Razer Phone Revisited – Indepth Camera Analysis

1. Introduction2. Primary vs Secondary Lens3. HDR4. Low-light Performance5. Extended Gallery6. Razer Phone vs Huawei Mate 10 Pro7. Software8. Closing Thoughts9. View All Pages

We touched on it on the first page, but here we present a variety of images taken in low-light situations – anything from dimly-lit rooms to being outdoors at night.

Low-light performance – primary lens

Starting with the primary lens, we would expect the best low-light images to come from this lens due to its f/1.75 aperture. In short, that is exactly what we get. However, overall quality is still somewhat hit-and-miss when light levels are reduced.

Starting with the image on the top left, this is perhaps the best low-light photo I have taken with the Razer Phone. The overall scene is well-exposed and there is a good amount of detail – you can clearly make out the facial features of the gentleman in the foreground which is quite impressive. An ISO of 180 also helps keep noise to a minimum, and overall I would be happy to use this image.

Moving to the image on the top-right, it is typical of the Razer Phone to serve up a very good image one moment, and then gives you something like this. The primary lens really struggles with this night scene, and a significant amount of noise is introduced despite the ISO not exceeding 1400. The noticeable motion blur is a result of the shutter speed going as slow as 1/14 sec, and this also results in a fair amount of lost detail – particularly evident when looking at the ‘Wynn' logo emblazoned on the top of the hotel. Overall, a very poor image.

Moving inside the El Cortez casino (the bottom left image), things pick up again here. Relying on the fairly dingy casino floor lighting, the ISO hit 733 with a shutter speed of 1/25 sec. The end result is not bad, but not perfect – the car in the foreground is mostly sharp and you can clearly read the ‘El Cortez' sign in the top-left corner of the photo. However, the slot machines in the background are badly blurred, while their screens are also washed-out. Overall, not terrible but not that good either.

Lastly on the bottom right, we get to a Cherry keyboard showing off the company's latest switch. This image isn't too noisy, with ISO 175 and 1/33 sec parameters being used. The exposure is also quite pleasing, really showing off the keyboard's RGB lighting. However, if you look closely, there is really no area that is actually in focus – the switches on the left-hand side are certainly sharper than the ones further away, but you are still left wondering where the phone was actually trying to focus.

Low-light performance – secondary lens

Less words are needed for this section – low-light performance of the secondary lens is poor. As mentioned, this is because the lens has a narrower aperture, f/2.6, and that lets significantly less light in than the primary f/1.75 lens.

The image in the top-left is the most successful, with lovely colours actually, but there is subtle loss of detail than becomes evident when looking at the Wynn logo on the top of the hotel – you can see it is not very sharp.

The rest of the images follow that trend, but in a far more obvious manner – noise is very apparent, with almost no sharpness to the images at all. The keyboard shot – taken in my office – for example, is absolutely dreadful, while the rather odd dog statue in The Venetian is also quite soft and fairly noisy.

On the whole, I would strongly advise against using the secondary lens in any low-light situation as the end result is almost always unusable.

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