I'd like to preface this post with a few things. I'm DK, hello. I'm new to these forums so I'm not 100% sure this is the right place to start this specific thread, so if any mods want to move it to a more appropriate location go right ahead.
The Razer phone 2 is a great phone
All right then, so the Razer Phone 2. Absolute unit of a phone. Big, heavy, I love it. And I want to make that clear. I love this phone. And I'm going to be a bit critical of it here but understand that it achieves everything it needs to as a phone and is definitely worth it, especially at the current promotional price ($300 off at time of posting).
A great Phone for Gamers?
So this is the main topic of this post. The Razer Phone 2 is a great phone, but what makes it a phone for gamers? It doesn't have any exclusive games. It doesn't facilitate playing mobile games. It just isn't a game changer in the mobile market (pun wholly intended). A fluid screen and decent speakers are great things to have, but many of us have been gaming since the CRT TV era. A top of the line screen and stereo sound are luxuries in the same way fancy graphics are a luxury you should only consider after the baseline of the game, the gameplay, is solid. What could really define a phone as built for gaming is the controls.
An exploration
Modern gaming phones are just phones like any other with slightly higher specifications. But this wasn't always the case. Before all phones were a mere touchscreen, both Nokia and Sony tested the waters with interesting, if poorly marketed designs.
Both received little support and ended up discontinued, but they gave us a glance at what mobile gaming could be. The Nokia N-Gage was goofy but I firmly believe that Sony was on to something with the slide out controller design.
The Razer Raiju
Razer's only currently available mobile gaming solution is the bulky Razer Raiju. This monster is the opposite of portable, and ridiculously pricey on top.
Now I'm sure the Raiju works great. The issue is that it's not portable. This is a full sized controller and could never fit in your pocket alongside your phone.
A Proposition
What I propose, in order to make the Razer Phone a more viable gaming phone, and potentially any phone if Razer did this right, is to create a case-like add-on that holds the phone in place and provides a collapsible controller. Much like the Xperia Play did. So I got to working on the concept.
So the beauty of this concept is that it could be adapted to work on any phone, possibly at low cost. This would not only make the Razer Phone into a real gaming phone, but could potentially revolutionize mobile gaming as a whole, offering players a real viable means of interacting with conventional games.
Possible extra features
-Razor could release something like this alongside new mobile ports of successful PC indie titles or retro games, effectively as exclusives to this controller platform. (imagine Sonic Mania mobile as a razer exclusive)
-if there's enough space inside the controller, it could include expanded data storage
-Alternately, it could hold an extra battery to power the phone for longer periods of time.
-The controller portion could possibly be removable to either slim down the phone without removing the whole case, or to be swapped out for a different controller layout
-The controller portion could possibly be rotated 90 degrees to play games in vertical position (without the thumbsticks)
Important notes
-It does not need to be very comfortable. No successful handheld gaming platform has ever been very comfortable to use. We sacrifice comfort for portability.
-It needs to be a fully featured modern controller. so 4 shoulder buttons and clickable thumbsticks are a must.
In closing
Well that's it. A little something I've been thinking about way too much since I got my Razer Phone 2. I want to play games on it, but let's be honest. Most conventional style mobile games are absolutely horrendous to play on the touchscreen, and all the mobile controllers out there just suck. I caught myself thinking about the PSP go and the Xperia Play and just how much I'd love to have that control style on a modern powerful phone. Imagine all the fun you could have with emulators with something like this.
I've been exploring controllers for the Razer Phone 2 and though nothing exactly fits the bill of what I'm looking for, a few options are rather promising.
First up is the 8bitdo Zero
This thing... is just a ridiculously small SNES controller. That's it.
And the controller I've come closest to ordering for myself so far is the ipega pg-9087
This one is close to ideal. It's fairly small and can hold the phone in both horizontal and vertical positions.
It has a few issues though. It only works via bluetooth, no direct connection, and it's still just a little too big. Oh and it looks like it wouldn't play nice with the Razer Phone 2's sharp 90 degree corners. I would really like to see something similar put out by Razer, especially if it's designed to fit the Razer Phone 2 perfectly.
I really want to do some proper gaming on my Razer Phone 2, and something like the ipega could make conventional gaming on phones actually appealing. Though right now the biggest draw is emulation since not all that many games support proper controller layouts.
Anyhow, just more food for thought.