Razer Phone 2 Officially Announced With Brighter 120Hz Display, Louder Speakers

The Razer Phone 2 has officially been announced and it carries over most of the features as the original Razer Phone from last year. However, Razer has added some major upgrades to its new-generation gaming smartphone to deliver a more superior mobile gaming experience.

The Razer Phone 2 still comes with a 5.7-inch LCD display with a 120Hz refresh rate. The display comes with a resolution of 1440 x 2560 and a 16:9 aspect ratio. It’s also covered in Gorilla Glass 5 instead of Gorilla Glass 3. Although the display on the Razer Phone 2 may be the same as the one that’s found on the original model, Razer said that it’s actually 50 percent brighter in maximum brightness at 580 nits.

The Razer Phone 2 still has the same bezels on top and the bottom of the display. The bezels are still housing dual front-facing speakers with Dolby Atmos certification. Razer said that the speakers are louder at 103dB at maximum volume.

Inside, the Razer Phone 2 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor with 8GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. The handset supports microSD cards for expanded storage. Razer said that its new phone will be able to offer 30 percent more performance than the previous generation because of the flagship components and its new cooling solution.

Razer has added a new vapor chamber cooling system that is able to keep the handset cool while playing the most demanding games. The new vapor chamber cooling system is said to have more surface area for heat dissipation, which helps the handset sustain a high frame rate.

The new gaming smartphone is also packing a 4,000mAh battery. The Razer Phone 2 is said to have a battery life of up to 10 hours with the display set to the 120Hz refresh rate. For comparison, the original Razer Phone was only able to last up to 10 hours if the display’s refresh rate is set to 90Hz. The Razer Phone 2 supports Qualcomm’s QuickCharge 4+ through its USB Type-C port, which is able to juice up the 4,000mAh battery from zero to 50 percent in just 30 minutes.

Unlike the original Razer Phone, the Razer Phone 2 comes with a glass back and it supports wireless charging. Wireless chargers that use the Qi standard should be compatible with the new handset, but Razer has also launched its own wireless charger, complete with the company’s signature Chroma lighting system.

Speaking of the Chroma lighting system, the Razer Phone 2 features RGB lighting for the Razer logo on its back. Like with Razer’s other products, the RGB lighting can be set to a wide variety of colors and settings, and it can also be used to signify notifications.

The cameras on the Razer Phone 2 have also been upgraded. The handset now comes with a new dual-camera system on its back composed of a 12MP wide-angle shooter with OIS and a secondary 13MP camera with a 2x telephoto lens, according to 9To5Google. Razer is now using Sony IMX sensors and the company said the dual cameras are now capable of taking better low-light photos. Up front, the handset comes with an 8MP camera that’s capable of live streaming in full HD resolution.

Overall, it looks like the Razer Phone 2 took all of the best features from the original and amped them all up. Although the device is impressive and will likely garner a lot of attention from the gaming community, there are a few things that are a little disappointing. The Razer Phone 2 still doesn’t have a headphone jack and it’s running Android 8.1 Oreo instead of Android 9 Pie.

The Razer Phone 2 is also $100 more expensive than the original, with a starting price of $799. No exact release date has been given, but pre-orders are available now on Razer’s online store.