One of the most interesting phones to be announced this year is the Razer Phone – a phone built
by a gaming company for gamers, but also has specs impressive enough to catch the eyes
of the rest of us.
But is it durable?
There's only one way to find out.
[Intro]
So once upon a time I durability tested a phone called the Nextbit Robin.
It didn't do so well.
Razer went out and purchased the Nextbit startup, and basically plopped their impressive hardware
into the Nextbit body.
So I'm really hoping some structural improvements were also included.
The scratch test is always first with my Mohs hardness picks that allow us to see what the
screen is made of.
Like most smartphones these days, Razer is rocking Gorilla Glass, but this time Gorilla
Glass 3.
Interesting.
Plastic would normally scratch at a level 3, tempered glass is a level 6, and we've
seen sapphire scratch at a level 8.
This Razer Phone is a solid 6 with a deeper groove at a level 7.
So this 5.7 inch display can hold it's own against the other major flagships.
The phone does have dual front facing stereo speakers hidden under a plastic grill.
Up here at the top of the phone we have another plastic grill with it's 8 megapixel front
facing camera protected by a circle of glass.
The proximity sensor is under glass as well, so everything's protected and the plastic
grill is very securely attached so it's not going to come loose on its own.
No problems so far.
Over here on the side of the phone we have a SIM and SD card slot that can hold an additional
2 terabytes of storage.
Pretty impressive.
I'd like to see an iPhone do that.
The sides of the phone are metal which is a refreshing change from the previous totally
plastic Nextbit Robin.
The fingerprint scanner is stretchable.
It's not invincible like the ceramic of the OnePlus 5 or Apple's Sapphire, but the good
news is is that even with the abuse, the fingerprint scanner is still able to read my finger every
time.
There are no additional ports at the top of the phone, but everything is still metal.
And over here on the side of the phone we get two extremely small circular volume buttons,
both of which are metal.
The bottom of the phone does have a USB-C slot with no headphone jack, and honestly,
a phone this size with bezels big and no waterproofing, it should include a headphone jack unless
they were to include wireless headphones or even a USB-C headphone in the box.
It's just pure laziness on the manufacturing end and the loser is the customer who now
has to go out of their way to do something normal.
I've been scratching the dual camera lens.
One is a telephoto zoom lens, which is nice.
And while they are covered in glass, my razor is leaving permanent marks on the surface,
so there is some kind of coating over the top.
My razor blade is about a 5.5 on Mohs scale of hardness, and that's when the scratches
start appearing.
So while it's not plastic, I would still recommend not setting this phone down on its back without
some kind of case with a raised lip to protect that lens.
A case is also a good idea for the back metal because my keys are leaving marks, and the
marks don't disappear like we saw with the OnePlus 5T.
Razer has their iconic 3-headed snake logo type thing, smack dab in the middle of the
phone and it's inlaid pretty solidly into the metal.
My razor blade struggles to grab an edge, and even then, it's glued pretty tight.
So it probably won't ever fall out on it's own.
Now if you followed Razer at all, they make gaming hardware.
And their gaming computer mouse line is pretty much all named after snakes...since you know,
snakes eat mice.
Kind of an interesting connection there.
So here we have a cute little mouse friend.
He doesn't have a name quite yet so let me know in the comments what his name should
be.
He's looking pretty sharp.
Maybe him and Rex from the Pixel 2 XL will get along.
There is solid metal behind the snake logo so it won't be possible to add an LED conversion
like we did with the iPhone, but there is a tiny hole through the metal which may allow
wires to pass through.
So maybe Razer did think about adding RGB to this phone.
Either way, hopefully they do it with their next device.
The biggest selling point for me though on this phone is the refresh rate of the screen.
Normal phone screens can show 30 or 60 images per second, but this phone has a 120 Hertz
refresh rate, making the display super smooth for gaming and watching videos.
AMOLED screens are incapable of achieving this refresh rate at the moment - just IPS
LCD screens.
And that's what we're seeing here as the pixels completely recover from the burn test.
The display brightness seems to be lacking though.
Mine is currently turned all the way up.
And now it's time to see if the Razor phone has the same fragile internal build quality
that the Nextbit Robin did.
The initial flex gives us quite a bit more bend than usual, but nothing is catastrophically
damaged yet.
We do get a pretty severe kink next to the power button as I straighten the phone out,
but it's still cosmetic and the phone is still alive.
During the next flex there is a snap near the volume button, but overall the phone is
still surviving.
Even with the most extreme of abuse, this damage is superficial.
And while this is definitely not the strongest phone I've ever tested, it will stand up to
the basics, and it's a huge improvement from the Nextbit Robin.
A case is always a good idea, especially for that camera lens, and keeping the metal clean
from blemishes, but it's good to know that the phone itself is structurally sound.
I'll be tearing this phone down to see the insides and that massive battery, so subscribe
for that.
And let me know what we should name our mouse friend.
We can vote on the best suggestions over on my Twitter.
Thanks a ton for watching, and I'll see you around.