Razer Phone 2 arrives with light-up Chroma and a familiar look

The gaming-centric Razer Phone 2 is official, and it brings a range of minor upgrades over the original Razer Phone.

Razer doesn't want you thinking about its new handset as a gaming phone though. Rather, it claims this is a flagship smartphone that also happens to be an excellent gaming machine.

With a 5.7-inch UltraMotion display with a 120Hz refresh rate, Snapdragon 845 chipset, 8GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, dual rear cameras and a 4,000mAh battery it appears to be well equipped to tackle today's flagships.

Razer has also added a glass rear and wireless charging to the handset this year, as well as improving the rear cameras and increase the screen brightness by 50% to 645 nits.

There are enough upgrades to warrant a new device, but it feels like this is more of a "S" variant rather than a whole new numerical device.

Light it up

The most eye-catching new feature however is the light-up Chroma logo on the rear of the handset. 

If can be lit up in your choice of over 16.8 million colors via an app that comes pre-installed on the Razer Phone 2, and you can even make it "breath" if you wish.

The Razer Phone 2 price is set at $799 (£779, around AU$1,200), which is $100 (£80, around AU$100) more expensive than its predecessor.

In Australia, the phone will initially be an on-plan Optus exclusive, although Razer has confirmed that the option to buy the handset outright will come at a later stage.

The Razer Phone 2's official release date will be sometime in October, but we’re waiting to hear more details on this from Razer.

John McCann
Global Managing Editor

John joined TechRadar over a decade ago as Staff Writer for Phones, and over the years has built up a vast knowledge of the tech industry. He's interviewed CEOs from some of the world's biggest tech firms, visited their HQs and has appeared on live TV and radio, including Sky News, BBC News, BBC World News, Al Jazeera, LBC and BBC Radio 4. Originally specializing in phones, tablets and wearables, John is now TechRadar's resident automotive expert, reviewing the latest and greatest EVs and PHEVs on the market. John also looks after the day-to-day running of the site.