The Black Shark 4 Pro squeezes every last drop of potential out of last year’s components, pairing them with 120W charging and physical shoulder buttons, to make a decent budget gaming phone. But there are too many problems and an extremely creepy assistant app, to make it worthwhile. JOYUI 12.5 all the best features of MIUI 12.5 such as an app drawer, extensive theming options, customizable Always-On Display, floating windows, and privacy features that give you more control. You can switch between 60Hz, 90Hz, and 144Hz screen refresh rates and change the display’s color scheme and temperature manually.
Since the phone doesn’t have a cooling vent or any unusual openings, it would have been relatively easy for Xiaomi to incorporate it. Xiaomi’s gaming sub-brand Black Shark has put out a slew of fantastic gaming phones in the past. Adopting the parent company’s eye view, Black Shark phones usually bundle heavy-duty gear with lower mid-range price tags. The Black Shark 4 Pro is a beefed-up version of the regular Black Shark 4, bumping up the key specs of its mega affordable sibling. While yes, the bottom middle is the most obvious and commonplace for the port, charging the phone and gaming at the same time can be very awkward, causing your hand to cramp as you try to hold and play around it. Moving the port to say the middle left or right side would have been a unique feature and way for a gaming phone such as this to distinguish itself from a “traditional phone”. Between all that, you have a 4500mAh battery that supports 120W charging (and that’s not a typo), whcih can charge the phone to full in less than 17 minutes.
- It’s a handy extra to have, though it’s not completely essential.
- The Black Shark 4 will provide a fast charge of no less than 120W , thus positioning itself among the fastest terminals to charge.
- That said, more cameras and higher megapixel counts do not give you the full picture (pun also intended).
- This is reasonable because most users want a device that can process tasks quickly.
As the resident expert on Windows, Senior Staff Writer Anyron’s main focus is PCs and laptops. Much of the rest of his time is split between smartphones, tablets and audio, with a particular focus on Android devices. The less we say about the 5Mp macro lens the better, partly because it took us so long to find the mode in the Camera app that it feels purposefully hidden by Black Shark. It performs about as well as most macro lenses on the market, and that’s to say it doesn’t work very well. It’ll be something you use once or twice, but no more than stock firmware file that. However, the key difference comes where the processor is concerned. While the Black Shark 4 Pro is powered by Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 888 chipset, the standard Black Shark 4 steps down to the Snapdragon 870.
- Because, after the reboot, the phone starts optimizing the apps in the background, which requires more processing power than when idle.
- To do so, you start the game and then swipe from the top right corner for a pull-down settings menu.
- Do check the full specs below and don’t forget to visit our updated Black Shark Price list.
The 5MP macro camera is a real piece of work, which is probably why Xiaomi buried it deep within the camera app. Once you do find it, you’ll realize that your efforts were in vain. It is utterly useless and honestly, I don’t see the need to include it for any reason whatsoever. As you can see in the sample below, the Black Shark 4 Pro’s macro sensor fails to capture the finer details of my e-reader’s leather cover. The Black Shark 4 Pro has a dedicated Night mode for low-light scenes. A little bit of light goes a long way here, as you can see in the sample shots below.
Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you’ll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. You need wireless charging