Razer have been producing gaming hardware for many years and with their foray into mobile phones last year they created an entirely new category of phone, the gaming phone. This year they have cemented their place in the mobile phone gaming market with the release of the Razer Phone 2. With flagship features that you would expect to find on a top end phone along with gaming optimisations the Razer Phone 2 is pushing hard to steal market share from Apple and Samsung.

How is a gaming phone any different than any other top end handset and what makes the Razer different you may ask? It’s all about optimisation, making decisions that are designed to improve the gaming experience. Razer hunted high and low to find the perfect screen for gaming and the 1440×2560 resolution IGZO LCD provided by Sharp is a gamers dream. Capable of displaying 120 frames per second the display guarantees silky smooth game play in full HDR colour. It even makes the standard day to day phone tasks feel snappier.

The gaming pedigree of the Razer doesn’t stop there either. Behind the screen the audio is provided by Dolby Atmos powered dual front facing speakers connected to dual digital amplifiers. This doesn’t just make this Razer Phone 2 loud but also clear and immersive.

Vapour chamber cooling provides superior cooling for the Snapdragon 845 and Adreno 630 graphics processor. The cooler dissipates heat across the entire body of the phone to allow maximum performance for long periods without throttling.

Gaming is a very memory intensive activity and Razer haven’t skimped on the RAM, 8GB of RAM (same as the original phone) and 64GB of storage (expandable to 2TB) should keep everything humming along smoothly.

Powering all of this gaming goodness is a monster 4,000 mAh battery that Razer claims is good for 10 hours of gaming. Charging can also now be done wirelessly, a feature that was missing from the original. Razer even have a wireless charging base station that includes their Chroma colour LED lighting system, for an extra $100 USD.

One of the features missing from the original phone, and one that Razer were often-criticised for, was its lack of water resistance. This has now been addressed and gaming in all weather conditions is now a possibility with IP67 water and dust resistance. This is more than enough to ensure that sweaty palms caused by an intensive gaming session won’t damage the phone.

Fans of the Razer brand will appreciate the RGB lit Razer logo on the rear of the phone. The included Chroma software provides full customisation of the logo and also allows it to act as a notification. Razer also includes Game Booster software that provides custom gaming performance settings as well as a do not disturb mode, letting you game without interruption.

The only weak spot of the Razer Phone 2 is its camera performance. Even though Razer has upgraded to Sony supplied IMX dual rear 12-megapixel sensors, which seem very capable, all of the leading phones are a generation ahead when it comes to digital photography. The 8MP front facing camera can provide 60 FPS capture for game streaming and high-quality selfie capture, lol.

Here at Highpants we are a massive fan of the clean rectangular design and just tad sick of the curvy screens with notches that seem to have taken over the world. We prefer a tough, solidly built simple black monolithic design, and the Razer delivers it in spades. Retailing for $799 USD / $1200 AUD the mirror black version should be available late October and the satin black model after that.

Reference: Razer Product Page
Reference: Toms Hardware
Reference: TechSpot
Reference: Gizmodo
Reference: TechRadar