Razer Phone hands-on: Built for gamers, good enough for everyone

Razer is best known for its gaming PCs, but everyone knew what its acquisition of smartphone startup Nextbit meant: the company wanted to get into handsets too. The big question was, how does Razer, which prides itself as a gamer-first company, actually build a gamer-first phone? Few phone makers have bothered trying, and those that did — like Sony and Motorola — didn't find the success they were looking for. Razer's approach is a little different. With its new $699 Razer Phone, the company tried to balance pure power with a handful of fascinating hardware features. In doing so, Razer has built a gaming phone that you don't have to be a gamer to appreciate when it launches on November 17.

If you took a Nextbit Robin, made it bigger and draped the thing in dark anodized aluminum instead of cutesy plastic, you'd basically have the Razer Phone. That's fine by me — the Robin's design was clean and classy, and I appreciate Razer carrying on that tradition. The Razer Phone is far denser and sturdier than the original Robin, though, and thankfully it makes good use of the extra space. There's a huge 4,000mAh battery inside, and sitting above and below the screen are a pair of front-facing speakers.

Inside, though, the Razer Phone's everything a Blade owner could want. Snapdragon 835 processor, one of the best in the biz. A whopping 8 gigs of RAM. A huge 4,000mAh battery. Best of all, a 5.72-inch, Quad HD IGZO LCD (I swear those acronyms all mean something) screen, with 120Hz capabilities. The display can ramp up its framerate when you're scrolling or playing a game, and crank all the way back down when you're just reading or watching a movie. The tech behind the display sounds like the iPad's ProMotion display, and seems to work just as well. I've never scrolled so smoothly on an Android phone, and a quick demo of Riptide GP: Renegade, one of my fave mobile games ever, felt and looked incredible. Its looks may disguise its intentions, but the Razer Phone exists for gaming.