It's an exciting, and somewhat absurd, time to cover smartphones right now. I say absurd because there is literally a new phone out every week or two. Last year I got my hands on 22 phones ... this year, the number has nearly doubled.
But despite the marketing being so over-saturated, I'm still excited by the scene. Maybe it's the phone geek in me speaking -- even before I covered consumer tech for a living, I would buy three or four flagship phones a year -- but I'd like to think it's because companies are actively working hard to innovate and differentiate from one another. In fact, I'm willing to argue that because the smartphone industry is so crowded, that has pushed everyone to bring their A-game. There is no complacency like you might find in other industries. Everyone has to stand out.
This week I got to test a new phone from Razer, a Singaporean/U.S. gaming hardware company that is huge in the PC gaming world. Naturally, the device -- simply named the Razer Phone -- is made for gaming. While that idea is not new (remember the hideous Nokia N-Gage?), the Razer Phone comes at a time when smartphone manufacturing has matured, and this device is unusually polish for first-time effort from a company venturing into uncharted waters.
The Razer Phone stands out in two ways over other smartphones on the market. These improvements were made to ensure better gaming performance, but they actually make everyday smartphone use more enjoyable. They are...
1. 120Hz Display
In recent years, handset makers have focused on cramming as much pixels into a display as possible. LG, which has proven to be a trendsetter in the mobile world, started the push into Quad HD (2k) resolution in 2014, and Sony recently gave its flagship device a 4K display.
To be honest, I find the screen resolution arms race overkill. For a relatively small screen of under 6-inches, I don't think the average human can tell the difference between a "normal" 1,920 x 1,080 (aka 1080p) resolution display and a Quad HD (2,560 x 1,440) panel, let alone 4K.
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Instead of a crazy resolution bump -- though the 5.7-inch display here is 2K -- Razer went with a superior refresh rate of 120Hz instead. If you're unfamiliar, the refresh rate is how often a display changes the frames/image in a second. Almost all smartphones refresh at 60Hz (effectively 60 frames-per-second).
The Razer Phone effectively moves at double speed. If you've never used a 120Hz display, 60Hz is more than sufficient. But once you've seen a 120Hz display in action -- scrolling and touch input feels instantaneous -- going back to the 60Hz results will have you noticing the relatively lack of fluidity. It's just one of those things that once you see it, you can't unsee it.
It's worth mentioning that the iPhone X actually has 120Hz touch sample rate, which means it can react to touch faster, but it doesn't improve scrolling and pinching and general animation the way the Razer's always-on 120Hz rate does.
This double speed refresh rate is to cater to gamers, to whom even a fraction of a second of input lag can mean the difference between life and death (in the game... I hope). But even outside of gaming, just scrolling webpages on Chrome or bringing down the notification panel brings a smoother animation than everything I've seen. Heck, even unlocking the phone is a joy, as Razer Phone has this animation (which is more noticeable at 120Hz) in which the lockscreen snaps open.
Don't just take my word for it -- here's a slo-mo video of me scrolling through webpages on the Razer Phone, iPhone X and Samsung Galaxy Note 8. Notice that when compared to the Razer Phone, the animation on the iPhone X and Note 8 are noticeably choppy. Because I shot the video in 60fps, it actually doesn't do the difference justice. 120Hz refresh rate is too fast for videos to capture -- you'll have to try it out yourself and see the difference.
This double-speed refresh rate is a game-changer, and I really hope 2018 flagships implement this. We don't need ridiculous 4K resolution or five cameras on the back of a phone ... we want more fluidity when swiping through the phone. Now, onto the second thing the Razer Phone does better than everyone else...
2. The best speakers in a mobile phone ever
You might have noticed that the Razer Phone has pretty sizable top and bottom bezels. This is something I'd usually criticize a phone for, but on the Razer, it's worth it, because the bezels house large dual stereo speakers, each one independently amplified, and fine-tuned by Dolby Atmos.
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I'll just be blunt: this is the best speaker set-up on any smartphone ever. Other reviewers all seem to agree: this is a phone that you're better off not using headphones/earphones (which might explain why the Razer Phone lacks a 3.5mm headphone jack).
There are some shortcomings here, which is not unusual for a first-gen device from a company with no previous history of making such a device. The display, despite that awesome refresh rate and resolution, doesn't get nearly bright enough by 2017 flagship standards, and the camera is just okay, often suffering from lack of contrast (though Razer's people tell me that's a software problem and it's going to push an update fix too).
Gaming performance is excellent, of course. Though ironically, I don't notice the superior fluidity when gaming the way I do when just browsing through Instagram and swiping through apps. Other specs include a Snapdragon 835 processor with 8GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. There is no other variant with more storage, but Razer says gamers know how to use SD cards.
Overall, the Razer Phone is a very impressive piece of hardware. Other than the dim display, it is an absolute stunner to look at. It's been more than a day since I've had the phone on me and I still find myself just swiping the notification tray up and down and admiring the animation. I go back to my iPhone X and Galaxy Note 8 and immediately I notice they're not as fluid.
