Why it matters to you
If you’re a gamer, you might like what Razer has to offer in its first smartphone.
Razer — the gaming company known for its computers, keyboards, and mice — is getting into the smartphone game. The company has long been rumored to be working on a phone, rumors that were only amplified when it announced the acquisition of Nextbit. Now, Razer has launched a teaser for its smartphone, which will be unveiled at a November 1 event.
There’s a lot we don’t know about the phone, but given the fact that it’s being launched by Razer it’s a pretty safe bet to assume that it will be gaming-focused. What does that mean? Well, the device will likely have an emphasis on display quality, performance, and sound quality — especially given the “watch, play, listen” mantra in the teasers.
While we didn’t have any details, we did already know that Razer was planning a phone — Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan confirmed a few weeks ago that the company would launch a phone before the end of 2017. Then, a Twitter post by Tim Moss, head of Razer’s mobile division, saw Moss and Tan standing together with a Razer-branded device in his pocket — which many assumed to be the new phone or at least a teaser for it.
Previous rumors indicated that the phone would be targeted at “hardcore gamers,” though we have yet to learn exactly what that means. It’s possible that the company could follow Sony’s lead in allowing gamers to stream games from their laptops. Considering Nextbit’s experience with phone storage and offloading little-used apps to the cloud, it’s possible that the phone could feature some of those unique features, too.
Nextbit’s own foray into the mobile world came in the form of the Robin, an Android phone that featured a unique design, a side-mounted fingerprint sensor embedded in the power button, and some pretty neat design choices. While the Robin was a short-lived experiment, it will be interesting to see how Robin-influenced Razer’s smartphone is. Given the Nextbit acquisition, we would expect the Razer to be Android-powered.
Whatever ends up being unveiled, it will take center stage at the November 1 Razer event, which will be livestreamed on the Razer website.