Though many smartphones may well meet the needs of casual gaming commuters, more serious players will likely want to carry a dedicated gaming smartphone in their back pockets. The latest flagship offering from Xiaomi's gaming arm Black Shark has now been released globally.
There are two distinct new flavors from the Chinese mobile gaming brand, the Black Shark 5 and the flagship Black Shark 5 Pro – and the global launch for both models includes availability in the US.
The Pro model comes packing Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset supported by up to 16 GB of LPDDR5, 6,400-MHz RAM and 256 GB of enhanced UFS 3.1 storage.
Keeping the handset running cool when the gaming action heats up is a new dual vapor-chamber liquid cooling system with an "anti-gravity" layer in the capillary structure of the liquid cooling plate reported to increase the speed of liquid circulation in the setup, while the Snapdragon chip, 5G antenna and battery are all connected to a liquid cold plate for accelerated heat dissipation to the edge of the chassis.
Out front is a 6.67-inch, 1,080 x 2,400-resolution Samsung E4 OLED display with a zippy refresh rate of 144 Hz for smooth onscreen action and a responsive 720-Hz touch sampling rate coupled with updated touch algorithms. There's MEMC dynamic motion compensation, brightness peaks at 1,300 nits, and the screen supports 109 percent of the cinematic DCI-P3 color space plus HDR10+ dynamics.
Black Shark has included upgraded dual-zone pressure sensing technology and magnetic pop-up triggers built into the side of the body for gameplay control. That body sports 3D curved glass around back for handheld comfort, and of course the phone comes with obligatory RGB lighting effects.
On the sonics side of the gaming equation, the handset rocks dual speakers for "the best audio performance ever seen in the industry," which the company notes come top in DXOMARK's audio rankings.
A powerful portable gaming machine this may be, but the company hasn't neglected modern photography/videography needs. The rear camera array boasts a 108-MP F1.75 main module, 13-MP F2.4 ultra-wide and a 5-MP macro unit. The array is capable of 4K HDR10+ video recording at up to 60 frames per second, or 1080p slow motion at up to 960 fps. And there's a 16-MP selfiecam to the front.
In addition to 5G for fast mobile connectivity, there's 802.11ax Wi-Fi and the gaming phone includes Bluetooth 5.2 with support for high-resolution audio via LDAC, aptX HD and aptX Adaptive codecs.
Rounding out the key specs is a 4,650-mAh battery with support for 120-W fast-charging and the promise of a top-up in just 15 minutes.
The standard Black Shark 5 model is not quite the beast of its series stablemate, with the first performance sacrifice coming in the shape of a Snapdragon 870 platform followed by slightly slower RAM topping out at 12 GB and non-enhanced UFS 3.1 storage as well.
The 6.67-inch display is AMOLED instead of OLED, the main rear camera is a 64-MP module and the macro is 2 MP but the ultra-wide and selfiecam are the same.
The Black Shark 5 Pro is available now for a starting price of US$799, while the standard model starts at $549.
Source: Black Shark
