Xiaomi Black Shark unveils its first gaming smartphone

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Following the rising trend of gaming smartphones, Xiaomi Black Shark unveiled its first gaming handset Friday in Beijing’s 798 Art Zone, leading the charge of the Chinese tech giant’s gaming brand.

The company claims it to be the first “authentic” gaming phone in the Chinese market despite the fact that many technology companies have already released their own version of gaming handsets.

Powered by the Qualcomm’s latest processing chipset Snapdragon 845, the “born to compete” Black Shark gaming phone is equipped with customized hardware to bring out the best gaming performance out of the device.

The phone utilizes Android Oreo 8.0 system topped with JOY UI.

It comes with 8GB of RAM, an 18x9 screen with full HD plus resolution, a dual-lens rear camera with the resolutions of 12 million pixels and 20 million pixels, and a 20-million-pixel front camera. The image processing chip by MEMC brings sharper colors and smooth performance when needed.

An additional Black Shark Gamepad can be snapped onto the device, similar to Nintendo’s snap-on controllers for Switch.

An additional Gamepad can be snapped onto the Black Shark gaming phone. /Photo via Black Shark

“In terms of configuration, the Black Shark gaming phone is totally qualified to rank among the flagship mobile phones,” wrote technology journalist Su Hang in a blog post.

Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei Consumer BG, on the other hand, think the concept of a simple purpose gaming smartphone is just sensationalization.

“It is much like the concept of a waterproof phone. Nowadays all flagships are waterproof,” said Yu at Huawei’s P20 release event on Thursday. “All mobile phones should have game performance. The performance of future Huawei mobile phones will be greatly improved so that each Huawei phone is a gaming phone.”

On Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, some complained that the single-side controller pad may bring unsymmetrical gaming experience. Some called it a worse-version Switch.

The up-and-coming Black Shark company was established in August 2017, with Xiaomi as its major investor. While Xiaomi designs and sells a range of consumer electronics including smartphones, mobile applications and laptops, Black Shark is more gaming-oriented, which accounts for its first smartphone designed for gaming enthusiasts.

The new gaming phone with a starting price of 2,999 yuan, (roughly 476 US dollars) will be available for pre-order online on April 20.

Many compare Xiaomi’s new device with the Razer Phone launched last November.

Razer Phone shares some similar features with Black Shark's new gaming handset. /Photo via Razer

Razer Phone shares similarities with the Black Shark gaming handset. It has the latest Android Oreo 8.0, and is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 835. It comes with 8GB of RAM, 5.7-inch IGZO LCD screen with resolutions of 2560 x 1440 pixels, a dual-lens rear camera. The phone is more expensive with the price tag falling on around 700 US dollars.

Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan called it the first handset “by gamers, for gamers.”