Hands-on: Android Pie update from Razer Phone 2

The Razer 2 phone uses the new menu of recent Apple Pie applications, but not its gestures.

Changes to the user interface and how to disable gesture controls

The changes to the user interface are actually pretty small. However, he adopts Android Pie's scanning gestures with Razer's little advantage. If you drag up from the softkey area, it enters the recent applications. However, if you slide up from the dock where your applications are located, the application tray opens immediately. In fact, we like it much better than the standard Android Pie version, which uses half-scans and full scans for this system.

It's certainly different from your usual softkeys. However, it can be disabled. You can disable it by going to Settings, then System, and then Gestures. Disable the "Sweep up the main button" setting to make your keys look like they were.

Other minor changes include an overhaul of the Settings menu graphs. It now adheres better to the Material Design standard and adds a touch of color essential to the procedure. That's just about everything for the elements of the user interface. It's nothing we've seen in vanilla Android and it's a good thing.

Under the hood

We talked a lot about the changes to Android Pie when it was released. So we integrated our video about it just above. Essentially, everything in this video has been added to the Razer Phone 2 with its updated Android Pie. We have also located the Digital Wellbeing application in the Settings menu so you can also access it.

Some of these features include adaptive battery and various enhancements to ART. For those who do not remember, Adaptive Battery learns the use of your application and restricts and pauses applications accordingly. Improvements to ART (Android Runtime) allow applications to run faster and use less memory. However, Razer told us that it was sometimes difficult to see the difference.

In any case, watch the video above if you want to know more about the changes made to Android Pie.

We can confirm that Digital Wellbeing is on the Android Pie update for the Razer Phone 2.

Day-to-day use

Admittedly, we have only this software for a few days and the beta. You get the stable version so that the two are not exactly the same. That said, using the update was nice. We have found no problem and, if you disable the motion controls, the daily use is exactly the same as before without the more colorful Settings menu.

We have found no problem to access the classic functions of Razer Phone 2 such as Chroma Lighting or any other element of the Cortex application. Gesture controls, however, add some variance to a standard update, and we really appreciate how Razer implements it on the version available on Google's Pixel phones. No further analysis is needed. Your Razer Phone 2 should work as before, but with some new features in its sleeve.

Many features, such as adaptive brightness and adaptive battery, require more than 24 to 48 hours to acclimate. We are not able to say if these features work properly on the Razer Phone 2. However, we found extremely promising results. on other devices with Android Pie, we imagine that these two features will also be useful.

If you want your softkeys to return to normal, go to Settings> System> Gestures> Swipe up the Home button, and disable this setting.

Availability

The Android Pie update for Razer Phone 2 is expected to launch in the next two weeks. Here are the dates they told us:

• February 27, 2019: The update should apply to unlocked variants of the Razer Phone 2.
• March 13, 2019: The update should start being launched for most mobile phones. This date is subject to change.
• April 4, 2019: Finally, AT & T customers should receive the update by April 4th. Again, this date is subject to change.

Of course, it may take a few days for your device to arrive on the specified date and, as Razer said, these dates are subject to change.

The update does not really add features other than those provided with Android 9.0 Pie. However, this comes with the security patch of February 2019 and the exhaustive list of changes made by Android Pie.