Razer Edge has died and OnePlus 13R is here

 It hasn't been that long ago that I bought my Razer Edge.  It was being sold at US$199.99, which was a bargain price, even for a WiFi-only model because it came with a Kishi V2 Pro controller.

If you read my earlier blog entries, it was good but not great, and then, it was dead.  The company had an arduous website support mess.  I started the claim within my account, and it asked me to fill in my account details.  Then, I couldn't access some of the most important pages, so support staff added some of my information, and handed the support pages back to me to finish.  When it had been completed, Razer support sent me a package and label (that was another issue) and I returned it.  It didn't take too long and they sent me a whole retail box, complete with cables and another controller.

 That unit died today and I was in the middle of a game, no less.

 I'm more-or-less ahead of where I was with Android.  We'll see if Android helps me recover.  If that doesn't quite make sense, let me give you my Android history.  I had an LG Optimus S as my first Android phone.  It didn't have enough storage to hold apps and and do a System Update.  The next Android product I got was the Google Nexus 7 tablet by Nvidia.  I returned that within a week.  The next year, I got the Google Nexus 7 tablet by ASUS.  I didn't have that for years.  Then, I got a Lenovo Tab M8 FHD, which in 2018 felt like the tablet from 2013.  I later bought the OnePlus 8T and still later, the Pixel 6a.

I decided to buy a reliable phone to replace the Razer Edge: the OnePlus 13R.  I had a OnePlus 8T a couple of years ago and it seemed to be made for an Apple iPhone user.  Physical things seemed to be where they should be.  The operating system seemed to understand how I needed it to work.  When I played a game, it adjusted for it.

 Then, I had a problem with the USB type C port.  Rather than get it fixed, I bought a Google Pixel 6a, and that was a huge mistake.  In fact, the upgrade to Android 14 didn't like that I had two users and it decided my data was corrupt and I had no choice but to erase it.  If the Android 14 upgrade had been optional or I could have postponed it, I would have.  That device is on Android 16 now, but it will never have my trust again.

Last year, I looked at the OnePlus 12R.  They had some good prices on it and it was quite powerful for not being the top-of-the-line phone.  The OnePlus 13R is equally impressive for the time, and at US$529 with a free case and US$50 trade-in/recycling credit, it's a decent deal.

 

Having 256 GB of storage and 12 GB of RAM will be helpful. Having the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC will smack the Pixel 6a back into the dark ages.  Having a good cooling system will stop the likelihood of a Razer Edge-like overheating incident.  The 120 Hz low-power OLED will be impressive and the huge battery will keep things going.

 To me, this is still a lot of money for a device to just play games.  I might use it as a phone some time in the future, but it's a device for playing games.  You can tell me about other devices that are twice as much money.  They might be better, but not for me.  I bought an iPhone 15 to be my phone.  I didn't need AI messing up anything and that phone doesn't support it natively.  The 13R will have it, but I won't use that functionality unless it's part of the camera app or something like that and I have no choice.

Razer Edge on 13R box

 

Anyway, hopefully, it will be on the way sooner than expected.  The U.S. headquarters moved from Texas to California, so someone could probably drop it off on their way home.  Well, I got a shipment notice but it's at least a six hour drive from here.  I don't believe that FedEx will work that quickly.

Edge on the left, 13R on the right

 

Update 2025.07.16: The OnePlus 13R arrived.  It's big like the 8T, which isn't a horrible problem because it's still smaller than the Razer Edge.

The device came with 54% charge (6000 mAh battery) so I started downloading immediately.  There was a System Update and after that, another one.

Holding it, I was surprised to see the buttons moved.  Mute switch is on the left hand side, but Power and Volume buttons are on the right.  On the 8T, the Volume buttons were on the left and the Power button and Mute switch were on the right.  My iPhone 15 has Volume buttons and the Mute switch on the left with the Power button on the right.

The OLED is as good as expected.  It may be more power efficient, but at least, it's a 120 Hz display.  Games work as expected.  If you ever want to test a phone, run Tower of God: New World.  For a handheld game, it's quite demanding.  The display is so much better than the Razer Edge.  I'm glad I didn't spend much on that one.  I just looked at the Pixel 6a, which had a System Update and the display is pathetically bad.

 Just as I felt when I used the 8T, I could use the 13R as a replacement phone for my current iPhone.   I know that Samsung has a lot of fans, but I suspect many buy it just because it isn't Apple and that their advertising makes fun of Apple.  I've never had much luck with Samsung.

 The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 seems quite a bit stronger than the G3X that the Razer Edge had.  As many have said, that seemed to be a Snapdragon 888 with a better GPU and all the heat problems were intensified.

 

Running Tower of God: New World, it is warm, but not so hot as to fail.  The Razer Edge would have the fan going and be hot enough to cook something.  It would display "Cooling Down" but the message was only there for a moment.  OnePlus have instituted a Power Pass-Through mode where you can have a power bank attached and it will bypass the battery charging and just supply power to the unit, much the way Apple does with the Mac.

Update 2025.07.17: The 13R got a full charge overnight and it seems ready for anything.  I'm not sure how much I want to take it outside to test the cameras.  I've tried some games and it's quite good.  The Kishi V2 Pro does not work with it, but it doesn't work with my iPhone 15, either.  The older Kishi V2 works with both.  I'm not sure why Razer doesn't actually test to confirm which devices work but it's annoying.  The Kishi V3 and V3 Pro are available, but I'm not ready to put more money into Android gaming or into Razer. 

Switching from a OnePlus 8T to a Google Pixel 6a: What could go wrong?

 Now that the 8T is approximately 3 major versions behind, I wondered if it was time to switch.  I also recently bought a Razer Kishi V2, which for some reasons, doesn't work with it.  Android version 12 seems good but I wonder what kind of a mess the OnePlus/Oppo combination has made.  Things just don't seem quite right.  What better way to get a clear version of Android than from Google.

My last Google-labeled device was the 2013 ASUS-made Nexus 7 tablet with a Snapdragon S4 Pro.  It didn't seem to work very well with Android, but it worked well enough to play games.  It was much better than the previous year's version made by Nvidia.  However, even version 6 of Android just didn't work well and I gave it away.

I've spent time with Android 9, 10, 11, and 12.  They are better than previous versions.

Related to the Razer Kishi V2, there was a deal on the Google Pixel 6a for US$299.99, down from $449.99.  That's a good price for an unlocked phone.  It's slightly less than the US$399.99 I paid for the OnePlus 8T, but that had 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage.  The Pixel 6a has 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage.  Both have an OLED display but the 6a is limited to 60Hz while the 8T goes to 120Hz.  The Google Tensor SoC isn't all that different than the Snapdragon 865, but in all reality, the 8T is a flagship device and the 6a isn't.

Conversion

I charged the 6a and when I turned it on, the instructions asked if I wanted to switch from another phone.  As instructed, I plugged a USB, type-C cable into each phone.  The 6a couldn't see the 8T.  I wasn't surprised.  Sometimes, it's difficult to get the phone to charge.  I connected them wirelessly and that seemed to work.

After some time, it finished.  I wondered how it did a complete backup so quickly.  It didn't do a complete backup.  That's how.

It sent the list of apps, contacts, and more.  The apps were being downloaded immediately, but that took quite a while.  Apparently, the data was not always available.  A few Android apps still cling to Facebook and other methods of storing progress, while Google is clearly available.

It took about a week to get things running the way I wanted, although I'm still not sure everything is where it should be.  The OnePlus 8T is empty now, though.

Thankfully, the 6a has a tiny, compatible SIM slot.  Mint Mobile is hard at work.  I've yet to test communications speeds.

On the other hand, game speeds seem decent.  Scrolling a game in landscape mode is jerky.  Animation is fine but that movement across the width of the display is pretty bad.  Is it the display or the graphics processor or the lack of RAM?

So far, the 6a seems okay for the job, and if it seems not good enough, I only have to remember my first Android smartphone: the LG Optimus S that was forever short on storage.  I had to delete apps to update the operating system.  That phone was US$299.99.

Real Life

Okay, so out in the real world, away from Comcast/Xfinity, it's okay for the internet connection.  I was concerned because I tried it close to work and got 3G-type speeds.  At home, I turned off the WiFi and it was faster than the XFinity connection.

What's a bit disappointing is that the display is dark in sunlight, even on cloudy days.  I turned it up to about 80% of maximum brightness and I could barely see the display.  The display on the 8T was readily visible.  Something else that hurts is that the system continues to drop the brightness level to around 30%, without asking.

The horizontal scrolling jerkiness has become less but is still noticeable.  I suspect that having half the storage and half the RAM isn't helping.  However, the 8T was reporting that 150+ GB of storage were in use, and since I don't have that much, I'm not sure how things are working or what extra the 8T was reporting as used.

Cases

Crave Dual Guard case recommended by Amazon is strong but slippery.  It's slipped off the desk and has slipped out of my hands.  I'm glad the case is tough.

Instead, two Spigen cases caught my attention:

Spigen Liquid Air Armor

Spigen Tough Armor

I have used the Tough Armor case for the OnePlus 8T and it was very good.  I've settled on the Liquid Air Armor case for now, as it is a slimmer case.  It doesn't have the kickstand but I rarely used the kickstand for the OnePlus 8T.

Still, I have to remove the case for the Razer Kishi V2.  It's possible that an adjustment to the pads on the controller will allow the case to be used on the controller.

Update 2024.07.15: Ordered a Razer Edge Wi-Fi model to replace the Pixel 6a.  It's been over a year with this awful phone and I just don't want to deal with the frustration any longer.  Newegg had a deal for US$100 off, putting the final price at about 66%.  The Snapdragon G3X should provide a much better experience.  Even the Snapdragon 865 was better than the Tensor 1st generation.

Google's new Nexus 7

Ifr you missed the announcement on Wednesday, Google has replaced the Nexus 7 with the Nexus 7.

It uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro--quad core CPU and Adreno 320 GPU with 2 GB of RAM total to power the 1920x1200 pixel resolution display.

The older one used an nVidia Tegra 3 quad+1 core CPU with nVidia's own GPU and a 1280x800 pixel display.

Obviously, it's quite a change.  Having had two of the previous version and returning them for various reasons, I wonder if the newest version will please.  Hopefully, they won't have any quality issues because there were plenty early in each run.  Thankfully, they went with the current 16 and 32 GB storage options.  I also wonder about performance issues.

The older one left me wondering whether I had a defective device or not.  It would be smooth for the longest time (like I'd not seen from Android) and suddenly, it would pause a couple of seconds, and start again suddenly.  There never seemed to be a pattern, and it happened with both the 16 GB version that was then top of the line and after being replaced at the top, the 32 GB version.  You'd think that nVidia (and Google) would have noticed that in testing.

I'm amused at the Apple fanatics who say that there is nothing to the Nexus 7 in comparison to the iPad mini.  What are they missing?  The iPad mini wasn't competition for the original Nexus 7, so how is it that it beats the newer one?  (Update 2013.10.25: Obviously the revised iPad mini with the higher resolution (the same as the full-sized iPad) display is on a more even testing ground with the newer Nexus 7.  Given that both the newer iPad mini and newer Nexus 7 have very powerful processing available, it's simply a matter of taste.  Oh, and the US$170 difference leads to some powerful thoughts.  Google is trying to sell their ecosystem and services while Apple is trying to sell hardware.)

I like Apple products and I was disappointed with the iPad mini by the time it arrived.  There were rumors about the time of the second generation iPad and a 7-8 inch mini version with a 1024x768 pixel display was reasonable then.  As time passed, the specifications remained the same, and the processor was barely newer.  Adding insult to injury, they wanted a premium price for it.  I had zero desire to buy one.

Having had two Nexus 7 tablets and feeling a bit cheated by the experience, I'm not sure I want a tablet at all but I feel it's a good way to display my photos.  If I buy a tablet, it's going to be from 7-8 inches for the display.  The Nexus 7 and iPad mini would still be the likely items.

Right now, Apple is having trouble lining up displays for the iPad mini, so they need to have a fire sale because I don't see how they're going to sell what's now a US$149 tablet using Android.

Update 2013.11.14: I tried the 2013 version of the Nexus 7 briefly and found it to be more agreeable than the 2012 versions.  Even though there is a rather massive difference in display surface area, I'm not sure it's going to be a huge deal for people wanting a tablet that they can hold in one hand.  While I was in Micro Center yesterday, I saw people buying a US$50 tablet as though it would solve everyone's deepest needs.  I suspect, being that cheap, the people behind the tablet have zero mechanisms for dealing with software updates so what you see is what you get, even if you somehow naively think you're getting a Nexus 7 equivalent.

Update 2013.12.03: I've had a 2013 Nexus 7 for a couple of weeks.  It's everything I hoped with none of the bad.  The fact that I got it US$30 cheaper than the regular price helped sway me to part with the money.  The new iPad mini is good, but not very good, and for less money, the 2013 Nexus 7 is so much better.  It's the tablet I expected from Apple before they even had anything ready for the public.  It's too bad that Apple decided to raise the price, rather than dropping it.  Of course, Google raised their price also, but the new tablet is much, much better than the 2012 version.

Update 2014.03.15: I've had my Nexus 7 for a few months.  It got the Android 4.4.2 update not long after I bought it.  I still have my doubts about Android.  It works as though it is tested for functionality, but not for the user experience at all.  The 2012 Nexus 7 is evidence of that.  If anyone had actually tried that tablet, they never would have let it go to market.

Still, in a casual setting, the newer Nexus 7 is stable and except for the occasional glitch performs well.  For games, a lot is dependent on the game but they all seem more unhappy than their iOS relatives.  That's sad because this is the Google tablet.  If they can't get Android to perform correctly on products labeled as their own, how can they handle other products correctly?

Update 2015.04.27: The Nexus 7 has been said to no longer be available via Google.  It's surprising that they didn't replace it already, but it doesn't look as though they care to replace it at all.

With the latest Android version 5.1, mine doesn't seem to be working all that well, even though that was the performance fix release for 5.0.  I can only imagine how horribly the 2012 version of the tablet is struggling to work.  Maybe, it is time to call it quits.