Xiaomi’s Black Shark 4 Is a Gaming Cellphone With Shoulder Buttons

Typically it appears like cellphone makers attempt to pander to cell avid gamers by slapping RGB lighting on an in any other case blah cellphone full of generic parts, however with the Black Shark 4, Xiaomi is attempting one thing new: including built-in tactile shoulder buttons that may make an actual distinction.

Not like different gaming telephones just like the Crimson Magic 6 and Asus’ ROG Cellphone 5, which function contact sensors on their sides, the Black Shark 4 and Black Shark 4 Professional include actual bodily buttons that you should use as triggers in panorama mode. Xiaomi says the triggers can inform the distinction between a lightweight and exhausting press, and might even be locked in place when not in use in order to keep away from any unintended presses. Now some would possibly name me a traditionalist, however particularly relating to cell video games, generally it’s simply good to have actual tactile controls as an alternative of relying purely on contact.

The Black Shark 4 includes a fairly tame design (not less than amongst gaming telephones) with a rear triple-lens digicam module and a small RGB mild on its again, although it’s unclear if that shouty X-theme paint job is non-obligatory or not on each mannequin.

Each fashions function a 6.67-inch AMOLED display screen made by Samsung that includes a 144Hz refresh price and a responsive 720Hz contact sampling price (which is the very best contact pattern price seen on a cellphone thus far), together with tremendous quick 120-watt wired charging and a decent-sized 4500 mAh battery, which Xiaomi claims may be charged from lifeless to full in lower than quarter-hour.

Sadly, if you would like peak efficiency, you’ll need to go along with the costlier Black Shark 4 Professional, because it includes a extra highly effective Snapdragon 888 processor (the usual Black Shark 4 will get an SD 870) and a particular RAMDISK that enables the cellphone to make use of reminiscence like conventional storage, which Xiaomi says can enormously enhance the efficiency of a selected app.

Different specs embody 8GB or 12GB of RAM and as much as 256GB of storage, with a particular 16GB of RAM and 512GB config reserved for the top-spec Black Shark 4 Professional. You additionally get a devoted 3.5mm headphone jack and a bunch of software-based gaming tweaks like efficiency boosts and do-not-disturb settings inbuilt JOYUI 12.5, which relies on Android 11.

With Chinese language costs for the Black Shark 4 and Black Shark 4 Professional beginning at simply 2,499 yuan (round $385) and three,999 yuan (round $615), respectively, Xiaomi’s new gaming cellphone could find yourself being a reasonably good worth, too. The Crimson Magic 6 begins at round $585 and the ROG Cellphone 5 comes in even larger at round $950 to start out.

With three new gaming telephones debuting throughout the final couple weeks, cell avid gamers ought to have much more choices relating to their handset of selection actual quickly.