Xiaomi Black Shark Review

• Overview
• Design and Build Quality
• Display
• Performance
• Software and User Interface
• Camera
• Battery Life
• Connectivity and Networking
• Additional Features
• Comparison with Other Related Phones
• Pros and Cons
• Conclusion

Overview

The Xiaomi Black Shark is a powerful gaming phone that combines cutting-edge technology with a sleek design. With its impressive Snapdragon 845 chipset and Adreno 630 GPU, this device delivers lightning-fast performance and smooth gameplay. The 5.99-inch IPS LCD display with an 18:9 aspect ratio provides stunning visuals, while the dual-camera setup captures detailed photos and videos. The device also features a large 4000mAh battery for extended gaming sessions. Available in black, gray, and royal blue, the Xiaomi Black Shark offers a stylish and immersive gaming experience. With a price tag of around 400 EUR, this gaming phone is definitely worth considering for avid gamers.

Design and Build Quality

The Xiaomi Black Shark boasts a sleek and premium design that exudes a sense of robustness and sturdiness. Its physical appearance is characterized by a combination of glass and aluminum materials, which not only enhance its durability but also give it a premium look and feel. The device has a form factor that is specifically designed for gaming, with dimensions measuring 161.6 x 75.4 x 9.3 mm and a weight of 190g, making it comfortable to hold and use for extended gaming sessions. The texture and finishing touches of the Black Shark add to its overall aesthetics, providing a visually appealing gaming smartphone. Its construction is solid, ensuring a high level of build quality. The bezels are relatively thin, maximizing the screen-to-body ratio and providing an immersive gaming experience. The frame of the phone is sturdy, offering excellent protection against accidental drops. The back panel features an attractive design with the Black Shark logo, giving it a unique and distinctive appearance. The placement of buttons and controls is well thought out, ensuring easy accessibility and enhancing the overall ergonomics of the device. The grip of the phone is comfortable, allowing for extended gaming sessions without causing hand fatigue. Overall, the Xiaomi Black Shark combines aesthetics, durability, and functionality to deliver a gaming smartphone with a sleek design and impressive build quality.

Display

The Xiaomi Black Shark features a 5.99-inch IPS LCD display with a resolution of 1080 x 2160 pixels and an 18:9 aspect ratio. This screen size provides a comfortable viewing experience for gaming and multimedia consumption. The display offers good color accuracy and vibrancy, allowing for a visually pleasing experience. The brightness levels are adequate for indoor use, but it may struggle slightly under direct sunlight. The touch responsiveness of the screen is smooth and accurate, ensuring a seamless gaming experience.

In terms of display protection, the Xiaomi Black Shark comes with Corning Gorilla Glass, which provides durability against scratches and minor impacts. The pixel density of the display is approximately 403 pixels per inch, ensuring sharp and detailed visuals.

While the Black Shark does not feature an OLED display, it still offers a respectable viewing experience with its LCD technology. It lacks HDR support and wide color gamut, which could have enhanced the visual quality further. However, the wide viewing angles ensure that the display remains clear and vibrant even when viewed from different angles.

Additional features of the display include an always-on display mode, which provides quick access to notifications and time without needing to unlock the device. The Black Shark also includes a blue light filter and adaptive brightness, making it easier on the eyes during prolonged usage.

Overall, the Xiaomi Black Shark's display offers a satisfactory experience for gaming and multimedia consumption, with its decent size, resolution, and color accuracy. While it may not have all the advanced display technologies found in high-end flagship devices, it still delivers an enjoyable visual experience for its price range.

Performance

The Xiaomi Black Shark is a gaming smartphone that boasts impressive performance and gaming capabilities. Powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset and Adreno 630 GPU, this device delivers exceptional gaming experiences. In terms of CPU benchmarks, the Black Shark's octa-core processor provides fast and efficient performance, ensuring smooth multitasking and app loading speeds.

When it comes to gaming performance, the Black Shark excels. It is equipped with advanced thermal management technology, allowing it to handle intensive gaming sessions without overheating. This ensures a lag-free and smooth user experience, even during demanding gameplay. The device's system optimization further enhances its gaming capabilities, providing an immersive and enjoyable gaming experience.

In terms of GPU benchmarks, the Black Shark's Adreno 630 GPU delivers outstanding graphics scores. It can handle graphics-intensive games with ease, providing stunning visuals and smooth gameplay. The device's GPU efficiency ensures that games run smoothly without any noticeable frame drops or lags.

The Black Shark has also performed well in benchmark tests, consistently achieving high scores in synthetic benchmarks and gaming benchmarks. These benchmark scores further emphasize the device's excellent performance and gaming capabilities.

In addition to its gaming prowess, the Black Shark also excels in general performance metrics. Its processor efficiency allows for efficient multitasking and smooth overall performance. Whether it's browsing the web, streaming videos, or running multiple apps simultaneously, the Black Shark delivers a seamless and responsive user experience.

Overall, the Xiaomi Black Shark is a top-performing gaming smartphone. Its powerful chipset, GPU, and CPU ensure exceptional gaming performance, while its system optimization and thermal management provide a lag-free and smooth user experience. Whether you're a casual gamer or a hardcore enthusiast, the Black Shark is a device that can meet your gaming needs and deliver a superior gaming experience.

Software and User Interface

The Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro runs on the Android 8.0 Oreo operating system, providing users with a familiar and user-friendly interface. This version of Android brings several improvements and features to enhance the overall user experience. Additionally, Xiaomi has implemented its own customization layer on top of Android to provide a unique and tailored experience for Black Shark users.

One notable aspect of the software is the absence of bloatware. Unlike many other smartphones on the market, the Black Shark 5 Pro does not come with an excessive amount of pre-installed apps that can clutter the device and consume valuable storage space. This allows users to have more control over the apps they choose to install and use.

The interface of the Black Shark 5 Pro is clean and intuitive, making it easy for users to navigate and access various features and settings. The device also comes with a range of useful pre-installed apps that cater specifically to gamers, such as a gaming hub and performance optimization tools. These apps enhance the gaming experience and provide users with additional customization options to personalize their gaming sessions.

Overall, the software of the Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro is well-optimized and provides a smooth and seamless user experience. The absence of bloatware, coupled with the user-friendly interface and gaming-centric features, makes it a solid choice for gamers and tech enthusiasts alike.

Camera

The Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro comes equipped with a dual-camera setup that offers impressive photography capabilities. The main camera features a 12-megapixel lens with a wide aperture of f/1.8 and a 20-megapixel lens with 2x optical zoom. This combination allows for detailed and sharp images with natural colors in various lighting conditions. The camera performs exceptionally well in daylight photography, capturing vibrant and well-exposed shots with good dynamic range. When it comes to indoor and outdoor photography, the Black Shark 5 Pro produces excellent image quality with accurate colors and impressive sharpness.

In low-light situations, the Black Shark 5 Pro's camera performs admirably with its low-light sensitivity and effective noise reduction capabilities. It also offers a dedicated night mode that further enhances low-light performance, allowing users to capture stunning images with enhanced details and reduced noise. Additionally, the camera features various shooting modes such as portrait mode, HDR, and panorama mode, providing users with versatile options to capture their desired shots.

For video recording, the Black Shark 5 Pro supports 4K video at 30fps, ensuring high-quality footage with crisp details. It also offers video stabilization, which helps in reducing camera shake and producing smoother videos. Slow-motion video and time-lapse features are also available, allowing users to create creative and captivating videos. With its comprehensive camera features and impressive video capabilities, the Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro is a great choice for those who value photography and videography on their smartphones.

Battery Life

The Xiaomi Black Shark is equipped with a non-removable Li-Ion 4000 mAh battery, which provides a decent amount of power to keep the device running throughout the day. The battery capacity is sufficient to handle extended gaming sessions and other demanding tasks without the need for frequent recharging. The phone supports 18W wired charging, allowing for fast and convenient charging times. This ensures that you can quickly top up your battery when needed, minimizing downtime. The device does not support wireless charging, which may be a drawback for some users who prefer the convenience of wireless charging options. However, the Black Shark's battery performance is generally efficient, providing a good balance between power usage and longevity. The phone also offers battery optimization features, allowing users to manage and monitor their battery usage effectively. Overall, the Xiaomi Black Shark offers a reliable battery backup and endurance, making it suitable for gaming enthusiasts and heavy smartphone users.

Connectivity and Networking

The Xiaomi Black Shark offers a wide range of connectivity options to cater to the needs of mobile users. It supports GSM, CDMA, HSPA, EVDO, and LTE network compatibility, ensuring reliable connectivity across different networks. The device features Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, allowing users to connect to both 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks. With Bluetooth 5.0, users can enjoy faster data transfer speeds and improved wireless connectivity. It also supports USB Type-C 2.0 for convenient charging and data transfer. However, the Black Shark does not feature NFC, which may limit its compatibility with certain contactless payment systems. For navigation purposes, the device includes GPS, GLONASS, and BDS, providing accurate location tracking. Additionally, the Black Shark supports dual SIM cards, allowing users to use two different phone numbers simultaneously. This is particularly useful for those who want to separate personal and professional calls or take advantage of different carrier plans. Overall, the Xiaomi Black Shark offers a comprehensive set of connectivity features, ensuring users can stay connected and enjoy fast data speeds for various activities, such as streaming, browsing, and gaming.

Additional Features

The Xiaomi Black Shark comes with a range of standout features that make it a top choice for gamers. One of its notable features is its water and dust resistance, with an IP rating of IP67. This means that the device is both waterproof and dustproof, offering protection against accidental spills or immersion in water.

In terms of charging, the Black Shark supports wireless charging, allowing for convenient and cable-free power replenishment. It is compatible with Qi wireless charging technology, making it easy to charge the device by simply placing it on a compatible wireless charging pad.

Additionally, the Black Shark is equipped with a range of advanced sensors, including an accelerometer and gyroscope. These motion sensors enhance the gaming experience by providing precise and responsive control during gameplay. The device also features a sensor suite that includes other environmental sensors, further enhancing its functionality and user experience.

Overall, the Xiaomi Black Shark offers not only powerful gaming capabilities but also additional features that enhance its durability, convenience, and gaming performance.

Comparison with Other Related Phones

The Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro is a gaming phone that offers impressive specifications and features. When comparing it to related devices in the market, such as the Asus ROG Phone 5 and the Nubia Red Magic 6 Pro, the Black Shark stands out with its competitive specifications and performance capabilities.

In terms of design, the Black Shark 5 Pro features a sleek glass front and an aluminum frame, giving it a premium look and feel. It is also relatively lightweight at 190g, making it comfortable to hold during gaming sessions. The Asus ROG Phone 5, on the other hand, features a more aggressive design with illuminated accents, while the Nubia Red Magic 6 Pro sports a futuristic aesthetic.

When it comes to display, the Black Shark 5 Pro boasts a 5.99-inch IPS LCD panel with a resolution of 1080 x 2160 pixels and an 18:9 aspect ratio. This display offers vibrant colors and sharp visuals, and it also supports an always-on display feature. The Asus ROG Phone 5 features a slightly larger 6.78-inch AMOLED display with a higher resolution, while the Nubia Red Magic 6 Pro offers a 6.8-inch AMOLED display with a 165Hz refresh rate, providing smoother animations.

Under the hood, the Black Shark 5 Pro is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset, coupled with either 6GB or 8GB of RAM. This combination ensures smooth performance and efficient multitasking. However, it falls slightly behind the Asus ROG Phone 5 and the Nubia Red Magic 6 Pro, both of which are equipped with the more powerful Snapdragon 888 chipset.

In terms of camera capabilities, the Black Shark 5 Pro features a dual-camera setup with a 12MP primary sensor and a 20MP secondary sensor. It offers features like dual-LED dual-tone flash, HDR, and 4K video recording. The Asus ROG Phone 5 and the Nubia Red Magic 6 Pro also offer impressive camera setups, with higher megapixel counts and additional camera features.

One notable feature of the Black Shark 5 Pro is its dedicated gaming mode, which enhances the gaming experience by optimizing performance and providing additional customization options. This is an advantage it has over its competitors. Additionally, all three devices offer stereo speakers for an immersive audio experience.

When comparing pricing, the Black Shark 5 Pro is priced at around

Pros and Cons

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro is a powerful gaming phone that offers a seamless gaming experience with its top-of-the-line specifications. The Snapdragon 845 chipset and Adreno 630 GPU ensure smooth gameplay and fast performance. The 5.99-inch IPS LCD display provides vibrant visuals, while the dual-camera setup captures impressive photos. The 4000mAh battery with 18W wired charging ensures long gaming sessions. However, the absence of expandable storage and a 3.5mm headphone jack may disappoint some users. Overall, the Black Shark 5 Pro is a solid choice for gamers looking for a dedicated gaming phone with excellent performance and a reasonable price tag.