[Music]
hey how's it gone
Dave TD here today's video is about
gaming phones and whether or not you
should get one because every company's
approach to their gaming foam is a
little bit different and in front of me
are three gaming phones the razor phone
- the ROG phone from Asus as well as
shammies black shark - all three of
these phones came out in the fall of
this year they're all kind of like the
new gaming phone in town if you're
interested in getting a gaming phone one
of these is probably on your radar there
are other companies lesser-known
companies that make gaming phones but if
you're gonna pick one I recommend
looking at one of these three so we're
gonna go through these phones and talk
about things I like about them things I
don't like about them as well as whether
or not you should get a gaming phone at
all so first up the specs on these
phones are different but the SOC is the
same they're all running the snapdragon
845 so powerful hardware with big
screens but they're also heavy and not
super cheap the cheapest one here is one
from Xiaomi but it's still gonna be like
550 600 dollars now the thing that
separates the premium phones here are
their screens they're running faster
screens and that was originally the real
differentiating factor for a gaming
phone like originally last year when
gaming phones came out they were the
high refresh screens and the benefit of
a high refresh screen is actually quite
difficult to convey in a video
especially one being shot at 24 frames
per second if you see them in real life
they look very smooth and when he's
picked up a razor phone and played with
that 120 Hertz screen notices it right
away if you're wandering the 120 Hertz
screen on the razor phone does look a
bit smoother than the 90 Hertz on the
ACS phone but not every game supports a
high refresh screen there's a lot of
popular games out there that are capped
at 60 or even 30 frames per second the
brightest screen of this bunch is the
asus rog phone it's an AMOLED display
looks really clean really bright and
it's noticeably brighter than the screen
on the razor phone - now this is an
improved screen last year the razor
phone one had a notice lead em screen
it's brighter this year but it's still
not as bright as I'd want it to be the
other thing is that the razor phone to
screen is once again certified for
Netflix HD our thing is it's not as
awesome as it may seem
Netflix HDR content looks really dim on
the razor phone to screen especially if
you in a brightly lit environment the
visual detail from this HDR mode is
better for sure like I can see the
details in the bright air is much
clearer on the Rays of
but the overall image is really dark
like you need a really bright screen to
take advantage of HDR content that's
just the nature of HDR and the razor
phone doesn't have a super bright screen
the asus screen is brighter and although
it's not HDR certified I think most
people would prefer the image on that
phone over the razor phone even if some
of the light detail is blown out or
crushed on that phone just because it's
a brighter screen to look at the black
shark to screen feels more generic to me
it's a regular 60 Hertz panel but it
still looks good now the design on these
phones are all quite different I
personally like the design on the ROG
phone the best it looks the most unique
to me like I like the way that the lines
are etched into the glass and the copper
accents on the back are nice the razor
phone looks more boxy it's got the whole
next bit design going on still the glass
back definitely gives it a more premium
feel and look compared to last year's
razor phone but it's still a pretty boxy
phone the black shark too looks the most
uninspired to me not that it's an ugly
phone or anything it's just more generic
looking and not as iconic as the other
two phones even though these are all
gaming phones the only phone with a
built-in headphone jack is the ROG phone
I'll be honest to me any kind of like
gaming device especially a gaming phone
should have a headphone jack like a
gaming anything should have a headphone
jack in 2018 but for whatever reason
these two phones the razor phone - and
the black shark - both need dongles but
that's just the way things are in 2018
in terms of the design ergonomics none
of these phones are super comfortable I
find that the razor phone is actually
the least comfortable of the three in
terms of like long-term gameplay the
corners of the phone kind of dig into
your hand after a while the other two
also aren't super amazing like compared
to a Nintendo switch or like a Game Boy
Advance those things are built for your
hands perfectly these are phones right
so they have to be thin they're never
gonna be super comfortable in your hands
I would say that the black shark 2 has
the edge over the other two but it's
still not amazing ok lighting all three
of these phones have light-up logos on
the back that you can control through
software to change their colors and
stuff and we've seen light-up logos on
gaming peripherals and laptops and stuff
like that they finally made their way
into phones and it's something that's
actually a little bit different on
phones than gaming peripherals so I've
said this before in many of my videos
lighting on laptops and peripherals and
stuff like that you play with it you
enjoy it it's fun and it's cool but that
novelty wears off pretty quickly
for whatever reason on phones I like it
a lot more than I thought I would
there's something about customizing your
phone to showcase a particular color
that feels fresh right now in 2018
it makes your phone stick out a little
bit differently from all the other
phones out there like having a blue logo
is something that I personally like it
just makes your phone look different and
for me because my phone is a very
personal object to me it's just nice to
be able to have that customizability the
razor and the ROG lighting look the best
to me feel like the ROG phone has more
surface area for that light to kind of
shine through so it's like the most
prominent the black shark 2 also has
lighting on the side so you can make
this thing go bonkers but it's almost
too much at this point okay so the
speakers on all three of these phones
are front-facing so there's a reduced
chance that you'll be covering the
speakers while you're playing games
which is a good thing they're all loud
but in terms of sound quality I'd say
the Asus is the best the Razer phone is
a close second and then I guess more
distant third is the black shark - all
right performance all three of these
phones are strong performance with the
snapdragon 845 the Asus phone is running
supposedly binned chips which means that
they're cherry-picking chips that can
run at a higher clock speed these are
supposed to boost up to two point nine
six gigs instead of two point eight and
when you run some benchmarks that
there's a difference but I don't think
it's significant and when you're playing
games I really couldn't tell the
difference between them they're all very
strong performers in mobile games they
also have identical battery sizes all
four thousand milliamp hours the Black
Shark - actually runs through battery
life the quickest when I'm playing games
I'm not sure if it's a software thing
because this is a pre-release version of
this phone the camera is just a quick
note on them none of these have amazing
cameras I would say that the razor phone
- is probably the best of the bunch
it looks sharpest to me compared to the
others here and the low-light is better
than the Asus phone compared to pixel
devices and iPhones these cameras just
aren't nearly as good all right one of
the last things I want to talk about are
one of the most unique features on the
ACS phone it's the air trigger so if
you're unfamiliar what they are they
have sensors built into the frame of the
phone that detect when you press it so
basically on a console you have like
your l2 r2 l1 r1 buttons and it
simulates that on a phone without their
Ashley being a button there it's just a
sensor built into the frame now the idea
of this on paper is awesome when I first
heard about it and tested it out in
Taiwan I thought was pretty cool but now
that I've used this for a while there
are limitations to this
Knology for one there's a little bit of
lag when you press it there's a delay as
to when it triggers and if you bind it
to something that's really important
like shooting for example you don't want
there to be a delay it's got to be
instant when you've lined something up
right you want to have to see it target
it trigger and it should shoot right
away but that split-second of processing
time is annoying you can bind it to
other things that are just less crucial
and it just gains utility in that sense
but for super important actions
I wouldn't bind it to the triggers the
other thing I've notice is that even at
the highest sensitivity it's not as
sensitive as I'd like I'd like to be
there just graze it and it's trigger but
you got to press a little bit you have
to be very deliberate with your presses
on it and that kind of takes away from
the utility again it's not a bad thing
to have it's kind of unobtrusive and you
can't even tell that there's air
triggers on this phone I think software
can fix it and make it quite a bit
better but right now it's cool but not a
game changer another thing is that the
vibration motor on the Asus phone is
very powerful it's actually one of the
strongest motors I've felt on a phone if
you're into that whole like haptic
feedback life and it'd be great but it's
also for games like if there are games
out there that take advantage of
vibrations then yeah good phone for that
there's an accessory that this phone
comes with it's like a fan that's
designed to keep the temperatures down
I've used it quite a bit and I got to be
honest it feels like a bit of a gimmick
not that it doesn't do anything like
when you plug it in the fan does blow
out air but it doesn't really seem to
make a difference in terms of the
performance I've tested it on several
benchmarks several stress tests and I'm
just getting the same kind of
performance with or without the fan so
maybe if you're playing for like hours
on this device then it would make a
difference but for my personal testing
didn't make much of a difference the
razor phone has an optional wireless
charger and I really like this wireless
charger so it has lighting which can be
obnoxious at night you can turn that off
and stuff but it has two positions it's
got a flat position we can kind of lie
your phone on it flat and it also has a
tilted stand mode where you can kind of
prop up your phone and watch a show on
it while it's charging wirelessly it's
pretty cool the black shark - has this
included controller which you can clip
on to the case and becomes a more
ergonomic gaming experience it works
through bluetooth it's not like an
analogue connection but yeah I actually
like this little accessory you can get
stuff like this for any phone but the
fact that they include in the box is
nice so concluding thoughts are these
phones really worth your money because
these things are not cheap they're
definitely a premium
just because of the fact that it's a
gaming phone I find that the Razr phone
is the most well rounded the 120 Hertz
screen looks awesome in the UI and
certain games can really make you so
that screen speakers are rich the RGB
lighting is cool and the camera is
improved this year compared to last
year's phone here's my take on it if you
never play a game if we literally never
play a single game on this phone it's
still a great phone overall I feel like
you're just getting a really good user
experience with this phone and if you
play games it's a bonus
the Asus phone feels more it feels more
niche to me it's definitely a gamer
oriented phone if you don't play games
at all then I wouldn't recommend this
phone just because there's a bunch of
features on this phone and included fan
accessory they're obviously geared for
gaming performance but if you're a gamer
and you can take advantage of those
things then this is a good phone as well
particularly the screen it's a nice
looking screen the black shark foam it's
the cheapest of the bunch and if you're
North America it might be quite
difficult to get this phone but with the
included accessory and the way this
thing feels in your hand when you're
actually playing games
it's actually a very good option as well
but I would only get one of these if
camera performance really doesn't matter
to you because for the money that you
would spend on either of these phones
like the 800 900 or 600 dollars you can
get a smart phone with a way better
camera so if that matters to you I would
opt out from a gaming phone now if
you're really in love with that RGB
backlighting or the backlit logos I mean
let's be honest here these look really
cool then you got to go from one of
these phones okay hope you guys enjoyed
this video thumbs we liked it subs we
loved it see you guys next time