We gave the Razer Phone 2 top marks when we reviewed it in 2018 on account of its 120 Hz display, high-quality DAC, 8 GB of RAM and expandable storage, among other positives. However, few would have predicted the device to receive such poor software support.
Razer launched its second smartphone running Android 8.1 Oreo in October 2018, despite the release of Android 9.0 Pie two months earlier in August. It took Razer until late February 2019 before it started upgrading the handset to Android 9.0 Pie, and until April for AT&T to upgrade its devices to Google’s then-current OS.
Android 9.0 Pie is where the Razer Phone 2 remains though, almost 19 months on from its last OS upgrade. Razer still delivers software updates to the Razer Phone 2. The last update contained the September 2020 set of security patches, which makes the Razer Phone 2 more up to date than many smartphones. Conversely, Razer is yet to confirm plans to bring Android 10 to its most-recent handset.
Considering the time elapsed since the device’s last OS upgrade, it would seem unlikely that the Razer Phone 2 will ever receive Android 10. Oddly, the original Razer Phone received two OS upgrades, but that low bar sadly seems out of reach for its successor.