Razer Phone 2

THE HUMMER OF HANDSETS.

RAZER HAS BUCKED the trend of slim, curvy handsets for a boxy slab of a phone that shares a similar footprint to the iPhone XS Max (albeit with square corners). The extra-large speaker grilles on the top and bottom means the screen is a much smaller 5.7inch, but on the plus side, the grilles are perfectly-situated for resting your thumbs in landscape mode.

As you’d guess, Razer is targeting hardcore gamers, and the handset packs a speedy Snapdragon 845 processor with 8GB of RAM, a 120Hz UltraMotion display (the only one we’ve seen on a smartphone), the ability to tweak the CPU, display resolution, and frame rate for individual games, and a nifty vapour-chamber cooling system that keeps it cool for extended gaming sessions. These beefy specs returned exceptional results in the 3DMark Slingshot Extreme graphics benchmarks – bested only by the Samsung Galaxy S10e, which has a newer chipset.

But gaming isn’t all the Razer’s good for. While it’ll challenge the constraints of your skinny jeans, it’s an absolute beast when it comes to multimedia. It may not have an OLED display, but everything else about the screen is fantastic. The buttery-smooth fluidity made possible by the faster frame rates was instantly noticeable on even day-to-day tasks, and this is paired with HDR support, exceptional colour accuracy and high pixel density of 515ppi.

Buy this phone if you want one of the best there is for mobile entertainment and gaming. Don’t buy it if you want the best possible camera. The dual-lens camera on the back did the job, but it failed to inspire with the flat, fairly lifeless photos it produced. Expect extra time fiddling with filters before your shots are Insta-ready.