Category: Razer Phone

The ultimate Android gaming phone, the Razer Phone, has its shiny new Android Oreo 8.1 update rolling out according to the company.  While it will take several weeks to get to everyone, once it arrives, you will get all the goodies that 8.1 brings along with some stability improvements and the latest Android Security Updates.

For those that don’t recall, the Razer Phone was borne out of the acquisition that the company made of Nextbit last year and their first phone is a powerhouse of a gaming and entertainment device, sporting HDR video and Dolby audio for Netflix to name but a few of its high end features.  Couple that with its 120MHz refresh rate and it provides a great gaming experience in your hands.

Good news for those of you who have the Razer Phone:  Android Oreo 8.1 is coming your way in just a few weeks.  The company, who bought Nextbit to get their first phone out the door last year, has announced that they are skipping Oreo 8.0, going straight to 8.1, and that a developer preview of the build is now available too.

The preview is only available for sideloading at the moment so unless you are comfortable with that process (unlocking the bootloader, ADB commands, etc), I recommend you wait until it is officially released next month.

If there is any doubt that Razer has intended their first smartphone, the Razer Phone, to be a premium gaming and entertainment experience for their customers, you can put them to rest.  Today’s announcement around Netflix will end all doubt of the company’s intention.

Today at CES, the company announced that the Razer Phone will be the first smartphone to deliver Netflix content in both HDR video as well as Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 audio.

“We engineered the Razer Phone to handle HDR video and sound like no other phone on the market,” says Min-Liang Tan, Razer co-founder and CEO. “We are incredibly excited to deliver Netflix entertainment on a smartphone like never before, enabling us to take full measure of the Razer Phone’s HDR10-enabled display and dual-firing, front-facing Dolby-optimized speakers and THX-certified headphone connectivity.”

The phone joins several other devices in the market that already provide Netflix in HDR video including the Samsung Galaxy S8 and the Google Pixel 2 series.  But Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 audio is a different and more difficult matter.

Two weeks after making its debut, the gaming and entertainment centric Razer Phone is now available for purchase.  The phone which sports a 120Hz refresh rate, 8GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, is priced at $699 with free shipping available to customers in the United States.  The company is also offering a thin case for $19.99 and an advanced Bluetooth headset for an additional $99.99.

For those that don’t recall, the specs of the Razer Phone are eye-catching.  It is powered by the Snapdragon 835 SoC, has an impressive 8GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 64GB of onboard storage.  The phone will support a MicroSD card so you can expand that storage up to 256GB.  Display wise, it is a 5.7″ LCD that renders at 2560 x 1440 at, wait for it, 120Hz.

If you haven’t put it together yet, this phone is squarely aimed at being an entertainment device, both for gaming and for video watching.