Update: The Razer Phone launch is today, and we'll be reporting live from the London announcement to bring you all the latest on the firm's hotly tipped gaming smartphone.
It looks like a new company is about to enter the smartphone arena, as gaming peripheral brand Razer is set to announce its first handset today.
Yet despite the launch being just mere hours away, the name of the phone, which for now we’ll call the Razer Phone, still hasn’t leaked, and we’ve only seen a couple of possible pictures of it.
The pictures don't include the one above - that's Razer's Power Bank charger - but you'll be able to see them further down the page.
We've also seen some potential specs for the Razer Phone leak out as well, but we'll get the official details at 8pm GMT, 4pm ET, 1pm PT today.
Cut to the chase
- What is it? Razer's first smartphone
- When is it out? Announced today, release date TBC
- What will it cost? Probably a lot
Razer Phone release date and price
The Razer Phone is set to be announced today, November 1, with Razer teasing the launch on its website and sending out invites for an event taking place in London.
How soon after the announcement you’ll be able to buy the Razer Phone, or how much it will cost, also remain a mystery for now.
However, we’d expect the Razer Phone price to be high, as leaked specs suggest it will be a flagship handset, so we’d imagine you’ll have to pay upwards of $700 (£600, AU$1,000).
Razer Phone design and screen
Hottest leaks:
- A blocky design
- A 5.7-inch QHD screen
So far we’ve only seen one leaked image of the Razer Phone and it doesn’t show the full handset.
The shot, apparently obtained by an unnamed insider and shared by TechByte, shows just half of the back of the phone, but we can make out some details from that.
It has a blocky, angular design, very similar to the Nextbit Robin, which is no surprise, since Razer has purchased Nextbit.
It’s shown in black here and while it may come in other colors it’s possible that black will be the only option, as Razer is fond of that color. Oddly though there’s no sign of the green that Razer also tends to use on its products.
The rear is plain other than a large white Razer logo. It’s hard to tell what the Razer Phone is made out of, but given the likely high-end specs we’d expect a metal or glass case rather than a plastic one.
Other visible details include a dual-lens camera and two small buttons on the left edge, likely to control the volume.
There are no images of the screen, but a GFXBench listing suggests it will have a 5.7-inch 1,440 x 2,560 one.
That’s a conventional QHD resolution, suggesting the Razer Phone will probably have a 16:9 aspect ratio, rather than opting for a more widescreen design like the Samsung Galaxy S8 and some other recent handsets.
TechRadar’s take: We’ve only seen one image of the phone so it could well be wrong, but it looks convincing, given the Nextbit Robin-like design. The screen specs are also believable if this is to be a flagship phone.
Razer Phone camera and battery
Hottest leaks:
- A dual-lens 12MP camera
The one benchmark we’ve seen for the Razer Phone lists a 12MP rear camera, though there’s no mention of a dual-lens one, even though the picture we’ve seen seems to have a dual-lens camera.
The benchmark also lists a 4K video camera and an 8MP front-facing camera, though other than HDR and a flash on the rear camera there’s no word on what capabilities and modes these cameras will have.
As for the battery, that remains unknown for now, but we’d expect to see a reasonably large one if the Razer Phone is to be positioned at gamers, which is likely given the company’s heritage.
TechRadar’s take: A dual-lens 12MP rear camera and an 8MP front-facing one are fairly standard flagship specs, so they’re believable.
Razer Phone OS and power
Hottest leaks:
- 7.5GB of RAM for gaming power
- A Snapdragon 835 chipset
We’re again reliant on the one benchmark we’ve seen here, but that suggests the Razer Phone will have a Snapdragon 835 chipset and an Adreno 540 graphics chip, which would make it a match for the likes of the LG V30 and the US version of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.
Where it seemingly doesn’t match those phones is RAM, as the Razer Phone supposedly has 7.5GB of the stuff, which is more than almost any other smartphone – though there is a version of the OnePlus 5 with 8GB.
That might sound like overkill but it’s actually believable, since the Razer Phone will likely be designed for high-end mobile gaming, which needs all the power it can get.
We can’t be certain of that, but since Razer is primarily a gaming peripheral company it’s very likely, especially as Razer’s CEO has previously mentioned creating a mobile device “specifically geared toward gamers” and since the teaser page on Razer’s site includes “watch, listen, play” in the URL.
The operating system meanwhile is very likely to be Android, and indeed the benchmark we’ve seen lists Android 7.1.1.
Since Android Oreo is out we’d expect that to be on the phone, so this could be dated or inaccurate information, which calls all the other specs into question too, but it’s all we’ve got to go on for now.
Whichever version of Android it lands with it’s likely to be skinned by Razer, since the benchmark also mentions “Android Razer Edition.”
TechRadar’s take: The specs we’ve seen are believable given the likely focus on gaming, but we’d take them with a pinch of salt since they only come from one source.
Razer Phone other features
Hottest leaks:
- 64GB of storage
- Cloud gaming
The only other spec we’ve seen listed for the Razer Phone (again in that benchmark) is 64GB of storage, but there are some possible features we can guess at.
For one thing, given that Razer owns Nextbit it would make sense for the company to use one of the most interesting ideas found in the Nextbit Robin, namely the ability to offload files and even apps to the cloud, so that less internal storage is used.
We’ve theorized before that Razer may even take it a step further and allow you to stream games from the cloud, which as well as freeing up space would potentially allow the Razer Phone to run more demanding games than many handsets, since much of the horsepower could also be provided by the cloud.
Given the gaming focus Razer may also look at providing proper gaming controls, rather than just a touchscreen. If it does these could be additional hardware buttons, but would more likely take the form of a detachable controller.
Or perhaps you’d even be able to pair the Razer Phone with Razer’s gaming keyboards, giving you near endless hardware buttons.
TechRadar’s take: Hardware buttons and cloud gaming are simply speculation for now, but it would make sense for Razer to leverage the cloud to some extent, given that it’s gone to the trouble of acquiring a company with experience in that area.
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