A GAMING Phone? What…. Xiaomi Black Shark 2
Smart phones have become a pretty massive gaming market in recent years, so it’s only to be expected that companies are going to release gaming specific versions of their phones, and, as it turns out Xiaomi is no different. This is the Black Shark 2, and it’s a “gaming phone”.
So what the hell is “gaming” about this? Well, spec wise it’s pretty packed. Snapdragon 855 that’s “liquid cooled”, 8GB of RAM as a minimum, with a 12GB option coming soon, and 128GB storage minimum with the upgrade option giving you 256GB.
In game performance is pretty sweet, even stuff like PUBG mobile on high settings is smooth and actually doesn’t look too bad, even if i suck at playing it. There’s also a little green switch on the side of the phone that enables their gaming mode. They call it “shark space”, which is just too much for me, but basically it just launches a game dashboard type thing and clears up some extra RAM so you get the optimal gaming experience.
On the gaming side of things, you can also pick up their “pro kit” alongside your phone for around £80, which is essentially just two little controllers that clip onto a case and turn your phone into a nintendo switch lookalike. While the concept is cool, the controllers only connect via bluetooth, charge with usb c ports on the bottom and interact with games like like every other phone controller, so you may as well save yourself some money and go buy a nicer, better quality controller from someone else.
So, we’ve established that its good for gaming, but since most people don’t only game on their phones, it should probably work well as, well, a phone. Lets start with the screen. It’s a 19.5:9 aspect ratio display, with a 2340×1080 resolution, and its AMOLED. It’s actually a beautiful screen, plenty bright and generally rather nice – although the rounded corners mean that some stuff like the battery indicator in the top right is just a bit too close to being cut off for my liking.
Battery wise, it’s a 4000mAh unit, which even while gaming generally gives you a good day of usage – and happily it comes with a fast charger in the box too, should you need it. No wireless charging though.
Below the display is an optical fingerprint sensor, and like we’ve seen already, optical, under screen sensors are pretty slow. It takes about a full second to unlock, and can be kinda picky too, which compared to my now old OnePlus 3T which unlocks in less than half a second, it definitely feels, slow, although not a deal breaker. They do also offer facial recognition, but it’s laughably insecure, so much so that my friend was able to unlock it with his, rather different face to mine.
Camera wise, you’ve got a 48MP rear camera, and a 12MP 2x zoom camera too, both of which are pretty good, but nothing special. Front facing wise, it’s a 12MP sensor, because why not, and actually goes a rather good job too.
What else then? Well, software wise this is full on stock android, just like you’d get on a Pixel, and you’ve got no pre-installed bloatware – heck, you don’t even have Google Docs preinstalled. Crazy. It’s a smooth and responsive experience though, generally impressive. The only few usability issues I had was the haptic motor, which is possibly one of the worst I’ve used. I can’t really describe how naff it was, but it just just didn’t work well for me, and also the speakers. They are technically stereo, but are distorted and are also possibly the worst speakers I’ve heard on a phone in a while.
So you are probably now wondering how much this thing costs, I mean flagship specs, £80 accessories, it’s got to be flagship prices, right? Happily, not quite. The 8GB RAM/128GB storage model is £479. Now, it’s not exactly cheap, but in a world of £1000 phones with the same specs as this, that ain’t bad.
So what do I actually think about it then? Well, it’s a nice enough phone. Good specs, performs well in both gaming and general use, nice screen but slow fingerprint sensor and naff haptic motor. Stock android is great, and while I’d probably never engage “shark space” unless it was an accident, it does game well and keep impressively cool too. For the price, it’s not a bad shout, but it didn’t blow me away. I’m actually going to be sticking to my OnePlus 3T – because I don’t see a need to change over as this wasn’t really all that much better in terms of user experience.
Want one? Amazon: https://uk.blackshark.com/pages/blackshark2
Products shown provided by: Xiaomi
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