Gaming-focused smartphones may not have been taken seriously at first, but somewhere between hardware-first approach, extra gaming controls, high refresh rate displays, and sky-high price tag, they have become very popular. Last year’s Black Shark 4 sticks to the same kind of formula, and it’s now available to buy “worldwide” in the US and Canada, as well as the UK and in much of Europe.
If you missed the original announcement in March last year, the Black Shark 4 Pro is powered by 2021’s Snapdragon 888 chipset with 8-12GB of RAM and 128-256GB of storage, depending on which version you buy. Rounding out the first game’s spec sheet, it features a 6.67″ 144Hz 1080p OLED display, with a 4500mAh battery that charges at a stunning 120W.
Gaming phones don’t always have the best cameras in practice – understandable, given their focus – but the Black Shark 4 Pro has a 64MP f/1.79 primary, an 8MP f/2.2 119 ultra-wide ° and one of those 5MP macro cameras that are usually residual. US customers should note that this supports 5G N1/N3/N8/N28a/N41/N77/N78/N79 bands, and it is also dual SIM.
One of the things that usually sets gaming phones apart from “regular” phones are the extra hardware controls. Often it’s just a set of capacitive buttons, but the Black Shark 4 Pro has physical triggers with magnetic pop-up action, which are supposed to offer a more tactile experience. Outside of the game, you can also assign them other functions.
The Black Shark 4 Pro also has two DTS Ultra X-certified balanced speakers, which the company claims provide an improved sound experience thanks to a larger sound chamber, and it still has a headphone jack.
The Black Shark 4 Pro also has “two internal liquid cooling components” which claim to keep the phone up to 30% cooler than the previous model. There’s also a clip-on cooling system if your mobile gaming sessions get particularly intense. And, of course, it runs on Android: MIUI 12.5.
Interested parties can pick up the phone starting today at $579, with the 12GB/256GB version at $679, available in Shadow Black, Misty Gray and Cosmos Black. It may have landed here a year after its launch in China with 2021-era hardware, but it beats competitors like the RedMagic 7 that we recently reviewed on price – despite packing newer hardware .
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