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Razer Unveils Gaming Smartphone With 120Hz UltraMotion Display, 8GB RAM and No Headphone Jack (cnet.com) 168

Posted by BeauHD 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.
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Razer Unveils Gaming Smartphone With 120Hz UltraMotion Display, 8GB RAM and No Headphone Jack More

Razer Unveils Gaming Smartphone With 120Hz UltraMotion Display, 8GB RAM and No Headphone Jack

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  • no Headphone, Jack (Score:5, Insightful)

    by turkeydance ( 1266624 ) on Wednesday November 01, 2017 @09:27PM (#55473523)
    jump back

    • Re: no Headphone, Jack (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      No headphone jack is a deal breaker. They blew it. The rest of the specs are irrelevant.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by tehcyder ( 746570 )
      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".

      • 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)

        • I'm with you up to the wireless charging. I thought it was a gimmick, but two things changed my mind: 1) The first thing to fail on my last 2 phones was the charging port. 2) It's so god damned convenient.

          Yes, it's not as efficient as wired charging. But the electricity cost is marginal. At work I toss my phone on my desk and it charges. At home I set it in the cradle and not only can I glance over to see what text or email came in because it's standing up, but it charges. Need to use the phone? Just pick i

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • I thought iPhone was the gaming phone? (Score:3)

    by known_coward_69 ( 4151743 ) on Wednesday November 01, 2017 @09:32PM (#55473553)

    Best phone CPU/GPU combo

    Apple API for direct access to hardware

    The most games in the App Store

  • What (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    MicroSD slot? Decent speakers? If the bootloader is unlockable this is my next phone!

  • Every phone using chipsets capable of high/variable refresh rate should have been released with it.

    Every phone with room ought to have dual, front-facing speakers. (Although I'd definitely take waterproofing over the ginormous speakers Razer uses.)

    Although I doubt Razer will have an enormous hit with this, I really hope it sells like hotcakes. It is absolutely ridiculous that flagship phones in 2017 weren't already leading the way with these features, and it's even more ridiculous that the only reason tha

  • And here's the video (Score:3)

    by boudie2 ( 1134233 ) on Wednesday November 01, 2017 @10:02PM (#55473713)
    The verge put a video up of the phone. Has a dongle for the headphone jack.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

  • Not listening! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by markdavis ( 642305 ) on Wednesday November 01, 2017 @10:41PM (#55473883)

    >"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).

    • Many people also are looking for SMALLER SCREENS (5") /quote
      Yeah, I thought this was most of the point of the Retina hype. And it was for me (once it got to Android). Smaller screen without sacrificing resolution.

    • 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).

      This.

      My first smartphone had a 3.8" screen or so and specs near the top of what was available at the time (I didn't buy the most expensive thing available, but it did cost around $500). It was a great phone and I used it for 5 years (it still works, and I still use it occasionally when I need a secondary phone).

      By the time I was shopping for a replacement, everything 4.0" and below was crap, the kind of stuff you can't run more than 2 apps on and which becomes obsolete within a year. So I thought I'd go for

    • And NFC !!!
      I saw the Moto G5S Plus, really nice phone for the price, 5.5" 1080p, 5GHz wifi, SD card, quick charge, NFC, etc.
      Then I realized that the North American version does not have the NFC while elsewhere in the world it has it.
      It's like a $2 component? Why remove it? I'm using Android Pay everywhere! For me NFC is as important as audio jack.

    • Re:Not listening! (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Wrath0fb0b ( 302444 ) on Thursday November 02, 2017 @09:02AM (#55475449)

      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'.

      • 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).

        You're making the assumption that companies only respond to market demands, which we know is not true (if it were, nothing truly new would come on to the market - how many focus groups would tell you in 1995 that everyone wants touchscreen smartphones?).

        Companies actively shape market demand (or at least exert a lot of effort attempting to do so), sometimes they succeed, sometimes they fail. Ergo a lot of what goes out there as product is a result not of market research are people's current tastes, but of s

        • You are confusing "what people say they want" with "market demand".

          It's really easy to figure out the former -- you look at what's available and how well it's selling and there you go. Market research focuses on answering, "would people want this if we put it on the market", in advance.

          Companies focus exclusively on market demand -- what people would buy if it were offered to them.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by F34nor ( 321515 )

      Moto Z play. You have to use mods and the waterproofing is a coating but it is also cheap.

  • It sounds targeted at VR.

  • The Razer Razr? (Score:3)

    by omnichad ( 1198475 ) on Wednesday November 01, 2017 @11:14PM (#55473979) Homepage

    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.

    • 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.

      Actually the model is called just "Phone". Razer is the name of the company and has existing trademarks in consumer electronics. It would be hard to justify a company not allowing to use their own company name on a product just because a specific model of product from another company sounds the same.

      • And Apple called their music store iTunes. It would be hard to justify a company not allowing to use their own company name....blah, blah, blah. Except they had to settle with Apple Records in the end - after fighting with them to get a trademark to use on computers in the first place.

  • No removeable battery? No SD slot? No thanks.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Aereus ( 1042228 )

      No SD slot when they want you loading "games" onto it? Wat.

    • 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).

  • Is scrolling. I'm always amazed as walls of text and adverts fly past my eyes. It's so beautiful when it's even MORE smooth. I don't care about the information, just that I can move the web page up or down with either a flick of an appendage or the scroll wheel on my mouse. I don't know how I EVER made it through life before this became so beautiful...

    • Skimming while scrolling is useful. You get a lot of judder on phones when trying to scroll, mostly due to the latency of the refresh rate of the panel itself rather than the input frequency. But I can accept that it's useful - 60Hz is not some magic number for UI.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • alarm clock
      car stereo
      landline telephone
      Etc.

      But really, it's not an "audio device." Yes, this one has some emphasis on multimedia, but its entire purpose is not to be an audio device - which is true of most phones. I don't want a monolithic device that's supposed to do literally everything - but I'm also not a cell phone gamer, so I'm not part of this target market.

  • Bluetooth audio lag (Score:3)

    by Aereus ( 1042228 ) on Thursday November 02, 2017 @02:08AM (#55474513)

    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.

    • 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.

      It's already like that. Playing SNES emulator with car bluetooth, its super creepy cuz the sounds are off just that little bit to mess with you.

  • AHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

    ALMOST as irrelevant as Blackberry!

  • No jack, no sale (Score:3, Insightful)

    by duke_cheetah2003 ( 862933 ) on Thursday November 02, 2017 @03:29AM (#55474681) Homepage

    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.

  • sounds spectacular want one .... NOT (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    no head phone jack. no deal plain and simple

  • the stereo speakers are at the bottom of the display... they could have had a pair of speakers at the top as well and when playing in landscape, switch the speakers so that they still give stereophonic effect in landscape.
  • https://www.al-awa2el.com/%D8%... [al-awa2el.com]"> [al-awa2el.com] [al-awa2el.com]

  • My Android phone struggles to keep 30 Hz refresh, not just in games, but also in Google Chrome and other apps. iOS has real time scheduling and native code, while Android is still messing around with translation and the JVM. The result is that iOS is smooth, while Android invariable stutters.

  • The reason for rounded corners is so it is comfortable in your pocket. IDIOTS

  • People think it's just to get you to buy Bluetooth products. But consider this, do you know any assholes that won't buy BT headphones or know the kind of people that could care less what they are broadcasting to people around them. It's a clever ploy to boost iTunes sales. It's also free advertising. Now we all have to hear commercials on Spotify and Pandora. I'll just stick with a terminal for music. Can't wait for the Librem 5. https://vid.me/m7oky [vid.me]

  • so Razer is following the trend, and ditching the old-skool 3.5 mm headphone jack.

    Color me unsurprised.

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