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Razer Unveils Gaming Smartphone With 120Hz UltraMotion Display, 8GB RAM and No Headphone Jack (cnet.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the new-and-improved dept.

Computer hardware company Razer has unveiled its first smartphone. While the design doesn't appear to be up to par with the competition, it does pack some impressive specifications under the hood. The Razer Phone features a 5.7-inch, 2,560x1,440-resolution display, Snapdragon 835 chipset with 8GB of RAM, 12-megapixel dual camera with a wide-angle lens and 2x optical zoom, 4,000mAh battery, dual front-facing stereo speakers, and Android 7.1.1 Nougat running out of the box. While there is a microSD card slot for expandable storage, there is no headphone jack, no waterproofing, and no wireless charging. The device also won't support CDMA carriers like Verizon or Sprint. CNET reports: [W]here most new flagship phones are shiny rounded rectangles with curved screens, the Razer Phone is unabashedly a big black brick. It flaunts sharp 90-degree corners instead of curved edges. You can even stand the phone on end. The 5.7-inch, 2,560x1,440-resolution screen is flat as a pancake, and you'll find giant bezels above and below that screen, too -- just when we thought bezels were going out of style. When the Razer Phone ships Nov. 17 for $699 or £699 -- no plans for Australia at launch -- the company says it'll be the first phone with a display that refreshes 120 times per second, like a high-end PC gaming monitor or Apple's iPad Pro. And combined with a dynamic refresh technique Razer's calling Ultramotion (think Nvidia G-Sync), it can mean beautiful, butter-smooth scrolling down websites and apps, and glossy mobile gameplay.

9 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. no Headphone, Jack by turkeydance · · Score: 4, Insightful

    jump back

    1. Re:no Headphone, Jack by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Razer shit tends to die within 2 years in my experience. Not that it doesn't glow green, it does.

    2. Re:no Headphone, Jack by tehcyder · · Score: 1, Insightful
      Although I realise that having a standard headphone jack is more convenient if you just want to buy a set of disposable earphones from your local Poundland, I fail to see what the problem with having an alternative connection is for most people.

      But it appears to be a fetish here on slashdot. "The new XYP Phone cures cancer and costs $10, but it has no headphone jack so I'm not buying it".

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  2. That's three by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    Pixel 2, iPhone 7/8/X, and now Razer. No. Headphone. Jack.

    I guess those hugging their Samsung POS still like analog static in their ears.

    1. Re: That's three by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Battery life

  3. Because they sound average? by thesupraman · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Mostly because even the best widely supported audio codec for bluetooth sound bad?
    AptX (HD) is about as good as you will get, and it is somewhat... average.

    Certainly good enough for cheap(ly made, sometimes expensive priced) earbuds, 'fashion' headphones, etc.
    However, still a far FAR distance from the quality available with high quality headphones.

    And if you want good lipsync with video, you better either accept lower quality, or be able to adjust the video delay,
    because the advanced codec add a lot of latency (166ms for AptX, less in low latency mode, but quality is reduced).

    So sure, YOU may not care about the quality, and prefer your bluetooth - good on you.
    Some other people still prefer quality - and this in no LP/CD comparison, there is a VERY measurable degradation with all bluetooth codecs.

  4. Not listening! by markdavis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    >"While there is a microSD card slot for expandable storage, there is no headphone jack, no waterproofing, and no wireless charging.

    Companies still are not listening. It seems many of us want:

    1) Larger batteries/ removable batteries
    2) Larger storage
    3) Wireless charging
    4) Headphone jack
    5) Stock/plain Android (or as close as possible)
    6) Water and drop resistance (reliability/robustness)
    7) Works on all carriers and unlocked

    It sounds like this company got a few things right (large battery and SD slot) but still focus on more useless resolution and more RAM than probably ever needed. Many people also are looking for SMALLER SCREENS (5") but without sacrificing specs (they want a small phone, not an under-powered/under-featured phone).

    1. Re:Not listening! by Wrath0fb0b · · Score: 3, Insightful

      How many, exactly, is "many of us"? Have you done quantitative market research? Who exactly is the 'us' that you sampled? Did you make an effort to adjust your findings to match the demographic profile of phone purchasers?

      I mean, I'm not arguing that anything on your list is good or bad, but your 'us' seems like it might just be the like-minded technologically-knowledgable people that you surround yourself with and not any kind of 'us' that represents the broader purchasing market. Companies spend huge sums developing products, and they get severely punished if consumers don't want them. As an epistemological statement, I would bet they are right more often than you are on (even if not always).

      More broadly, computing is no longer the domain of the knowledgable. Democratizing tech has made its benefits more widely available but it also means that the opinions and attitudes of the masses rarely more weight. We can deny the facts, we can sulk over it, or we can accept that tech is no longer the domain of techies even though we were 'here first'.

  5. No jack, no sale by duke_cheetah2003 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And you know, I never use my jack, but damnit, I want it there for when I DO NEED it. No jack no sale. kthxbye.