Introduction to Hardware Season: A Look at the Razer Phone 2

Hey what's up guys mkbhd here and hardware season aka techtober continues with a new smartphone again this is our first look and impressions of the razer phone 2. Now I know a lot of people were interested in this phone, I found the first one somewhat of a mixed bag, i definitely had my complaints about it but it was promising and it had some unique unmatched features like a 120 hertz display now this year those features are still here and they're definitely still unmatched but they've made a number of improvements and tweaks and upgrades towards one thing and that is to make this second generation razer phone a little bit more friendly like a normal everyday flagship not just a gaming phone.

Changes in Design

First thing you've probably noticed already is the glass back i'd say this is the biggest outside change on the razer phone we all remember the first one soft touch back sort of like that next bit robin it came from well the shape of the sequel is all still the same still very boxy and square but now you have a glass back which enables wireless charging which this phone now has. And then not to be outdone by asus they also have now a glowing light up razer logo on the back of this phone controllable by software of course and with rgb and razer told me you'll even be able to use this as a notification led so if you get a tweet for example it'll glow blue if you get an email it'll glow red green for phone calls etc. That's actually pretty sick but of course you can turn it off all the way if you don't want it it is pretty faint to begin with especially in this brightly lit environment but it's there.

Improved Water Resistance and Speaker Quality

It's also now ip67 certified which the first one wasn't but doing this turned out to be a big deal for razer phone because the huge speakers had to be water sealed but still keep their massive sound that's the whole reason they're there so that was a challenge for them as you may know waterproofing a phone 100 of the time has a hit on the speakers when you go from a non-waterproof phone to a waterproof phone you always notice that samsung's phones all used to have better speakers many years ago they waterproofed them and now not so much htc had those massive boom sound speakers those front firing stereo monsters but none of those phones were ip rated it's just a big deal putting a water tight diaphragm in front of a speaker driver. So my big question when i saw the second one was would the razer phone 2 being waterproof make it lose its amazing speakers i love so much about it after hearing them i actually don't think so so to be clear they're still very loud and very hard to block with your fingers that's what it's all about.

Camera Upgrades

Up front there's also a slightly brighter 5.7 inch 120 hertz ips lcd display the only one in a phone again this year 2560 by 1440 resolution but yeah it is now up to 645 nits basically brighter than last year but still not quite as bright as the 60hz oleds and all these mainstream flagships that's the trade-off for the ultra smooth frame rate. And they specifically addressed some of my biggest complaints in my review with the first razer phone first off the camera there are two new sony sensors on the back they're both now 12 megapixel sensors one standard one with optical image stabilization and one telephoto without it these will be worth testing to see how far they've come but they seem pretty proud of them and they've also now switched to a new vibration motor so i did kind of really hate on the vibration motor in my unit last year this one's entirely different that's a good look you got a snapdragon 845 inside still eight gigs of ram still a four thousand milliamp hour battery still has expandable storage still no headphone jack still the side power slash fingerprint reader button and the little nub.

New Approach to Brand Identity

i'm interested uh at this point they're consciously trying not to just call it a gaming phone but more of like a media and gaming flagship and i think those are good moves to take so what do you think i mean if you're on team no notch then this will definitely be one of your last available options if you're on team i hate every thousand dollar flagship phone because they're not worth that much this will also be one of your latest options but also one of your best so let me know what you think either way that's been your first impressions thanks for watching talk to you guys in the next one peace

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey what is up guys mkbhd here and hardware season aka techtober continues with a new smartphone again this is our first look and impressions of the razer phone 2. now i know a lot of people were interested in this phone i found the first one uh somewhat of a mixed bag i definitely had my complaints about it but it was promising and it had some unique unmatched features like a 120 hertz display now this year those features are still here and they're definitely still unmatched but they've made a number of improvements and tweaks and upgrades towards one thing and that is to make this second generation razer phone a little bit more friendly like a normal everyday flagship not just a gaming phone now they're not going all the way to full-on bezel-less notched all the way to the edge 2018 design no no but pretty much every little change and every tweak they've made in this phone is targeted towards that appealing to more of the masses with a phone that can actually be used every day that happens to have a couple advantages for gaming so here's what's new first thing you've probably noticed already is the glass back i'd say this is the biggest outside change on the razer phone we all remember the first one soft touch back sort of like that next bit robin it came from well the shape of the sequel is all still the same still very boxy and square but now you have a glass back which enables wireless charging which this phone now has and then not to be outdone by asus they also have now a glowing light up razer logo on the back of this phone controllable by software of course and with rgb and razer told me you'll even be able to use this as a notification led so if you get a tweet for example it'll glow blue if you get an email it'll glow red green for phone calls etc that's actually pretty sick but of course you can turn it off all the way if you don't want it it is pretty faint to begin with especially in this brightly lit environment but it's there it's also now ip67 certified which the first one wasn't but doing this turned out to be a big deal for razer phone because the huge speakers had to be water sealed but still keep their massive sound that's the whole reason they're there so that was a challenge for them as you may know waterproofing a phone 100 of the time has a hit on the speakers when you go from a non-waterproof phone to a waterproof phone you always notice that samsung's phones all used to have better speakers many years ago they waterproofed them and now not so much htc had those massive boom sound speakers those front firing stereo monsters but none of those phones were ip rated it's just a big deal putting a water tight diaphragm in front of a speaker driver so my big question when i saw the second one was would the razer phone 2 being waterproof make it lose its amazing speakers i love so much about it after hearing them i actually don't think so so to be clear they're still very loud and very hard to block with your fingers that's what it's all about i'd say they probably have a little bit of a lower peak loudness than before but quality is great and they definitely didn't distort at high volumes from my brief listening test so that's good to see and up front there's also a slightly brighter 5.7 inch 120 hertz ips lcd display the only one in a phone again this year 2560 by 1440 resolution but yeah it is now up to 645 nits basically brighter than last year but still not quite as bright as the 60hz oleds and all these mainstream flagships that's the trade-off for the ultra smooth frame rate and then also they specifically addressed some of my biggest complaints in my review with the first razer phone first off the camera there are two new sony sensors on the back they're both now 12 megapixel sensors one standard one with optical image stabilization and one telephoto without it these will be worth testing to see how far they've come but they seem pretty proud of them and they've also now switched to a new vibration motor so i did kind of really hate on the vibration motor in my unit last year this one's entirely different that's a good look you got a snapdragon 845 inside still eight gigs of ram still a four thousand milliamp hour battery still has expandable storage still no headphone jack still the side power slash fingerprint reader button and the little nub volume buttons on the side from the original next bit design and still a light skin on top of android 8.1 waiting for android pie eventually someday who knows when that'll come but little bit of green accents tossed in there plus a couple features specifically for improving gaming and changing your rgb lights on the back of course so yeah it's a nice little mixed bag of improvements i'm interested uh at this point they're consciously trying not to just call it a gaming phone but more of like a media and gaming flagship and i think those are good moves to take so what do you think i mean if you're on team no notch then this will definitely be one of your last available options if you're on team i hate every thousand dollar flagship phone because they're not worth that much this will also be one of your latest options but also one of your best so let me know what you think either way that's been your first impressions thanks for watching talk to you guys in the next one peace\n"