Xiaomi’s Black Shark Gaming Phone Is A Pile Of Meh

April 14 15:46 2018 by Alexei Rivera Print This Article

We get it – Android gaming is really popular, especially in China. But does it have to be so damn ugly? We’re of course talking about the new Black Shark gaming phone announced yesterday. We expected something that actually had some better gaming featues. But what we got from the Xiaomi-backed brand is an ugly gamer phone with a half gamepad and better cooling? Well woop dee doo! Even the Razer Phone – the brand that overdoes gamer aesthetic looks positively classy and better spec’d than this junk. It’s only positive so far is the fact that it’s going to be relatively affordable.

So what does this gaming phone look like? Well it looks like a regular phone with a big green X-shaped turd smeared on the back with aggressive rugged aesthetics for seemingly no reason except to make it look like you don’t care about how ugly your phone looks.

What gaming features you do get seem slapped on to make it seem like it cared. A gamepad that attaches to one side (AND ONLY ONE SIDE) of the phone that helps you to play games. Except it costs US$23! For half a gamepad! Which will also lag because it’s using Bluetooth!

What’s more, you’re not getting a headphone jack (yes, no 3.5mm headphone jack) – audio can come out of Bluetooth headphones only other than the speakers. So have fun annoying people in the train while you play your game on the Black Shark.

Finally, hey what about a phone with no MicroSD expansion? You’d think a gaming-focused phone would care more about storage, but apparently they don’t.

The cool features it has can be at best ONLY a bit helpful for gaming. Like buying a gaming speaker or high end (but not gaming) monitor will help but it won’t make the game perform any better. And the phone has exactly that: enhanced display features from PixelWorks technology, and stereo speakers. Oh and a button to turn off notifications. WHOOP. DEE. DOO.

Sure, you’re getting a Snapdragon 845, but what phone doesn’t these days? It’s got a FHD+ display, but only a 60Hz panel. (The Razer Phone has QHD 120Hz!) It’s got a “liquid cooling” heatsink for the processor, but it’s not really all that different from what we’ve seen before.

What this Black Shark phone essentially is is a really ugly high end phone with half an overpriced laggy gamepad which probably won’t be supported by most games anyway. Even Motorola has a better gamepad attachment mod than this ugly piece. Oh well, at least the 12+20MP / 20MP cameras, 6-8GB RAM, and 4000mAh battery is a slight consolation prize.

The phone will launch in China on April 20 for about US$480.

Just get a damn Nintendo Switch SMH.