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  • - Hey, guys, this is Austin.

  • Between the ROG Phone and the Razer Phone 2,

  • 2018 is shaping up to be an awesome year

  • for gaming smartphones.

  • So with both of them on the desk at the same time,

  • why, I think a good old-fashioned comparison is in order.

  • First up we have the Razer Phone 2.

  • Now, a couple weeks ago, we were able

  • to get our hands on this,

  • but it was a very brief hands-on,

  • whereas this, this is going to be

  • a little bit more of an in-depth

  • feature comparison review gaming benchmark.

  • Are there other words I can put in the title?

  • Do you see how shiny this glass is?

  • It'll never be this shiny again

  • the second I put my dirty fingerprints on it.

  • Not only do we have a fast charger included in the box,

  • something that a certain fruit-themed company

  • might want to take note on,

  • but we also have a series of cables and dongles.

  • But what's actually kind of interesting

  • about the Razer Phone is that we have

  • a USB-C headphone adapter.

  • Now this might not sound impressive.

  • In fact, it's included on most phones

  • that don't have a headphone jack,

  • which is basically everything at this point.

  • But this actually does support full hi-fi audio

  • and supposedly has a pretty good DAC inside.

  • Next up we have the ROG Phone,

  • and I actually don't know to open this box.

  • (Velcro crackling)

  • Oh, wow, okay, that's, all right, that's a box.

  • All right. (chuckling)

  • First up, we have the phone itself.

  • So the ROG Phone's kind of unique

  • in that not only does it have a USB-C

  • and a headphone jack on the bottom,

  • but it has two more USB-Cs on the side

  • which are meant for accessories.

  • So the last time I tried the ROG Phone,

  • it was still a fairly early prototype,

  • and I've gotta say, immediately, this feels really nice.

  • We do have that,

  • actually, is that aluminum?

  • That's gotta be aluminum.

  • It's incredibly heavy, though, wow.

  • It really feels nice,

  • and it's got such a heft in the hand,

  • and unlike the Razer Phone,

  • which is basically a giant squared-off brick,

  • this is much more rounded

  • and a little bit more of a hand-friendly shape.

  • Something unique about the ROG Phone

  • is that unlike basically every other gaming phone out there,

  • there's a wide range of accessories

  • that are either included in the box such as this fan,

  • or other things that'll be available for purchase.

  • You know what I feel like right now?

  • I feel like ROG is trying to make

  • the ultimate ROG Phone, right?

  • Like, when we do Building the Ultimate,

  • we try to find the ridiculous and crazy accessories,

  • but they're just selling all of the accessories.

  • You could literally get everything you need

  • to build the ultimate ROG Phone straight from the store.

  • Not only does it have the RGB,

  • but it also has a fan, USB-C, headphone jack,

  • all that stuff, which is rearranged to the bottom.

  • This is cool.

  • I really appreciate that they put this in the box.

  • I don't want to get too into the dock right now,

  • but the idea is that when you're using the phone

  • in landscape mode, your hand is naturally covering up

  • not only the headphone jack but also the USB-C,

  • so in addition to be able to get a little bit of cooling,

  • you also have those ports on the bottom of the phone

  • so you can easily plug it in, plug your headphones in,

  • and you won't get in the way of your hands.

  • (box thumping)

  • Wait, what'd you, what are you doing?

  • A Black Shark?

  • Wait, are you trying to add another phone

  • to the comparison in the middle of the video?

  • "You're Gamer, Let's Shark!"

  • Oh boy, this looks exciting.

  • What's the deal with this?

  • Oh.

  • Oh, this is not the original Black Shark at all.

  • Okay, this is an unprecedented move

  • in that there's a brand-new unreleased smartphone

  • on my desk and I literally don't know anything about it,

  • except that it looks kind of cool!

  • That's something to know about it, right?

  • So it's got a kind of combination of aluminum on the sides

  • but it still does have that glass back panel,

  • and I'm assuming that looks kind of like an RGB logo?

  • Oh, wow, that's quite the gamer skin,

  • and, oh yeah, we do have a RGB logo on the back.

  • I like how we have this great comparison:

  • look, it's the ROG Phone versus the Razer Phone.

  • It all makes sense.

  • And now, I'm like, wait a minute,

  • there's this totally new phone that I have no idea about.

  • I have to figure it out on the fly.

  • This is cool, though.

  • I guess they've definitely upped the RGB game.

  • I mean, that's a look right there.

  • So it looks like you can individually change

  • not only the logo color,

  • but also the little Shark Mode thing on the side.

  • "By pressing the Shark button,

  • "your phone will become a game console."

  • What, a game console?

  • In a smartphone?

  • That's crazy!

  • So after spending some time with the Black Shark,

  • a few things come to mind.

  • First of all and probably the most important for the video

  • is that this is not a final phone

  • and it's certainly not final software.

  • There's definitely some tweaks

  • that are going to need to go on before this is released.

  • And also, a lot of the benchmarks and stuff

  • don't even work yet, so we're gonna take some of this

  • with a grain of salt.

  • There's also the controller,

  • which actually doesn't attach to the phone.

  • It attaches to the case that comes with the phone,

  • so it's maybe not the most elegant way of doing it,

  • but it's sort of like you would expect with a Joy-Con.

  • The only problem is that

  • the controller only works wirelessly,

  • so even though you can slide it on, something like this,

  • it actually doesn't attach

  • with any kind of wires or whatever,

  • so you still need to separately charge

  • not only the controller but the phone itself.

  • The big problem is that this is a Chinese market phone,

  • which means that here in the United States,

  • well, it doesn't have the Google Play store,

  • or any kind of Google apps at all.

  • Now there will be a global version of this phone,

  • and hopefully that will include, you know,

  • the fundamental apps that you would expect like YouTube,

  • but for now, it's kind of hard to get apps on this,

  • unless of course you wanna play

  • a little bit of Fortnite by chance.

  • All three phones have

  • the very familiar Snapdragon 845 inside.

  • So the ROG is slightly clocked higher,

  • but the main difference between the three

  • is that the Black Shark has an optional

  • 10 gigabyte of RAM option,

  • whereas the others only top out at

  • a measly eight gigs of memory.

  • Coincidentally, they all have the exact same size

  • 4,000-milliamp hour battery,

  • which is a good thing for gaming,

  • but from here, the differences start to stand out

  • just a little bit more.

  • The first big difference is with displays.

  • The Black Shark has a perfectly respectable

  • six-inch 2160x1080p panel.

  • It's good but nothing spectacular,

  • especially when you compare it

  • to both the ROG Phone as well as the Razer Phone.

  • Move over to the ROG Phone,

  • and while it does have that same size

  • as well as resolution of the Black Shark,

  • it is an OLED panel running at a full 90 Hertz.

  • Now as far as I know, this is the first time

  • that any phone has hit 90 Hertz with an OLED panel.

  • The Razer Phone has a slightly smaller 5.7-inch display,

  • but it is a much higher resolution at 2560x1440,

  • and importantly, it runs at a whopping

  • 120 hurt refresh rate.

  • Hertz, not hurt.

  • It doesn't hurt to refresh, it Hertz to refresh.

  • The only real downside is that this is a very wide phone,

  • specifically when you put it side by side

  • with the Black Shark and the ROG.

  • It's just not quite as comfortable to hold,

  • but that screen is really well-optimized for video.

  • Let's talk about these screens for a second.

  • The ROG Phone has a very accurate OLED panel,

  • and even though it's not the most

  • well-calibrated thing in the world,

  • it looks nice to the eye.

  • The Razer Phone thankfully is much, much brighter

  • than the original version of the Razer Phone.

  • Again, it's not quite 100% there,

  • but it is a lot better than the previous generation.

  • And the Black Shark looks nice,

  • but again, it's not quite final,

  • so it's hard to run any kind of real tests.

  • It looks goods, but I really feel like the winner here

  • is the ROG just purely based on the looks.

  • Where these phones really shine

  • is with the higher refresh rate,

  • so it's really hard to show on video,

  • but even the 90 Hertz of the ROG Phone

  • really does make a big difference in small things

  • like scrolling through a webpage or moving between menus.

  • It really does seem a lot more fluid,

  • and that definitely does apply to the Razer Phone.

  • Now, to my eye, I actually can't really see

  • a major difference between 90 Hertz and 120 Hertz.

  • Theoretically, this is a little bit smoother,

  • and I will say it looks maybe a little bit sharper

  • when you're moving between things,

  • but realistically, both these phones

  • are a big step up over the Black Shark,

  • or, well, every other 60 Hertz phone out there,

  • which is basically all of them.

  • All three have dual front-firing speakers,

  • but there's a clear winner as far as which one sounds best.

  • - [Phone] Hey, guys, this is Austin.

  • The Microsoft Surface line has been growing a lot lately,

  • with everything from a desktop all-in-one

  • with the Surface Studio

  • all the way down to the cheap and tiny Surface Go,

  • there's a lot to like.

  • - I guess the ROG Phone wins by default here.

  • That's not what I was expecting.

  • So the problem with the Razer Phone

  • is at least with my specific unit,

  • even though it is very loud and very clear,

  • there's definitely a little bit of distortion

  • on the very high volume.

  • Something the ROG Phone definitely does right

  • are the extra features and accessories

  • that come along with it.

  • One of the main ones is the squeeze feature.

  • This is somewhat to what you'll find on the Pixel

  • where if I squeeze it, what happens is it turns into

  • ROG Gaming X Mode.

  • The thing with X Mode is you actually can customize it

  • to do whatever you want,

  • but I just like going X Mode, not X Mode.

  • X Mode!

  • It's just kind of fun to do.

  • But it's not only just for show,

  • so if you flip the ROG Phone over,

  • on the top are the AirTriggers.

  • This essentially adds physical controls

  • to the top of the phone,

  • giving it a little bit more of a controller kind of feel.

  • The way it works is that each of them

  • can be mapped to a specific button on the screen.

  • The way it works is that inside the X Mode software,

  • you can adjust the actual touchpoint of where you want it,

  • so for example, my right trigger

  • is the actual trigger in the game,

  • and my left is to go on to the sights.

  • You can do it however you want, but the thing is,

  • this is a really, really nice addition

  • to give you a little bit more of a physical control

  • on a phone without having to carry around,

  • like, you know, a controller, or accessories.

  • One downside to the ROG Phone

  • is that this is one of the hottest devices

  • that I've ever tested.

  • Now it doesn't get uncomfortably warm,

  • but after a few minutes of gaming,

  • it does get a little bit toasty,

  • which is where the included fan comes in.

  • So what you do is snap this on to the USB-C ports

  • on the bottom of the phone.

  • As soon as you clamp it on,

  • not only will the RGB logo light up,

  • but it will start a pretty easy little fan

  • which will cool the back of the phone.

  • Now in testing this doesn't make

  • a massive difference to performance.

  • What it does do is cool off the back of the phone

  • to make it a lot nicer for when you're, you know,

  • doing extended Fortnite gaming sessions

  • and not sweating your fingers up.

  • Can you sweat your fingers up?

  • Is that, I can't say that, can I, that's weird.

  • So what's the best gaming phone of 2018?

  • Well, I really like a lot of what Razer has done

  • with the Razer Phone 2.

  • I gotta give it to the ROG Phone.

  • Not only does it have great performance, it looks nice.

  • It's got a lot of really cool features,

  • but really, what kind of sells this to me

  • over everything else is this is the first gaming phone

  • that's not only good at gaming,

  • but it's also good at being a phone,

  • and that, that kind of means a lot.

  • (electronic static)

  • (screen humming)

  • (deep breath)

  • Hey, guys, this is--

  • (electronic music)

- Hey, guys, this is Austin.

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