 When it comes to phones, I don't conform to the mainstream trends. I don't need a tall aspect ratio screen, a good camera, or a thin sleek design. What I need as a gamer is the fastest high resolution screen, the biggest THX sound, and a logo that says, this product was made by a lifestyle brand for gamers. And like, it should have like, RGB and shit. Okay, so just to be clear, you don't want any of the stuff that most people would consider important. Yeah. As long as it has RGB and shit. Yeah. Okay, thanks. I think we're done here. No, not just yet. First, I need to tell you about our sponsor. If you guys don't want more of the same cable mallet, it's here for you. Make your video card the main attraction in your case by vertically mounting it with Cable Mods vertical PCIe bracket. Check it out at the link in the video description. When we reviewed the Razer Phone 1, we weren't exactly sure what a gaming phone was supposed to be. And frankly, now that we're looking at the second iteration, it isn't much more clear. So under the hood of the Razer Phone 2, you'll find a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, 8 gigs of LPDDR4X RAM, 64 gigs of expandable internal storage, a large 4,000 milliamp hour battery, and dual 12 megapixel rear cameras with Sony sensors that support 4K 30fps recording. Just like pretty much any other non-gaming phone. Not to mention in a much more attractive form factor, like this, this whole thing that they got going on. This really looks more like a cost saving approach to tooling rather than an attempt to create an iconic design. Which isn't to say that they haven't improved anything. To last year's model, they've added wireless charging, thanks to the glass back, slightly faster cellular networking, IP67 water resistance, Oh, damn it. A blessing and a half for toilet gamers, a brighter screen with HDR capability, and of course, Razer Chroma. Not gonna lie, it looks pretty sick. Like, honestly, I'm getting kind of like an underwear model vibe here. Like it's beautiful from the back with the new glass finish and the illumination, but then it's got a face that deserves to be cropped right out of the frame. Dem bezels, yo. The screen to body ratio of the Razer Phone 2 is absolutely abysmal for a modern device. And not helping matters is the 16 by 9 screen aspect ratio that makes the overall design of it feel really dated. Especially with the on-screen navigation buttons taking up even more real estate. Like it kind of felt like going all the way back to a 4 by 3 monitor by comparison. I mean, in fairness to Razer, 16 by 9 is still the dominant aspect ratio for TV and YouTube content consumption. So they've got that going for them. And of course, in exchange for those unruly bezels, we are getting the rare treat of dual amplified front facing stereo speakers. It's just that the Asus ROG phone has that too, and its bezels aren't nearly as cumbersome. That right there is honestly the biggest problem for the Razer Phone 2. It's not the only gaming phone in town anymore. And if we compare our two gaming phones side by side, the ROG phone really seems to meet or beat the Razer Phone 2 at nearly every turn on the spec sheet. And it's got a headphone jack, something that Razer addresses with a dongle in the box. So then, contrary to our silly intro, I've always been into the performance aspects rather than the lifestyle aspects of gaming hardware. So how does it fare there then? Well, this is actually a more complicated question to answer than you might initially think. On mobile devices in particular, specs tell us only part of the story. A high-end CPU without adequate cooling can perform like a mid-tier or even an entry level one. And it's here that Razer manages to really shine. While the Razer Phone 2 isn't far and away the single fastest phone out of the bunch we tested, in its normal mode, it maintains its performance for longer than many of the phones we tested, ROG phone included, in games. This, along with its large battery, makes its high performance gaming endurance its main source of gamer cred over most of the competition. Moving on then, of our three major complaints about the Razer Phone 1, we've crossed one of them off the list so far. Let's look at the others. The ergonomics, frankly, they still suck the big one because they didn't really change. So I could tell you guys just go watch the original video to get our thoughts on that, but that's kind of stupid. So here's a summary. It's heavy and boxy, which makes it dig into the palm of your hand more than a more rounded design. And the fingerprint sensor equipped lock button is flush mounted, making it difficult to find by feel and even harder to access if you use a case. As for the camera, well, I don't know, it's probably better. I'm not 100% sure since we accidentally on purpose kind of trashed our Razer Phone 1 when we were installing liquid metal on its processor. But even if it was better than the original Razer Phone, that's about like beating your six-year-old cousin in a foot race. Compared to current non-Razer Phones, the most charitable thing I can say about it is that it sometimes manages to capture an image that I would describe as competent. The issue is just that at this price, it draws comparisons to true flagship phones, like the iPhone XS Max and the Galaxy S9 Plus, and it just can't hold a candle to them. I mean, there might be a candle there, but that bright point in the image, it would be so blown out, it would be hard to tell. I mean, Razer's camera app is at least a little more fleshed out, but it's still laggy and it lacks features like slow motion, face detection, or anything resembling manual control. And the only thing I can say in its defense there is that the ROG Phone's camera ain't great either. So at this point, as you've probably guessed, this is not gonna become my daily driver. Like its first-gen sibling, it's just, it's not competitive, especially not for the $800 price tag. For $100 more, the base model ROG Phone offers double the storage, a 2 to 1 screen aspect ratio, an always-on AMOLED display, albeit at a mere 90 Hz versus 120 Max, a far better camera app, dual SIM card slots, and better overall performance, plus it includes an active cooler. Though you do give up the superior IP67 water resistance and a microSD card slot. On that note, the Razer Phone 2 has its bright points. It's still got an excellent, almost stock Android skin and front-firing stereo speakers with that 120 Hz panel that is just so smooth. The problem is just that while people like me can rank phones and talk about their pros and cons, you, the end user, can only buy one. And this just ain't it. 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But if you liked it, hit like, get subscribed, or maybe consider checking out where to buy the stuff we featured at the link in the video description. That backlight is very cool. Also down there is our merch store. Oh, it turned off. Yeah, it's breathing. Also down there is our merch store which has cool shirts like this one and our community forum, which you should definitely join.