We Review the Black Shark 2 Pro!
After the success of the previous Black Shark phones, the company has strikes again this time sending out the Black Shark 2 Pro equipped with the over powered flagship from Qualcomm, the SD 855 Plus. This new processor is nothing new except being overclocked to perform even much better than the Black Shark 2 which has the regular SD 855 under its hood.
Tech Specs of BLACK SHARK 2 Pro:
- · Qualcomm SDM855+ Snapdragon 855+ Octa-core processor 7nm (1×2.96 GHz Kryo 485 & 3×2.42 GHz Kryo 485 & 4×1.8 GHz Kryo 485)
- · AIE (Artificial Intelligence Engine)
- · Adreno 640 GPU 700Mhz
- · 12GB of RAM LPDDR4x
- · 6.39-inch Samsung AMOLED display ultra bright, energy saving display, (~81.7% screen-to-body ratio)
- · 1080 x 2340 pixels FHD+ (~403 ppi pixel density), contrast ≥ 60000:1, 19.5:9 Ratio, 430 nit, 240 Hz Touch Sensing Technology
- · 108.9% DCI-P3 color gamut, high color saturation
- · Black, Silver
- · Liquid Cooled v3.0, X-Type antennae to prevent grip of death
- · 128GB / 256GB of storage
- · 48 MP, wide angle lens, f/1.75, 1.6µm, Dual-LED (dual tone), 6 chips lens
- 12 MP, telephoto lens, f/2.2, 0.9µm
- · 20 MP front camera, f/2.0, 1.0µm, autofocus
- · Finger print scanner on Screen
- · Dual SIM (nano sim size)
- · 3G, LTE, 4G+ Carrier Aggregation, VoLTE Calls
- · Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS, A-GPS
- · 4000mAh battery, Quick Charge 4.0 Supported, 27W Charger Included
- · Sensors: Gyro, Geomagnetic, Gravity Sensor, Distance Sensing, Ambient Light Sensor, Pressure Sensing
- · Android 9, JOY UI
- · USB-C port, UFS 3.0
- · 163.61 x 75.01 x 8.77 mm
- · 205 Grams
Design
The Black Shark 2 Pro has the best design among the 4 sharks available since the start, the latest one sported more LED lights and it looks way better when looking at the back panel while your friend is playing. The lights made the phone looks more futuristic, not forgetting to mention that it looks more like a space ship from the future as well. The grip on the phone is great when playing games, it definitely is a gamer’s dream phone!
Unboxing
Display and Audio
We were expecting a lot from the display side from this phone, with a screen to phone ratio of 81.7% is quite impressive already for this device. The Samsung AMOLED display in the Black Shark 2 Pro is very vibrant and we love the way we played the games and watching some movies. The 240 Hz touch sensing did play a big role in more accuracy while playing PUBG. Honestly, I could not really differentiate the goodness of the screen when I watched 1080p movies versus other flagship Xiaomi phones like the Mi 9. I did try to put the sound to max loudspeaker mode, with its dual smart HIFI music rendering technology, it was able to fill in the room of around 8 Square Meter with good sound. 3.5mm audio jack is no longer available on this unit so you need to either use bluetooth or the provided USB C to Audio Jack adapter in the box. Its equipped with a Game Professional MIC which provides game calls and team battle sounds.
Here are the supported audio and video format on the Black Shark 2 Pro:
Video file format: 3gp, mp4, flv, avi, asf, webm, 3g2, etc.Audio file format: mp3, amr, flac, aac, wav, ogg, wma, ape, aiff, etc.Image file format: png, gif, jpg, Bmp, webp, wbmp, etc.
Snapdragon 855+
Most of the gaming devices comes with the latest SoC from Qualcomm, but only two has the overclocked version of the flagship SoC which is the SD 855+. The Snapdragon 855+ SoC has 8 cores and can run up to 2.96Ghz of computing speed. Now of course powered together with the powerful Adreno 640, and of course a generous serving of 12GB RAM, it will give you the best experience in gaming up to date. The liquid cooling technology v3.0 of Black Shark 2 Pro can drop the temperature by 14 Celcius which is a big factor because gaming can cause so much stress on the SoC and GPU. The phone is pretty responsive on the JOY UI probably because its quite a bare vanilla android similar to the Mi A3 which has very little customization.
Antutu awarded this phone with a whopping score of 385240 point which is a large jump over the 365k point I got from the Black Shark 2. But this is nowhere near the 500k points that Xiaomi claims it to be.
Connectivity
The Black Shark 2 Pro supports 12 different LTE bands and at the moment it only markets itself within China, there is no announcement when it will be sold outside the production country, but we never know since the Black Shark 2 does get sold in HK. It’s pretty easy to switch to LTE network inside the settings. You can freely choose which sim you want to use your LTE data, since this is a Dual LTE, Dual standby smartphone. This unit also has the 4G+ equipped, and also supports multiple carrier aggregation technology 2CA and 3CA (should your network provider have this feature), you can take advantage of it. Wireless connectivity via Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac is also smooth and it also supports Wi-Fi Direct. Wireless screen mirroring is also available via the Miracast protocol, tethering data is also working perfectly. Bluetooth 5.0,GPS, and GLONASS are all present. Transferring data from another phone, you can use Shark transfer which is present on your phone upon purchase.
Camera
The Black Shark 2 Pro features a dual-camera arrangement which is a little outdated compared to other flagship Xiaomi phones, the arrangement is comprised of 48-megapixel and a 12-megapixel sensors coupled with a 20MP front shooter. This is a gaming phone to begin with, but with the shots that I have taken with this phone, it seems not to be just your average gaming phone. It did excel on the camera part as well. We have no information on the manufacturer of the camera sensors as we cant access the CIT Engineering Mode of this phone.
Sample Shots
Selfie Camera
Video Sample
Battery, Temperature and SOT
This phone packs a lot of punch under the hood, having a 4000mAh battery inside its case, this is lot of game time for hardcore gamers out there. But you have to take note that battery drains faster on this phone, why? There is no MIUI Optimization mode on this one, like I said it almost a bare Android UI in here. The Black Shark 2 Pro here has a SOT of 12 Hour and 8 minutes, we expected this since the have overclocked the processor.. We charged the phone from 13% to 100% and it took us roughly 1 Hour and 12 minutes using the 27W charger provided inside the box. Impressive!
BLACK SHARK 2 Pro, The Ultimate Gamer’s Dream Phone!
Honestly, I really got blow away playing PUBG on this unit as it was really very responsive as compared to any gaming phone I have touched this year. The Black Shark 2 didn’t even come close to this awesome experience. Probably the only phone that can go toe to toe with this one is the Asus ROG 2. Nevertheless it would be more expensive than this one. If you are really a mobile gaming lover and would love to level up your playing experience, then this is the gadget just for you.