It has been a while since Blackshark released its new gaming phone since the Black Shark 2 (well the 2 Pro being just a little makeover). This time they have really stepped up their game and let me show you why. From the latest SoC to the better camera inside, plus the new design of the phone, I have beging to like this new gaming phone and its worthy to go toe to toe with the Asus ROG 2.
Tech Specs of Black Shark 3:
- · Qualcomm SDM8250 Snapdragon 865 Octa-core processor 7nm+ (1×2.84 GHz Kryo 585 & 3×2.42 GHz Kryo 585 & 4×1.80 GHz Kryo 585)
- · Adreno 650 GPU
- · 8GB/12GB of RAM LPDDR5
- · 6.67-inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display, (~82.4% screen-to-body ratio)
- · 1080 x 2400 pixels FHD+ (~395 ppi pixel density), 270Hz Touch Sensing
- · DCI-P3 color gamut, high color saturation, HDR10+, 90Hz Refresh Rate, 500nit
- · Lightning Black, Armor Gray, Star Silver
- · 128GB / 256GB of storage, UFS 3.0
- · 64 MP, f/1.8, 26mm (wide), 1/1.72″, 0.8µm, PDAF
- 13 MP, f/2.3, (ultrawide)
- 5 MP, f/2.2, (depth)
- · 20 MP, f/2.2, (wide), 1/3″, 0.9µm
- · On Screen Finger print scanner
- · Dual SIM (nano sim size)
- · 3G, LTE, 4G+ Carrier Aggregation, VoLTE Calls, SA/NSA 5G
- · Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax, Bluetooth 5.0, DUAL Band GPS Phone, A-GPS
- · 4720mAh battery, Quick Charge 4.0 Supported, 30 Watts Fast Charging 8/128GB, 65Watts Fast Charging 12/128GB and 12/256GB
- · Sensors: Ultrasonic distance sensor, Ambient Light sensor, Gyro, Vibration Motor, Accelerometer, Barometer, Electronic
- Compass, Hall Sensor
- · Android 10, JOY UI
- · USB-C port
- · 168.7 x 77.3 x 10.4 mm
- · 222 Grams
Design
As far as taking a review on every single Blackshark phone released since the very first one, I can say in terms of feel for the phone this one has to be the best. The edges are nice and it look so alien as possible just exactly the way I wanted by special gaming device to be. I am quite pleased with the breathing lights of the Blackshark 3 as I can full customize it to the way I want the lights to be. The placement of its triple camera I can say its uniquely Blackshark’s very own design. Placing the cameras in a triangle arrangement is something you don’t copy from someone else. Taking a good look at its back, all I can remember is X-Men from Marvel. It can even be the official phone of Wolverine, what do you think?
Unboxing
Display and Audio
The experience on the display is totally great and I have yet to find a matchup worthy to dethrone the Asus ROG 2, probably this one could be a good bet. The display is definitely great, but not the best of all. I have tried the display of the Mi 10 Pro, that one was simply better. The audio was also powerful enough to make gaming experience as immersive as possible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-lb7E6CJLY
Snapdragon 865
One of the first gaming device that sports the latest chipset from Qualcomm is Black Shark 3, the Snapdragon 865 SoC has 8 cores and can run up to 2.84Ghz of computing speed. Now of course powered together with the powerful Adreno 650, and of course a generous serving of 8GB or 12GB of DDR5 RAM (goodbye DDR4X), it will give you the best experience in gaming up to date, and probably even future proof. Not mentioning that it can run even the most graphics hungry games like COD and NBA2k20. We ran several stress test on this unit and we did not see any lags nor any slowdown on the opening of any apps in the Black Shark 3, multitasking was a breeze (this result is expected from a flagship of this level). The latest SD 865 + DDR5 + UFS 3.0 makes this phone one of the best in the gaming field to start the year 2020.
Antutu gave it a 577039 points out of the box.
Camera
One of the highlights in any phones is the camera, but this time its an exception, since this is a game centric unit. Meaning, every effort is given in this phone to give you the best gaming experience ever. Now, after taking the phone for a walk and took several shots, I can say its pretty above average for me, plus it was a huge jump from the crappy camera performance of the Black Shark 2. They sure took the camera category seriously this time around.
Sample Photos
Sample Selfie
Sample Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYeWInsdFeo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxTBxvpk-kM
Black Shark 3 Battery and Benchmark:
The Black Shark 3 supports the Qualcomm Quick charge 4.0, PD 3.0 and as fast as 30W. Inside the box it we can find a 30W QC 3.0 charger. We charged the phone from 18% to 100% in just a little over 60 minutes and it was really fast. We recorded a 15 hours and 5 minutes endurance test for the Black Shark 3 under the PC Mark battery stress test. If these statistics are true on a normal daily use, then it’s really a good sign for the said smartphone.
More Benchmarks
Verdict
Well by far I have been playing with this phone fore more than a week already by now and I can say that I am quite impressed with its performance. Given that it is a gaming phone, the camera is not that bad at all, since you carry this inside your pocket, you might want to have a decent camera at the very least with the price tag that comes with this unit. You will surely need to buy the attachments for this phone to fully maximize its potential.