Fresh off the launch of its first gaming Laptop, Xiaomi has partnered with gaming product company, Black Shark Technology to launch the Black Shark gaming phone. As expected, the high-end device was launched in Beijing, China with suitable peripherals and would be looking to take on the Razer Gaming Phone.
Black Shark Gaming Phone
Measuring 9.25 mm thick and weighing in at 190 grams, the Black Shark Gaming Phone sports a 5.99-inch (2160 x 1080 pixels) Full HD+ IPS LCD display with 18:9 aspect ratio, 550 nits peak brightness, 1500:1 static contrast ratio and a 60Hz refresh rate (exactly half of the Razer Phone’s 120Hz).
It features a fingerprint sensor built into the front home button, dual SIM card slots, a dedicated ‘SHARK’ button to enable high-performance mode, 4,000mAh battery (non-removable) with Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging and a liquid cooling system which lowers temperature by up to 8 degrees Celsius.
The green Black Shark logo, which is crafted into the rear panel, glows and breathes when games are in session. It has a unique X-style’ antenna design to prevent signal issues when the phone is used either vertically or horizontally, USB Type-C port, dual speakers, Dual Smart PA and Hi-Fi Audio.
On the inside, the device is powered by the flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Octa-Core Mobile Platform with Adreno 630 GPU and boots Android 8.0 Oreo OS with Black Shark’s custom Android skin, JOY UI. It is available in two RAM and storage models – 6GB LPDDR4X RAM with 64GB UFS 2.1 storage and 8GB LPDDR4X RAM with 128GB UFS 2.1 storage.
Going with the latest trend, the Black Shark Gaming Phone has a dual rear camera setup which includes 12MP (f/1.75 aperture, 1.25 µm pixel size, PDAF) and 20MP (f/1.75 aperture, 1 µm pixel size, PDAF) sensors. The front facing camera is a 20MP (f/2.2 aperture, 1.0um pixel size) sensor.
Black Shark Gamepad
The Black Shark gamepad (H66) connects to the phone via Bluetooth 4.0. It features a single joystick and trigger button, weighs about 40 grams and packs a 150mAh that provides up to 30 hours of usage on a single charge.
Pricing and Availability
The smartphone will arrive in Polar Night Black and Sky Gray colours, and will go on sale in China starting April 20th. The 6GB RAM model will retail starting at CNY 2999 (US$ 477) while the 8GB RAM model costs CNY 3,499 (US$ 557). The Gamepad costs CNY 179 (US$ 29).
