We’ve seen quite a number of smartphones released in a short period of time. There’s Razer’s first-ever smartphone, the Razer Phone, and then there’s HTC’s new and improved HTC U11+. So how do these two smartphones compare to other flagship devices released this year? Let’s find out.
The HTC U11 was a pretty good smartphone, and what it lacked in certain areas are pretty much addressed on the U11+. The new phone features a 6-inch 1440p 18:9 display with minimal bezels – it looks much sleeker than the U11 – and it comes with a more generous 3,930mAh battery too. While there’s no dual-camera system to be found here, the U11+’s 12MP UltraPixel 3 camera is still plenty capable.
As for the Razer Phone, the “smartphone for gamers,” it sports…a more conventional form factor. It has a boxy, Nextbit Robin-like design, as well as a large 5.7-inch 1440p 16:9 IGZO display with a high 120Hz refresh rate. It has a generous amount of RAM too at 8GB, along with a sizeable 4,000mAh battery. Its dual-camera system, on the other hand, is still largely a mystery – it remains to be seen just how capable Razer is when it comes to smartphone photography.
Once we compare these phones to other 2017 flagship smartphones, things get a lot more interesting. The Razer Phone, for one, is the only device with a 120Hz display – whether or not Android (and mobile games) can take advantage of the high refresh rate, however, is an entirely different question. Also, it’s worth noting that the Razer Phone, the OnePlus 5, and the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 are the only three phones in the list with 8GB of RAM.
Then again, the Razer Phone, OnePlus 5, and Mi Mix 2 lack an increasingly standard feature on any given flagship smartphone: dust and water resistance. The U11+ has it, the Mate 10 Pro has it – though the more affordable Mate 10 is only IP53-rated – and really, it’s a feature any premium-tier smartphone should have.
As far as performance go, most of the phones in this list are very capable. Huawei’s Kirin 970 processor – while not as popular as other chips – is quite a powerful SoC, and the same go for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 and Samsung’s Exynos 8895 chipsets. Even though the Razer Phone is touted as a gamer’s smartphone, we imagine other devices in this list are just as capable when it comes to gaming – bar the 120Hz display, of course.
The HTC U11+ and the Razer Phone are really quite interesting flagship devices, but we’re still not quite sure just how good of a smartphone the Razer Phone is. After all, it’s the company’s very first phone, and it has to go against other phone makers with considerably more experience.
