It may have been available in China ever since March 2021, but the Black Shark 4 Pro gaming phone has only just received its global launch.
Boasting impressive specs and being the sequel to the well-reviewed Black Shark 3 Pro, you might have expected the Black Shark 4 Pro to have arrived on these shores to much acclaim as well. However, for whatever reason, it was unveiled but not launched outside of China for almost a full year afterwards. Now you can finally buy one in other parts of the world, and for keen gamers that could be very good news indeed.
The Black Shark 4 Pro has a 6.67-inch AMOLED display with a Full HD Plus resolution (1080x2400p) and it has an incredibly smoother refresh rate of 144Hz, along with HDR10+ support and peak brightness of 1300 nits.
Running on the Snapdragon 888 5G processor, this phone should deliver strong performance levels (albeit likely below those of the newer Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset), seeing as it offers integrated Adreno 660 GPU, X60 5G modem, LPDDR5 RAM, and UFS 3.1 storage. The device also packs a 4500mAh that can be topped via speedy 125W fast-charging.
Though cameras tend not to be the priority for gaming phones, this one still packs a triple rear camera set-up, consisting of a 64-megapixel main sensor, an 8-megapixel ultrawide lens, and a 5-megapixel macro snapper. The selfie camera clocks in at 20-megapixels.
The starting price, for the version with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage, is £489 ($580/€580), while the higher-spec option that has 12GB RAM and 256GB storage retails for £569 ($680/€680)
If it can live up to the standards of its predecessor, the Black Shark 3 Pro, then we’re likely to be very impressed. Naming it as one of the best gaming phones, we were particularly impressed by its value for money and the quality of its screen, although the full-on gaming aesthetics might put off some customers.