It’s helpful that Xiaomi includes a tutorial for using the software, even if it’s all but required due to the added complexity of having so many features. In it, there are toggles that let you take advantage of this phone’s many impressive specs, like its 720Hz touch sampling rate, or a “Ludicrous Mode,” that pushes the specs to their limit. (It suggests that you buy an accessory to help keep the phone cool while this mode is active). At £429, the entry-level model is one of the cheapest dedicated gaming phones you can buy. For comparison, the Red Magic 6 series starts at £509/US$599, while you’ll pay at least £799 (approx. US$1,100) for the Asus ROG Phone 5.
The tall aspect ratio is also why the top of the display is so hard to reach one-handed, as mentioned earlier. Almost a year after the initial announcement of the Black Shark 4 Pro in China, the smartphone is set to come to UK shores. With a flick of the textured side key, a side trigger button pops up. Appearance-wise, the Black Shark 4 Pro inherits most of what its predecessor had to offer. The Shadow Black variant that I’ve been testing has a sleek, pebble-like backing, with an all-glass build that screams (and feels) premium.
You can also remove the case if you have installed any; doing so will help your phone dissipate heat download the stock firmware better. When you update an Android Smartphone, you see the usual installation process, then the phone restarts, and it looks like the update is complete, but it isn’t.
With the fan, the temperature was limited to 48°C on the Wild Life Stress Test benchmark from 3DMark. The framerate remained stable at 97.5%, ranging from 40 to 74 FPS. With a few months to go, the Black Shark 5 Pro could have incorporated the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 that was recently announced by Qualcomm. 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.
- Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you’ll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables.
- The Black Shark 4 Pro is a great phone for a particular subset of users, but we admit it probably doesn’t have broad appeal, for the masses in general.
- Black Shark 4 features dual-symmetrical stereo speakers, a high-power amplifier, and an oversized sound cavity for surprisingly-bold audio in games and movies.
- The new Black Shark 4 is a 5G gaming smartphone from the company that was launched in April 2022 with a “Break Through The Limits” tagline.
It also allows for game macros – something not found on most gaming phones – that allow you to trigger repetitive actions with a single tap of a button, further aligning the PC and mobile gaming experiences. The Black Shark 4 Pro is an exceptionally well-built gaming phone, with all the nuts and bolts that we’ve come to expect from one. Better yet, its $579 starting price undercuts most of the competition, without compromising on processing power and functionality. Just be prepared for the device’s heavy skin over Android, a slower cadence of software updates, and middling battery life. If you can get over those shortcomings, the Black Shark 4 Pro may be the gaming phone for you. Those numbers are not “all-day battery life” by any means, but Black Shark makes up for it with an amazing 120W HyperCharge technology. Using the proprietary USB-A to USB-C cable and charging adapter, the 4 Pro can charge from 0% to 100% in a frighteningly-fast 20 minutes.