The Xiaomi backed Black Shark gaming company has unveiled the Black Shark gaming phone as its first gaming smartphone today through an unveil event in Beijing, China. It is packed with impressive specs like 18:9 display, 8 GB of RAM, Snapdragon 845, dual cameras, and mammoth battery. However, the major highlight of the phone is that users can attach a Bluetooth gaming controller to it to take advantage of true gaming experience on it.
Design and Display
The Black Shark gaming phone measures 161.6 x 75.4 x 9.25mm and it weighs 190 grams. From the front, the handset looks like a regular smartphone, but the high-end innards, its sports-car like rear design and its ability to support a Shark GamePad controller turns it into a gaming beast. The left side of the phone has a dedicated Shark Key that allow users to access impressive gaming zone whereas the volume buttons and power key are on the right edge. The backside of the phone features the dual camera setup and the easily noticeable green colored “S” logo at the center.
The Black Shark phone features a 5.99-inch InCell display that supports Full HD+ resolution of 2160 x 1080 pixel. Also, it delivers an aspect ratio of 18:9 and carries support for DCI-P3 color gamut. The MEMC intelligent motion compensation technology ensures smoother video quality while playing games on it. The bezel present below the display of the phone is equipped with a fingerprint sensor enabled home button.
Chipset and Variants
The Snapdragon 845 chipset is present under the hood of the Black Shark gaming phone. At the launch event, Black Shark CEO Wu Shimin revealed that the device had scored 279,464 on AnTuTu. To control the internal temperature, the handset features a multi-layer cooling system that includes high thermal conductivity copper alloy substrate, nano-composite graphite, heat pipe and liquid cooling that can bring down the temperature of the device by 8 degrees by improving the CPU cooling efficiency by 20 times.
The base model of the Black Shark gaming phone includes 6 GB of RAM and 64 GB of UFS 2.1 storage whereas the highest configuration variant has 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of UFS 2.1 storage. It houses a 4,000mAh battery that is equipped with 18W fast charging support through Quick Charge 3.0. The huge battery promises up to 5 hours of continuous playing of “King of Glory.”
The handset is loaded with a gaming focused JOY UI, a customized Android Oreo ROM that includes some core features of the MIUI. While gaming, the fingerprint sensor can be swiped to Shark Dock that includes handy features like silent mode, DND and more.
Cameras
For photography, it includes a dual camera setup that features an f/1.75 aperture 12-megapixel primary sensor with a pixel size of 1.25micron and an f/1.75 aperture 20-megapixel secondary sensor with a pixel size of 1.0micron. The dual camera setup is equipped with features like 6p lenses, dual-tone LED flash, PDAF, HDR, Portrait Mode and Panorama. For snapping selfies, it houses a 20-megapixel camera with f/2.2 aperture and 5p lens that offers features like intelligent beauty and 4K video shooting at 30fps. The cameras of the phone are powered by an independent image processor by Pixelworks.
Shark GamePad and Connectivity
The Black Shark Phone metamorphoses into a true gaming device by connecting its Bluetooth-enabled gaming Shark GamePad to the top portion of the phone (as shown below in the image). It is packed with a joystick, a trigger and a 340mAh battery that offers 30 hours of power. The gamepad can be used with other Android devices too that support Bluetooth 4.0 and Android 4.4 or above.
The connectivity features available on the Black Shark gaming include USB-C, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, 2 x 2 MIMO, Bluetooth 5.0, 4G VoLTE, dual-SIM support, GPS, AGPS, GLONASS. The Chinese manufacturer has employed X-shaped smart antenna design which ensures that its users do not face signal connectivity issues when held the device is held horizontally or vertically.
For immersive gaming experience, the Black Shark Phone is also equipped with Hi Fi audio, Biso stereo speakers with dual Smart PA for amplified audio output. Also, the microphone of the phone can be used for gaming-related functions such as voice calls and radio chat for distraction-free gameplay.
Pricing and Availability
The 6 GB RAM + 64 GB storage and 8 GB RAM + 128 GB storage editions of the Black Shark gaming phone are respectively priced at 2,999 Yuan (~$477) and 3,499 Yuan (~$557). The Shark GamePad can be availed with a price tag of 179 Yuan (~$29).
The pre-orders for Black Shark will start today in China starting at 6 PM (local time) through Xiaomi Mall, Jingdong and Mi Jiapin. It will be available for buying starting from April 20. It can be bought in colors like Polar Night Black and Sky Gray.
For the first 50,000 people who pre-order it, Black Shark is giving away the Shark GamePad for free. As of this writing, there is no information available on whether the Black Shark phone will be heading to countries outside of China.
