Razer Phone 2 confirmed, might have PC software, services

Gaming smartphones haven’t exactly taken off, probably because there are practically only one or two such phones available in the market today. We are, however, already seeing their early legacy in the emphasis on advanced cooling systems in the latest high-end models. Gaming company Razer, however, reports that its Razer Phone has actually given the company no small amount of profits enough to warrant a Razer Phone 2 with still unknown and mysterious features.

In its latest financial report (PDF), Razer says that its “next generation products” saw a growth spurt of 432.3% year on year. In monetary terms, that translates to $16.5 million. Razer attributes this meteoric success to the Razer Phone, which launched in late 2017 and is considered to be the progenitor of this new race of smartphones.

It’s not the only one anymore, though, so Razer probably feels the need to step up its game. That most likely means upgrading to the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, or maybe even the next one after it depending on when the Razer Phone 2 will launch. It will most likely retain its 120 Hz screen, which still has the distinction of being the only Android phone in the market to have the feature. Here’s what Razer has to say about its plans for V2:

“The Group is very pleased with the success of its first generation Razer Phone, which was released in a limited run and has garnered very positive reviews internationally. Razer is now focusing its resources into the development of the second generation Razer Phone and accompanying software releases which will extend its software and services from PC into the mobile market.”

That statement does hint at what might set the Razer Phone 2 apart from its rivals, under the “PC software and services” heading. That said, Razer has quite a few of those so it’s not clear yet what that might entail. It has, for example, a zGold rewards system, which would be trivial to make available on mobile. There is also, however, Razer Cortex Stream that would have let players stream their PC games to mobile phones, except the feature silently disappeared.

Curiously, there is no mention of Project Linda, Razer’s take on the idea now popularized by Samsung DeX. The smartphone/dumb laptop combo would have turned the Razer Phone into a makeshift desktop, powered by Sentio a.k.a. Andromium. This could make its final form in the Razer Phone 2 but, judging by the silence since CES 2018, it has most likely been axed already.