it right. Razer, one of the big names in gaming has taken its first step quite successfully into the smartphone world.

Razer Phone marks the foray of Razer in the cut-throat smartphone industry. This definitely rings sweet bells for gamers. Razer is all about gaming, and it certainly carries the image with its new smartphone. How good is Razer with its first footing?

Let’s find out if Razer Phone does justice to the expectations.

Razer has not put much effort into titles and hence the smartphone goes by the name, ‘Razer Phone’, yeah, simple as that.  An Android, cut-out for gamers has been in making for quite a long time, but none to date has done well with the hype. Will Razer’s answer be on point? or It will be just another high-spec burden in the crowded smartphone space.

SuggestPhone’s take for Razer Phone will depend on a few simple but very important markers that make a smartphone a success or a flop. Let’s find out how Razer’s debutant does on those scales.

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Razer Phone: Design and Build

Razer Phone comes after Razer’s acquisition of not so popular smartphone manufacturer, NextBit. And Razer Phone’s design speaks volumes about that.

Razer Phone is a perfect rectangle with sharp edges. It appears just a simple, perfectly rectangular monolith. The device is full-metal with a matt black finish. It certainly looks like a military grade device with big bezels. Razer says that its intentional and is meant to provide rest place to thumbs while gaming in landscape mode, where most of the gaming happens. The bezels are fitted with speakers with each having an amp of its own, it is loud and clear with little distortion even at high volumes. It has Dolby Atmos, so you can adjust your sound and EQ quite easily. On the back, you’ll see a big Razer logo with a dual camera setup at the top corner. The camera cutout is pretty small and the device looks just like the gaming hardware, Razer prides itself about. Its super sturdy and primarily rectangular to its core. The phone looks sort of stealthy with that matt black finish. Resists fingerprints on its back and is without a doubt, not the most beautiful phone out there. It certainly is not very ergonomic and feels more on the uglier end, if you ask me.

Razer Phone: Display

Razer Phone sports the first 120Hz 5.72-inch Quad HD IGZO LCD display, which is backed by company’s custom ultra motion refreshing technology, very much like the Apple’s ProMotion display on the iPad Pro 10.5. It has a resolution of 1440 x 2560 pixels, 16:9 ratio (~515 ppi density). And we got to say, the display is the best thing about this smartphone. The higher frame rate does make the experience of using the phone feel more fluid. This is the sort of display adaptability that should eventually become standard on all mobile devices, helping us eke out more battery life through more responsive, self-adjusting power usage. But is that enough of a leap forward to justify the Razer Phone’s existence?

Razer Phone: Processor and RAM

This section is no surprise. The Razer Phone comes with top of the line specifications, very common with every other flagship out there. It has Snapdragon 835, coupled with a giant but not the first 8GB of RAM for heavy gaming. The GPU is the same Adreno 540, no upgrade there. Aside from that a slightly bigger RAM, we don’t find Razer doing anything different taking Razer Phone out of the normal space into the ‘Made for Gamers’ space. 

Razer Phone: Camera

Razer does its part to satisfy the shutterbugs with a dual camera setup with one 12MP sensor and f/1.8 while other with 13MP sensor and f/2.6. It has a dual-tone flash to back the camera. In the video department, the smartphone is capable of recording 2160p@30fps. On the front, the secondary sensor is an 8MP one. The camera is not a focus here (No pun intended!) It just for the sake of flagships with dual camera and does its part fairly but don’t expect it to be the best camera out there.

Razer Phone: Software

No big deal here too, the phone runs on near stock Android Nougat 7.1.1, with a promise of Oreo update in the first quarter of 2018. The phone uses Nova launcher prime and it provides a ton of optimisations with really smooth experience. We find the phone to be snappy and overall experience to be of flagship-grade. Thanks to that 120Hz display, the software experience, and animations look more fluid and swift. 

Razer Phone: Storage and Battery 

As for heavy gaming requires a big battery to last longer. Razer took care of that with a giant 4000mAh battery in the Razer Phone. The battery should certainly last more than a day on normal usage, but if you own one and you are a hardcore gamer, you’d find the battery life satisfactory. The phone comes with a standard 64GB of onboard storage with expandable storage via MicroSD. 

Razer Phone Price in India

Razer Phone is priced at $699 (Rs 45,200 approximately) and will be available for pre-order starting 3rd November in the US and Europe. We expect the price in India will be around Rs. 50000.

Razer Phone India Release Date

It will start shipping in the US and Europe from November 17 and officially there is no announcement regarding the India launch of Razer phone. We are expecting that India release date will be in the first quarter of next year.

Some Other Things You Should Know

The biggest yet most familiar downside is the loss of headphone jack and in my opinion, gaming requires that. Razer provides THX-certified USB-C audio adapter with 24-bit DAC for the audiophile in you. For gamers who want to tinker with the device, the Razer Phone comes with the Razer Game Booster app and the company prides itself on its “best-in-class thermal design” that minimises throttling to boost power and performance. 

Razer has also partnered up with gaming companies such as Tencent and Square Enix to bring optimised games which can fully utilize the Razer Phone’s capabilities, especially its 120Hz refresh rate. The phone does come in the most beautiful and extravagant packaging.

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Razer Phone Specifications:

Before jumping on to our final call, let’s take a look at the specifications of Razer Phone - 

Razer Phone: How it compares with other flagships?

With the $700 price tag, the Razer Phone enters the premium and flagship segment and finds itself in a very competitive spot due to the likes of Pixel 2 and iPhone X and LG V30. It pips itself against the brilliantly designed and powerful smartphones.Razer Phone has an Antutu score of 157103 which indicates that its performance might be on a slightly lower end compared to upcoming smartphone One Plus 5T with an Antutu Score of 159518 expected to be priced at 35000 in India. Though Razer claims the phone as 'Made for Gamers', we at Suggest Phone could not discover anything extraordinary in terms of specification apart from the all-new screen.

We simply can’t convince ourselves that this is a phone made “for gamers”. Even the gamers that like LED lights on their mouse pads, gear designs and hexagonal PC cases don’t really want all those elements in their phones. Most people are after the same thing from a phone: the sort of epic, glamorous, and ergonomic design of a Galaxy S8 or an iPhone X. We shouldn’t excuse ugly design by saying it’s “for gamers”. More importantly, Razer hasn’t done anything to truly elevate the Android gaming experience over its more seasoned competitors. Every current Android flagship is powered by the same Snapdragon 835 that Razer uses, OnePlus and others have already been selling 8GB phones for a while, and Razer’s software augmentations boil down to a Game Booster app that functions like a secondary settings menu. The 120Hz display is definitely a plus, a big one. But is that enough for you to pick it over the likes of Pixel 2 and Samsung S8?

Razer is a newbie in the smartphone industry and is yet to gain experience but at first attempt, this phone certainly does well if not bad. It executes Razer’s plans with its smartphone nicely and we definitely will look up to it as gains experience in this smartphone world. 

Razer Phone Review

What’s your take on the ‘Razer Phone’? How do you compare it with other flagships in the town? Do tell us on Facebook and make sure to follow us on Twitter for quality technical articles. Also, we are all years to answer your questions regarding smartphones and technology. Be sure to say Hi!