Xiaomi-backed gaming phone isn’t quite a Razer Phone-killer

The Razer Phone isn’t the only smartphone on the market that’s tuned especially for gamers. Xiaomi has backed a company called Black Shark to launch the aptly named Black Shark phone.

Upon first glance, it definitely looks to have the LED-obsessed gamers taken care of with neon green trimming around the phone frame and on back. As another nod, it even possesses an integrated liquid cooling system to keep it running cool while playing your favorite games, like PUBG Mobile or Final Fantasy 15 Pocket Edition – though modern phones don’t have much trouble running the cream of the crop at max fps.

Behind the Black Shark phone’s 6-inch 2,160 x 1,080 resolution LCD display that’s stretched to an 18:9 aspect ratio, you’ll find a Snapdragon 845 processor that’s backed by 6GB of RAM and a rather measly 64GB of storage.

Does it beat Razer's phone?

Since the Razer Phone is, more or less, the one to beat at this point with its smooth 120Hz, quad HD display, how does Black Shark stack up? Well, it certainly wins in a few key areas, but loses big in others.

The benchmarks prove that the Snapdragon 845 is quite a bit faster and more efficient than last year’s Snapdragon 835 – thus putting the Black Shark phone above Razer’s maximum clock speed – but the latter 2017 phone packs in 8GB of RAM and microSD support that bests Black Shark’s efforts.

If you have the opportunity of choosing between the two, the Razer Phone might be the better overall value, but for most outside of China, getting the Black Shark phone will be tough to find. But if you do, it should be cheaper than the $699 (£699, about AU$897) Razer Phone, coming in at 2999 yuan, or about $477 (about £334, AU$612).

Via Pocketnow

Cameron Faulkner

Cameron is a writer at The Verge, focused on reviews, deals coverage, and news. He wrote for magazines and websites such as The Verge, TechRadar, Practical Photoshop, Polygon, Eater and Al Bawaba.

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