Xiaomi backed Black Shark brand launched its new gaming phones today in China named Black Shark 3 & 3 Pro. It is the first time two gaming phones are launching at the same time from this brand. We did get the Black Shark 2 & 2 Pro last year, but they were launched in different halves of the year.
There isn’t much difference between the two phones except for the fact that the ‘Pro’ comes with a bigger display with a higher resolution.
BLACK SHARK 3 & 3 PRO – DESIGN & SPECIFICATIONS
The design is the same for both phones. There is a symmetrical design on the rear as there are two triangular modules on the top & the bottom, with the Black Shark logo in the middle. While the top module has the triple camera setup, the one on the bottom has the ‘Tencent Gaming’, ‘5G’, and ‘Black Shark’ branding.
While the last year’s Black Shark gaming phones lacked a headphone jack, the Black Shark 3 & 3 Pro have a 3.5mm headphone jack on top.
One interesting feature of the Black Shark 3 Pro is its pop-up trigger buttons so instead of giving touch-sensitive buttons on the side like other brands, the phone has physical buttons that pop-up when needed, just like a pop-up selfie camera. This is something the non-Pro version lacks.
Black Shark claims that you can use the pop-up button mechanism for 300,000 times without any issue. Just like a pop-up camera, the pop-up buttons will hide automatically when a freefall (a drop) is detected.
For better cooling, there is ‘Sandwich’ liquid cooling which means there is double-sided liquid-cooling. Talking about the improvements, the Heat dissipation area is increased by 100% compared to the previous generation, and heat dissipation capacity is increased by 50%.
Talking about the specifications, the Black Shark 3 comes with a 6.67-inch 1080p AMOLED panel with 90Hz refresh rate & 270Hz touch-sampling rate, the highest on any smartphone. The Pro version has a massive 7.1-inch Quad-HD+ display (2K) with 90Hz refresh rate & the same 270Hz touch-sampling rate.
Under the hood, there is Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 5G SOC paired with LPDDR5 RAM (only 12GB, 8GB is LPDDR4X) & UFS 3.0 storage. Both phones support WiFi 6 standard as well.
While cameras aren’t a plus point of gaming-centric phones, the Black Shark 3 & 3 Pro have solid camera hardware. There are triple rear cameras that include a primary 64-megapixel camera, a secondary 13 Megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera (120-degree), & a third 5 Megapixel depth sensor. There is also a 20 Megapixel selfie camera.
There is a difference in the battery sizes as well, but it’s not that much. While the non-Pro version has a 4,720mAh battery, the Black Shark 3 Pro has a 5,000mAh battery. Both phones support 65W Fast Charging via USB Type-C port. Black Shark claims that the 5,000mAH battery can be fully charged in just 38 minutes which is insane!
The magnetic charging port on the rear can charge the devices with 18W power.
BLACK SHARK 3 & 3 PRO – PRICING & AVAILABILITY
The non-Pro version comes in three colours – Lightning Black, Armor Grey, and Star Silver. The ‘Pro’, on the other hand, comes in two colours – Phantom Black & Armor Grey. Here is the pricing in China –
Black Shark 3 –
- 8GB + 128GB – 3,499 Yuan ($501)
- 12GB + 128GB – 3,799 Yuan ($544)
- 12GB + 256GB – 3,999 Yuan ($573)
Black Shark 3 Pro –
- 8GB + 256GB – 4,699 Yuan ($673)
- 12GB + 256GB – 4,999 Yuan ($716)
The non-Pro version will go on sale on March 6th while the Pro version on March 17th.