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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.

20 of 168 comments (clear)

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

    jump back

    1. Re:no Headphone, Jack by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Fuck Razer. Did you know that their mice and keyboards requires an internet connection just to be able to change settings? I bought one of their mice recently and when I found out, I refunded that shit real quick and bought a Logitech like I should have from the start.

    2. 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.

    3. Re:no Headphone, Jack by Xenx · · Score: 2

      Lets be honest here. If audio quality from a phone is the only concern here, then USB C provides more options for better audio output. This is only a boon for anyone trying to get the best audio possible from their phone.

      In all honesty, it's less of an issue than people make it out to be. Not wanting to deal with the USB C to 3.5mm adapter is understandable. It doesn't make it some amazingly serious flaw in the phone. It's definitely debatable whether the removal is worth the inconvenience, but an inconvenience is all it is.

    4. Re:no Headphone, Jack by Thanatiel · · Score: 2

      If it cures cancer, then I would buy it without the headphone jack (just in case it's needed some day).
      But it does not : it's a (ugly) phone that will break because of humidity (lots of places on Earth), and has no headphone jack. It's out.
      To its credit : it's a flat screen. (Rounded glass sides be damned)
      (I'm not personally interested by wireless charging)

      --
      Irrelevant news and morons using moderation to mod down what they disagree on. 2018 resolution: so long.
  2. I thought iPhone was the gaming phone? by known_coward_69 · · Score: 2

    Best phone CPU/GPU combo

    Apple API for direct access to hardware

    The most games in the App Store

    1. Re:I thought iPhone was the gaming phone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Another fucking luddite irrationally fixated on UI devices with physical buttons and displays larger than 5 inches across just because of some anachronistic obsession with "accuracy" or "responsiveness" or "being able to see shit".

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

    Battery life

  4. 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.

    1. Re: Because they sound average? by Aereus · · Score: 2

      So you're going to plug in a USB DAC, which is generally larger than a cellphone, into the cellphone to get decent audio quality. What courage to drop that headphone jack.

  5. And here's the video by boudie2 · · Score: 2

    The verge put a video up of the phone. Has a dongle for the headphone jack.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

  6. Re: That's three by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    And sound quality. Bluetooth Audio uses lossy compression.

  7. 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'.

  8. Re:No wireless charge, no waterproofing by n329619 · · Score: 2

    Is a major fail .. since 2015 if you were a respectable phone you have wireless charge capability and waterproofing too. If you arenâ(TM)t waterproof then at least have a swappable battery as an excuse.

    This and also a full waterproof, wireless charge and no headphone jack could ensure a complete sealed device. If it had none of that, then what is the point of no headphone jack and non-removable battery? Seriously, it is a fail.

  9. The Razer Razr? by omnichad · · Score: 2

    I expect a trademark lawsuit from Motorola on this one. The name is not so different than Razr and they could easily argue that a phone under the name "Razer" will create confusion about Motorola's involvement or lack thereof.

  10. Defective by design. by Hallux-F-Sinister · · Score: 2

    An AUDIO DEVICE with no headphone jack is like...

    - a refrigerator where the heat-exchanger takes up the entire inside of the box
    - a pencil that is a solid piece of wood with no graphite core, or for that matter, eraser
    - a computer mouse with no buttons, switches, knobs, or ball, frankly
    - a drill with no chuck
    - a chain with no saw
    - a ham with no burger...

    Yeah, you keep that.

    --
    Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.
  11. Bluetooth audio lag by Aereus · · Score: 2

    I'm waiting for there to be the inevitable latency issues with the BT audio which makes using it in a game setting impossible. Not that there are any games on mobile worthy of 120hz play. Its all funbux cashgrabs and gacha games.

  12. 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.

  13. Re:Yeah no. by Thanatiel · · Score: 2

    You may try to read the headlines again. (Maybe they have changed since you wrote this).
    Or the linked article (since the headlines can be wrong).

    --
    Irrelevant news and morons using moderation to mod down what they disagree on. 2018 resolution: so long.