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Until recently, there was no such thing equally a "gaming phone." You merely played Angry Birds or Clash of Clans on whatever phone you had lying around. The proliferation of competitive mobile online shooters like PUBG and Fortnite has led device makers to showtime pushing loftier-operation Android phones as gaming device first and foremost. Gaming peripheral maker Razer launched its showtime telephone last year with a gaming focus, and now it'southward dorsum with the Razer Phone two. It has a few new commonsensical features simply also some RGB LEDs for good mensurate.

The Razer Phone two is reminiscent of last year's phone. It has a boxy frame with large front-facing stereo speakers — there's still no headphone jack. Instead of aluminum, the Razer Telephone ii has a glass frame that allows it to have wireless charging. The Razer Phone ii also gains water-resistance with an IP67 rating. Inside, it has flagship-level specs with a Snapdragon 845, 8GB of RAM, and a 4,000mAh bombardment.

The display is one of those "gaming" features Razer talks about. The 5.72-inch LCD has a resolution of 1440 x 2560. And so, dissimilar many other flagship phones, this ane is still 16:ix instead of the taller eighteen:9. That makes information technology noticeably wider than, for example, a Milky way S9 with its v.8-inch screen. What sets this brandish autonomously is the refresh rate — information technology supports up to 120Hz whereas other phones are stuck at 60Hz. This does depict more ability, so yous tin accommodate the refresh rate down to relieve your battery. Games that tin can render at high frame rates do await great on Razer's screens, but many mobile games are capped at 60fps.

Razer is making the odd decision to launch this phone with Android eight.1 Oreo instead of Pie, which officially launches a few months ago. It says the phone will get a quick update to Pie, and it did manage to get the get-go Razer Phone updated from Nougat to Oreo last year post-obit a similar promise. Even without the new Os, the Razer Phone includes a few cool extras like the highly configurable Nova Launcher Prime as the stock dwelling screen.

Conspicuously, the gravest oversight in terminal year's Razer Phone was the lack of RGB lighting. For a company that sticks RGB in literally everything else it makes, this was an odd choice. The Razer Phone 2 rectifies the mistake by making the Razer logo on the back glow dissimilar colors based on what you've got on the screen. You can also customize information technology to glow any colour y'all desire. It tin can wink to alert you to notifications if y'all lay the phone confront down.

Razer seems to think people want that RGB, likewise. The Razer Phone 2 will price $799 — just like the new Google Pixel iii. Information technology's unlocked with support for GSM networks like AT&T and T-Mobile.

Our own PCMag has a hands on with the phone beneath:

Now read: Razer Phone Gets Android 8.one Update, Goes on Auction at Best Purchase, Razer Announces new 15.6-inch Blade Laptop with Nvidia Max-Q Graphics, and Microsoft, Razer Bring Keyboard and Mouse Support to the Xbox One