The misery of carrier stores [#acpodcast]

Alex Dobie takes center stage this week as he, Daniel Bader, Andrew Martonik, and Jerry Hildenbrand talk about Alex's hands-on experience with some recently announced devices, the Razer Phone and HTC’s U11+.

Razer’s maiden voyage into the smartphone market is targeted towards gamers. With a unique 120Hz display, 8GB of RAM, and a huge 4,000mAh battery, it offers an opportunity for high frame rates on a mobile device. But can the Android gaming experience really take advantage of its potential? And how satisfactory of a phone is it in other respects?

The HTC U11+ has a lot going for it from a hardware perspective. On the software side of things, it includes Android Oreo and HTC Sense. But there’s a catch—HTC currently has no launch plans for the U.S., and there are no British carriers for it in the UK. In a market with so many excellent, readily available phones, how can this dark horse contender gain any mindshare with consumers?

  • Razer Phone hands-on preview
  • Razer Phone: Everything you need to know
  • Razer Phone specs
  • HTC U11+ hands-on preview
  • HTC U11+ specs
  • HTC U11 Life review
  • The HTC U11+ started life as a Google Pixel 2 XL project — kind of
Jim Metzendorf