Razer Phone battery life test results: a bit short of the 2-day dream

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The Razer Phone is a different phone: it is the first mainstream phone with a faster display, one with 120Hz refresh rate, a key asset for gamers, but how good is the Razer Phone as a daily driver?

To answer that question, you need to know how good is its battery life.

The Razer Phone ships with a 4,000 mAh battery on board, larger than most other top-end smartphones. While that's great, it is also needed: the faster display also draws more power, and considering that it is a phone for gamers, battery life is key.

So...


We ran our proprietary battery life test on the Razer Phone and it scored 8 hours and 52 minutes, which is a very good result. Still, for those expecting wonders, the Razer Phone is not a record-breaker in terms of battery life. Keep in mind that we do our battery life test in equal conditions for all phones: we set brightness to the same level and turn off notifications. Also, we ran our tests at the Razer's default 90Hz screen setting. The phone's display can also be set to run at 60Hz or at 120Hz, with the lower refresh rate requiring less power, while the highest option allowing for the most clarity, but also requiring the most out of the battery. We will be running the test at the other settings in the near future to see how change the refresh rate affects battery performance.

Battery life(hours)Higher is better
Razer Phone8h 52 min(Good)
Apple iPhone X8h 41 min(Good)
Apple iPhone 8 Plus10h 35 min(Excellent)
Apple iPhone 88h 37 min(Good)
Samsung Galaxy Note87h 50 min(Average)
Samsung Galaxy S88h 22 min(Average)
Google Pixel 2 XL8h 57 min(Good)
Google Pixel 28h 40 min(Good)
LG V309h 34 min(Good)
OnePlus 59h 18 min(Good)
OnePlus 5T8h 51 min(Good)
Huawei Mate 10 Pro12h 5 min(Excellent)

In real life, we can get through a full day with the Razer Phone even if we spend a couple of hours playing games, which is nice. On those days when you don't play games, you can expect a day and a half, and with scarce use, you could even stretch that to a full two days, but that would really be a stretch.

Charge time test!


The Razer Phone is also the first phone to support Qualcomm's Quick Charge 4.0 standard. 

What does this mean?

Qualcomm's promise with Quick Charge 4.0 is that a device can go from an empty battery to 50% charge in just 15 minutes. Additionally, you have new technologies to extend battery cycle life, enhance safety, and expand charging intelligence. You can read the full Quick Charge 4.0 white paper on Qualcomm's official webpage here.

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And while the Razer Phone comes with a Quick Charge 4.0 wall charger in the box and all the support needed for it, we don't see it living up to those promises. In fact, Razer makes a quite different promise: it actually says that it will reach a 50% charge in 40 minutes. That we found to be true.

Here is the charge rate for the Razer Phone:

  • at 15 minutes - 25% battery level
  • at 30 minutes - 37%
  • at 40 minutes - 47%
  • at 1 hour - 64%
  • starts slower charging after it reaches 90% charge
  • full charge takes 2 hours and 20 minutes

As to the charger itself, it's a 24-watt wall charger a USB Type-C port right on the charger, and you get a USB-C to USB-C cable in the box with the phone, just like with the Google Pixel devices.

Full Charge(hours)Lower is better
Razer Phone2h 20 min
Apple iPhone X3h 9 min
Apple iPhone 8 Plus2h 58 min
Apple iPhone 82h 28 min
Samsung Galaxy Note81h 42 min
Samsung Galaxy S81h 40 min
Google Pixel 2 XL2h 32 min
Google Pixel 21h 51 min
LG V301h 48 min
OnePlus 51h 39 min
OnePlus 5T1h 33 min
Huawei Mate 10 Pro1h 42 min

The Razer Phone does not support wireless charging, in case you were wondering.

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