Razer Phone 2 Review - Going Against the Grain

**Razer Phone 2 Review: A Detailed Look at Design, Features, and Performance**

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**Introduction**

Hello everyone! Lawn here from Android Authority. Today, I’m excited to dive into the Razer Phone 2, the successor to last year’s Razer Phone. This phone aims to address some of the issues that users had with its predecessor while adding new features. The Razer Phone 2 is a phone that really stands out and goes against the grain in terms of design and functionality.

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**Design**

Let’s start by talking about the design of the Razer Phone 2. If you’re familiar with last year’s model, you’ll notice that it retains many of the same features, but with a few tweaks. The phone comes in at $799 to $800, and for that price, it packs some serious hardware under the hood.

One of the standout features of the Razer Phone 2 is its IP67 certification, which means it can survive being dropped in water or accidentally flushed down the toilet. Additionally, this year’s model introduces wireless charging with Qi compatibility, allowing you to use any Qi-compatible charger or purchase Razer’s own RGB-lit charger for an extra $100.

Now, let’s talk about the design itself. The Razer Phone 2 is a black rectangular slab, which is quite different from the curved designs we see on phones like the Galaxy S9 or Pixel 3. While I personally prefer more rounded corners and smoother edges, there are aspects of this phone’s design that I really like.

One of those features is the large speaker grilles on the front, which house dual front-firing speakers. These speakers deliver an impressively loud and balanced sound, with no overemphasis on bass or treble—a common issue with other phones’ front-facing speakers, such as the Pixel 3.

Another design element I appreciate is the new RGB logo on the back, featuring Razer’s signature three-headed snake. This not only looks cool but also serves as a notification indicator. However, it’s important to note that this feature doesn’t offer much utility beyond aesthetics and branding.

The phone has a glass back, which enables wireless charging, and the camera sensors are perfectly centered, making the phone lay flat on surfaces without wobbling. I do have one criticism of the design: the power button is quite recessed, making it difficult to find by feel when in your pocket or on a table.

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**Hardware Specifications**

Moving on to hardware, the Razer Phone 2 boasts some impressive specs for its price point. It features a Snapdragon 845 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 64GB of internal storage with a microSD card slot for expandable storage. The phone also comes with a 4000mAh battery, which provides solid battery life.

One area where the Razer Phone 2 falls short, in my opinion, is its internal storage. While 64GB might be sufficient for everyday use on other phones, it’s a bit limiting for a gaming-focused device like this one, where apps and games can quickly eat up that space. I would have liked to see at least 128GB of internal storage.

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**Display**

Now, let’s talk about the display—a key feature of the Razer Phone 2. This phone has a 16:9 aspect ratio, which is less common in today’s market compared to taller, narrower displays. The screen is bright and visible outdoors, addressing one of the main complaints from last year’s model.

The standout feature of this display is its 120Hz refresh rate, which makes everything look incredibly smooth. Swiping through Android or playing games at 120FPS feels absolutely seamless. While the phone defaults to 90Hz for battery savings, I’ve found that running it at 120Hz doesn’t drain the battery significantly, offering around 5 hours of screen-on time.

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**Software Experience**

The Razer Phone 2 runs Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box, with some custom theming and UI elements in Razer’s colors. The default launcher is Nova Launcher, which offers a lot of customization while maintaining a stock-like feel.

One major disappointment with this phone is that it doesn’t come with Android Pie, despite being released after other flagships like the Pixel 3. This omission feels like a missed opportunity to gain a competitive edge over other devices running older versions of Android.

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**Camera Performance**

Now, let’s dive into the camera performance, which unfortunately didn’t impress me much. The Razer Phone 2 has a rear dual-camera setup with a 12MP standard-angle lens and a 12MP telephoto zoom lens for 2x optical zoom. The front-facing camera is an 8MP shooter that supports 1080p video at 60fps, which is great for self-vlogging.

While the cameras have been improved over last year’s model, I still found the image quality lacking. Colors come out muted and washed out, with poor dynamic range and detail in highlights and shadows, especially in low-light conditions. The photos also have a green tinge or color cast that makes them look unnatural.

Portrait mode is another area where the camera falls short. The bokeh effect doesn’t look convincing, particularly on the front-facing camera, which lacks dynamic range. Despite these drawbacks, I have to give credit where it’s due: the phone’s front-facing camera does support 1080p video at 60fps, which is great for vloggers.

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**Overall Impression**

Despite its shortcomings in software and camera performance, the Razer Phone 2 is still a standout device in many ways. It offers excellent gaming performance, a stunning 120Hz display, and impressive specs all around. If you’re in the market for a phone that excels in mobile gaming or simply want a device that goes against the grain with its design, the Razer Phone 2 is worth considering.

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**Conclusion**

In conclusion, the Razer Phone 2 is a solid device that checks many of the right boxes for gaming enthusiasts. Its high refresh-rate display and beefy hardware make it a top choice for mobile gaming, even if you’ll want to avoid using it as your primary camera. If you’re coming from last year’s Razer Phone, I don’t think this upgrade is worth it, but for others, especially those who love gaming, the Razer Phone 2 is definitely worth looking into.

Thanks for watching! Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and check out our website for more in-depth coverage. If you enjoyed the video, please give us a thumbs up and share it with your friends. I’ll see you all in the next video!

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"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's going on everyone lawn here from Android Authority and in front of me I have the razor phone too this is the successor to last year's razor phone and the razor phone to improves on some of the things that people complain about with last year's razor phone and also adds in a couple of new features and the razor phone too is a phone that I consider to be a phone that's not afraid to go against the grain and I'll explain what I mean by that in a second but the original phone too is priced at $799 or 800 bucks and for that 800 bucks you're getting some really beefy specs you have a snapdragon 845 processor 8 gigabytes of RAM 64 gigs of internal storage with a micro SD card slot a four thousand milliamp hour battery and new to the razor phone this year is ip67 certification and you guys already know what this means this means you've been dropped in the pool drop it in the toilet and it will survive also new to the razor phone is it now has wireless charging qi wireless charging which means you can use any Qi compatible wireless charger of your choice but razor also sells their own wireless charger which lights up RGB which you can purchase for an additional hundred dollars I think the only thing that razor sort of skimped out on is the internal storage 64 gigabytes is usually more than enough for me on any other smartphone but for a phone that is centered around gaming where you might be downloading a lot of games which will eat at your internal storage pretty quickly 64 gigs seems a little bit low it does have the micro SD card slot for expandable storage but I think this phone definitely should have had a hundred and twenty eight gigabytes internally at the very least so here's what I mean when I say the razor phone tube goes against the grain if you look at the razor phone to next to a Galaxy S nine of pixel three or really any other smartphone on the market it looks very different instead of being this curvy design with rounded corners the razor phone to is just a black rectangular sharp slab it's pretty much the same design as last year's razor phone the only exception here is that it now has a glass back which is they've enabled the wireless charging and the design of the razor phone - is not my favorite I typically prefer my phones to be more curvy I like designs of phones like the pixel 3 and the Galaxy S 9 or even iPhone 10s a lot better you may feel a little bit differently about it but that's just how I feel about this particular design there are certain elements of it though that I do like I like the large speaker grilles on the front for the dual front firing speakers which sound incredibly loud by the way and it also delivers a very even and balanced sound there's no overemphasis on bass or treble which is the problem that I had with the pixel 3 speakers I thought those were a little bit flat and also not very loud for front-facing speakers so I like the speakers on the razor phone - a lot better I also like the new RGB logo on the back for the three-headed snake you can adjust it and make it static make it breathing or have it cycle through a whole spectrum of colors and aside from just looking really cool it doesn't have a ton of utility you can use it for notifications and stuff like that but it's really just meant to make it look more like a gaming product and it certainly does do that so I like the new RGB logo I also like that they've centered the camera sensors on the back there is a pretty sizable camera bulge but because the cameras are perfectly centered it doesn't wobble when you have it laying flat on a table or desk the only other thing that I don't like about the razor phone twos design is how recessed the power button is I do like that the fingerprint sensor is integrated into the power button and I think that's something that more manufacturers should do but because the power button is so recessed it's actually really hard to find by feel when it's in your pocket or when you're just trying to wake the phone up when it's on a table or desk just to check your notifications so one of the biggest selling points of the original razor phone and the razor phone - is the hundred and twenty Hertz display so this is pretty much the same display as last year's razor phone but razor has made this display brighter so it's actually visible outdoors now which was one of the big complaints about last year's model but this is a pretty traditional smartphone display it doesn't have an so if you don't like notches there you go and it's also sixteen by nine instead of that taller and narrow aspect ratio that we're seeing on a bunch of other smart phones but the hundred and twenty Hertz display is still just as incredible as ever everything just looks so silky smooth and it's awesome for gaming especially if you're playing one of the hundred and twenty FPS supported titles which there are actually a pretty good selection of so those games are extremely fun and even just swiping and scrolling through Android is a lot more enjoyable just because of how silky smooth everything looks and I've ran this display at 120 Hertz out of the box it does default to 90 Hertz which is probably for battery saving purposes but I've had no issues with battery life even with running this display at 120 Hertz full time I'm still getting a pretty consistent 5 hours of screen on time but I'm pretty sure if you turn the refresh rate down to 90 Hertz or even 60 Hertz you'll probably squeeze out even more battery life there's no real surprises with the software on the razor phone - it's running basically a stock build of Android 8.1 Oreo but some of the system UI elements and the default apps have been themed with Razer colors it's also running Nova Launcher as the default launcher which gives you a very stock like look and feel but it offers a ton more customization I would say the biggest disappointment with the software on the razor phone 2 is that it's not running Android Pi out of the box and I feel like this would have given the rigid phone to a big competitive advantage over a lot of other smartphones because there aren't a ton of smartphones out there right now that are running Android Pi speaking of disappointments I wasn't a big fan of the cameras on the razor phone - and supposedly they're much improved over last year's there's a phone and maybe I've just been spoiled by the pixel threes picture quality but I wasn't very impressed by the images on the razor phone - you have to 12 megapixel cameras on the rear one standard angle and one telephoto zoom lens for 2 X optical zoom and then you have an 8 megapixel camera on the front that now supports 1080p video at 60 frames per second which is really great if you're into self vlogging but the image quality is okay the colors come out a little bit muted and washed out to me and dynamic range is also not very good you get very little detail in the highlights and shadows and that becomes even more visible when you're shooting in low-light the photos from the main camera also have this really weird green tinge or color cast of them which makes photos look very unnatural and very unattractive portrait mode on this camera is also one of the most artificial looking portrait modes that I've seen on a smartphone in a while the bokeh effect just doesn't really look that convincing to me especially on the front-facing camera and the front-facing camera also lacks a ton of dynamic range despite the bad camera this is still a really great smartphone you're getting a very beefy spec sheet a hundred and twenty Hertz display that looks amazing and it also doesn't have a notch for all well under $1000 and if you're really big into mobile gaming this is the perfect phone to do it with now if you're coming from the original RAZR phone I don't think this is worth the upgrade I don't think the changes are significant enough but as an upgrade in general it's a phone that's definitely worth looking into it pretty much checks all the right boxes it has great performance a great display pretty good battery life just don't buy this phone for the camera and I think you'll be perfectly happy with your purchase but that's it for this review I hope you guys enjoyed it if you did give it a thumbs up I definitely appreciate it subscribe to the channel down below and also check the website for more in-depth coverage and Jordan 30.com and I will talk to you guys in the next videowhat's going on everyone lawn here from Android Authority and in front of me I have the razor phone too this is the successor to last year's razor phone and the razor phone to improves on some of the things that people complain about with last year's razor phone and also adds in a couple of new features and the razor phone too is a phone that I consider to be a phone that's not afraid to go against the grain and I'll explain what I mean by that in a second but the original phone too is priced at $799 or 800 bucks and for that 800 bucks you're getting some really beefy specs you have a snapdragon 845 processor 8 gigabytes of RAM 64 gigs of internal storage with a micro SD card slot a four thousand milliamp hour battery and new to the razor phone this year is ip67 certification and you guys already know what this means this means you've been dropped in the pool drop it in the toilet and it will survive also new to the razor phone is it now has wireless charging qi wireless charging which means you can use any Qi compatible wireless charger of your choice but razor also sells their own wireless charger which lights up RGB which you can purchase for an additional hundred dollars I think the only thing that razor sort of skimped out on is the internal storage 64 gigabytes is usually more than enough for me on any other smartphone but for a phone that is centered around gaming where you might be downloading a lot of games which will eat at your internal storage pretty quickly 64 gigs seems a little bit low it does have the micro SD card slot for expandable storage but I think this phone definitely should have had a hundred and twenty eight gigabytes internally at the very least so here's what I mean when I say the razor phone tube goes against the grain if you look at the razor phone to next to a Galaxy S nine of pixel three or really any other smartphone on the market it looks very different instead of being this curvy design with rounded corners the razor phone to is just a black rectangular sharp slab it's pretty much the same design as last year's razor phone the only exception here is that it now has a glass back which is they've enabled the wireless charging and the design of the razor phone - is not my favorite I typically prefer my phones to be more curvy I like designs of phones like the pixel 3 and the Galaxy S 9 or even iPhone 10s a lot better you may feel a little bit differently about it but that's just how I feel about this particular design there are certain elements of it though that I do like I like the large speaker grilles on the front for the dual front firing speakers which sound incredibly loud by the way and it also delivers a very even and balanced sound there's no overemphasis on bass or treble which is the problem that I had with the pixel 3 speakers I thought those were a little bit flat and also not very loud for front-facing speakers so I like the speakers on the razor phone - a lot better I also like the new RGB logo on the back for the three-headed snake you can adjust it and make it static make it breathing or have it cycle through a whole spectrum of colors and aside from just looking really cool it doesn't have a ton of utility you can use it for notifications and stuff like that but it's really just meant to make it look more like a gaming product and it certainly does do that so I like the new RGB logo I also like that they've centered the camera sensors on the back there is a pretty sizable camera bulge but because the cameras are perfectly centered it doesn't wobble when you have it laying flat on a table or desk the only other thing that I don't like about the razor phone twos design is how recessed the power button is I do like that the fingerprint sensor is integrated into the power button and I think that's something that more manufacturers should do but because the power button is so recessed it's actually really hard to find by feel when it's in your pocket or when you're just trying to wake the phone up when it's on a table or desk just to check your notifications so one of the biggest selling points of the original razor phone and the razor phone - is the hundred and twenty Hertz display so this is pretty much the same display as last year's razor phone but razor has made this display brighter so it's actually visible outdoors now which was one of the big complaints about last year's model but this is a pretty traditional smartphone display it doesn't have an so if you don't like notches there you go and it's also sixteen by nine instead of that taller and narrow aspect ratio that we're seeing on a bunch of other smart phones but the hundred and twenty Hertz display is still just as incredible as ever everything just looks so silky smooth and it's awesome for gaming especially if you're playing one of the hundred and twenty FPS supported titles which there are actually a pretty good selection of so those games are extremely fun and even just swiping and scrolling through Android is a lot more enjoyable just because of how silky smooth everything looks and I've ran this display at 120 Hertz out of the box it does default to 90 Hertz which is probably for battery saving purposes but I've had no issues with battery life even with running this display at 120 Hertz full time I'm still getting a pretty consistent 5 hours of screen on time but I'm pretty sure if you turn the refresh rate down to 90 Hertz or even 60 Hertz you'll probably squeeze out even more battery life there's no real surprises with the software on the razor phone - it's running basically a stock build of Android 8.1 Oreo but some of the system UI elements and the default apps have been themed with Razer colors it's also running Nova Launcher as the default launcher which gives you a very stock like look and feel but it offers a ton more customization I would say the biggest disappointment with the software on the razor phone 2 is that it's not running Android Pi out of the box and I feel like this would have given the rigid phone to a big competitive advantage over a lot of other smartphones because there aren't a ton of smartphones out there right now that are running Android Pi speaking of disappointments I wasn't a big fan of the cameras on the razor phone - and supposedly they're much improved over last year's there's a phone and maybe I've just been spoiled by the pixel threes picture quality but I wasn't very impressed by the images on the razor phone - you have to 12 megapixel cameras on the rear one standard angle and one telephoto zoom lens for 2 X optical zoom and then you have an 8 megapixel camera on the front that now supports 1080p video at 60 frames per second which is really great if you're into self vlogging but the image quality is okay the colors come out a little bit muted and washed out to me and dynamic range is also not very good you get very little detail in the highlights and shadows and that becomes even more visible when you're shooting in low-light the photos from the main camera also have this really weird green tinge or color cast of them which makes photos look very unnatural and very unattractive portrait mode on this camera is also one of the most artificial looking portrait modes that I've seen on a smartphone in a while the bokeh effect just doesn't really look that convincing to me especially on the front-facing camera and the front-facing camera also lacks a ton of dynamic range despite the bad camera this is still a really great smartphone you're getting a very beefy spec sheet a hundred and twenty Hertz display that looks amazing and it also doesn't have a notch for all well under $1000 and if you're really big into mobile gaming this is the perfect phone to do it with now if you're coming from the original RAZR phone I don't think this is worth the upgrade I don't think the changes are significant enough but as an upgrade in general it's a phone that's definitely worth looking into it pretty much checks all the right boxes it has great performance a great display pretty good battery life just don't buy this phone for the camera and I think you'll be perfectly happy with your purchase but that's it for this review I hope you guys enjoyed it if you did give it a thumbs up I definitely appreciate it subscribe to the channel down below and also check the website for more in-depth coverage and Jordan 30.com and I will talk to you guys in the next video\n"