Razer CEO teases its first smartphone

Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan has teased the company’s forthcoming gaming focused smartphone in a photo posted to Twitter by Tom Moss, its GM of Mobile. The device is sitting tantalizingly in Tan’s front jeans pocket with the signature green Razer triple-headed snake clearly visible on the back of the phone. It also features the slick black look that is the hallmark of Razer’s gaming notebooks.

Details about the device and its specifications, however, remain very thin indeed. From what little we can glean from the photo, it appears as though the device will fit into the “phablet” category with a display at least 5.5-inches diagonally. We do know, however, that the company acquired smartphone startup Nextbit founded by Tom Moss in January, also pictured in the photo. The Nextbit Robin is still available for purchase on that company’s website and is promoted as having an unlockable bootloader and open source drivers -- these are features that would certainly appeal to gaming-focused audience.

While the Nextbit Robin is powered by a modest Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 SoC, another of Razer’s acquisitions in recent years Ouya favored ARM-based chipsets made by Nvidia. Nvidia and Razer have both enjoyed a strong relationship over the years, so it would not surprise to learn that the Razer smartphone features an Nvidia Tegra X1 or similar. Although Nvidia Tegra chips are not to be found quite as frequently in the past, the company’s GPU credentials are unquestioned and may offer the right type of basis on which to make a gaming oriented smartphone.

The Razer gaming smartphone is expected to be unveiled this year. The device in Tan’s pocket, while likely a pre-production prototype, suggests that an official unveiling can’t be too far away.

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