The latter number isn’t really impressive in 2022, the OnePlus 10 Pro can hit 1,000 Hz, for example. From there you can manage all your games, accessories and all game-related settings like universal brightness, auto-rejecting phone calls and choosing refresh rates. Shark Space is also able to be called on by swiping the corners of the Black Shark in any game that you’re playing to change things on-the-fly. Holding the review unit, I definitely felt that 210g weight on my hands. It’s a solid glass and metal sandwich that’s balanced just little top-heavy.
Black Shark’s latest entry, as Gen Z would say, is “built different.” The Black Shark 4 Pro looks and feels more like a traditional smartphone than it does a gaming one. Its once jarring and riveting roots have morphed into a more polished and virtuosic approach. Yet, beneath the waters of that calm façade is a device that is ever so capable of chomping through a sea of competing gaming phones. Asus’ latest ROG Phone 6 is like a super deluxe version of a smartphone. From the hardware point of view, I think Asus has nailed the concept of bringing a powerful gaming phone into your pocket.
You can keep up with fast movement more easily whether gaming or just scrolling because more frames are shown each second compared to lower refresh rate screens. It can actually make the phone feel snappier and more enjoyable to use because of how fluid everything feels. The saving grace is that the charging experience is incomprehensibly fast, with support for Xiaomi’s 120W HyperCharge technology – and unlike many rivals, the full speed charger comes as standard in the box. It really is impressively fast too, with our tests showing a 0-90% charge in 15 minutes, stock ROM and it reached 100% charge within 30 minutes. The display is also pressure-sensitive using Black Shark’s ‘Magic Press’ tech, with the aim of being able to press down onto the display to trigger specific game functions like reloading or using a melee weapon. Though it’s a niche feature that not even all gamers will use, it’s a handy option for the power users among us. That means that touch input is detected much more quickly than traditional smartphone displays, resulting in lower latency and faster response times – especially crucial when playing competitive online games.
In benchmarks, the smartphone obviously performed very well and shows an average framerate of 59.50 FPS in 3DMark’s Wild Life benchmark, which simulates gaming usage for one minute. Imagine that a virtual button that you never use is very badly placed on your screen. To avoid accidental presses in the middle of a game, you can make it activate only if you press it with level 7 force. Then you’ll have to really want to activate the button to do so. The camera module is in a slit position, bringing back some memories of the Galaxy S10. The case is already thick enough, so the camera module doesn’t stick out too much.
- Things like shoulder buttons, colour-shifting LED lights on the back and a highly efficient internal cooling system will almost certainly be there, as well as Qualcomm’s latest top-of-the-range processor.
- If you really need a long-lasting gaming phone with the latest chipset, Bluetooth 5.2, Android 12, and a humungous battery, this isn’t it.
- This is a common problem, and it may be caused because of a new update on the play store.
- Those numbers are not “all-day battery life” by any means, but Black Shark makes up for it with an amazing 120W HyperCharge technology.
- With the fan, the temperature was limited to 48°C on the Wild Life Stress Test benchmark from 3DMark.
In just two days, we quickly ranked up in games like Call of Duty Mobile, where we reached the master tier. We weren’t just playing better, we were outperforming everyone else. Coming from someone who doesn’t generally do all that well at shooters, that’s saying something. I used to be pretty skeptical about gaming phones, and for the most part, still am. It’s not the most impressive gaming-focused feature though; that award goes to the magnetic pop-up triggers, found on the right-side of the smartphone (or the top left and right when gaming horizontally).
