Xiaomi is one of most successful and prolific smartphone manufacturers of recent times. It typically targets the budget market, offering premium specs at an affordable price point. However, the company does things slightly differently when it comes to its Black Shark gaming arm, where peak performance and battery life are more important.
We’ve since seen five Black Shark phones launch so far, although not all of these have come to the UK. The latest of these is the Black Shark 3 series, which arrived in China in May 2020 before releasing globally two months later. Xiaomi’s relatively regular update cycle suggests new Black Shark phones are just around the corner, and so it has proven – the company has confirmed that the next generation of Black Shark phones will launch this month.
Despite four being considered unlucky in Xiaomi’s native China, there’s no indication that the number will be skipped in the naming of the new handsets . With that in mind, here’s everything you need to know about the Black Shark 4 and 4 Pro.
When will the Black Shark 4 be released?
An official Weibo post confirmed that the Black Shark 4 series will launch in China on 23 March. The event will take place at 3pm local time – that’s 7am in the UK. The event will likely be live streamed to Black Shark’s Weibo page, but as a China-only launch there are unlikely to be any English subtitles.
It’s not clear when the phones will be released globally, although the Black Shark 3 initially launched in March 2020 before coming to the UK two months later. However, the Black Shark 3 Pro never made it to Western markets. There’s a chance that Xiaomi will follow a similar schedule, with just the regular Black Shark 4 available in the Europe. However, Xiaomi’s US government blacklisting casts doubt on a US release.
The Chinese release schedule follows the same rough update cycle we’ve seen from the Black Shark range so far:
- Black Shark 1: April 2018
- Black Shark 2: March 2019
- Black Shark 2 Pro: Oct 2019
- Black Shark 3: March 2020
- Black Shark 3 Pro: March 2020
How much will the Black Shark 4 cost?
Again, we’re yet to hear what the official cost of the new gaming phones, but here’s what the past models cost as a guide:
- Black Shark 2: £479/€549
- Black Shark 2 Pro: £539/€599
- Black Shark 3: £539/$599/€599
- Black Shark 3 Pro: £799/$899/€899
Setting aside the Pro tier, which is always more expensive, it seems likely that the Black Shark 4 will occupy that sub-£600/$600 bracket when it does finally arrive. It may be in direct competition with the Red Magic 6, which starts at £509/US$599, but significantly cheaper than the £799 Asus ROG Phone 5.
What new features will be included in the Black Shark 4?
When Black Shark CEO Luo Yuzhou posted that the new model would arrive soon, he used an image that also outlined some of the features you can expect. These include 120W charging speeds, a 4500mAh battery and a 0% to 100% recharge time of 15 minutes.
The Red Magic 6 was also revealed in a similar fashion recently, also boasting 120W wired charging and a 4500mAh battery of its own.
It’s been confirmed that the Black Shark 4 will have the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor, as it is a gaming phone, after all. Performance hopes were given a boost recently when GSMArena posted a report that a Black Shark 4 prototype had just attained the highest benchmark scores on AuTuTu, clocking up 788,505 points. So, whatever hardware it comes equipped with, you can be sure it will be fast.
However, this may just be the Pro model, with a GSMArena article suggesting the regular Black Shark 4 will have a Snapdragon 870 chipset instead. This is essentially an overclocked version of 2020’s flagship Snapdragon 865+, but it won’t be the most powerful mobile chip around.
That same article reported on another Lou Youzhou Weibo post which revealed the first photo taken by the Black Shark 4 Pro:
The image is watermarked, making it clear that the 4 Pro was used, while also confirming that the device will come with an AI triple camera. The latter was also present on the Black Shark 3, so it remains to be seen if the rear sensors themselves (64Mp wide, 13Mp ultrawide, 5Mp depth) have been upgraded.
We’ve also seen a new Black Shark device pop up in a Google Play listing, revealing a few more potential specs. The device, codenamed ‘kaiser’, packs 8GB of RAM and an FHD+ 20:9 display, along with Android 11 support.
The only confusing wrinkle is that the chipset is listed as the ‘SDM835’ – aka the Snapdragon 835. At first, we thought that was a mix-up with the Snapdragon 888 model number – SM8350 – but the mention of the Kryo 280 CPU and Adreno 540 GPU match the older 835. This is presumably an error, but it does throw doubt on the veracity of the whole leak.
You may be disappointed to see an FHD+ panel, rather than a jump to a higher resolution, but that’ll likely be offset by Black Shark upping the OLED display’s refresh rate from the 90Hz of the Black Shark 3 to 144Hz, as seen on the likes of the Red Magic 5S.
The shoulder triggers will be making a return, as was confirmed by a teaser trailer initially uploaded to Weibo. The cooling system will also be upgraded, with GSMArena suggesting it will be able to reduce CPU temperatures by up to 18c.
Two phones have also shown up on Chinese certification system TENAA too, with one sporting the model name ‘SHARK KSR-A0’ – likely in reference to the ‘Kaiser’ codename. The listing makes mention of 5G, dimensions of 163.83mm x 76.35mm x 10.3mm, a 6.67in display, a 4500mAh battery and (again) Android 11.
As for the second TENAA listing – model name ‘SHARK PRS-A0’ – the included images reveal a front-facing punch-hole camera and side-mounted fingerprint sensor/power button (in place of an in-display fingerprint sensor), suggesting that this is the more modest Black Shark 4, while ‘Kaiser’ and the specs tied to it mentioned above are likely the Black Shark 4 Pro.
You can get a better look at the phone’s rear design in this official poster from Xiaomi however:
Hands-on photos of one Black Shark 4 handset have also been leaked, and look likely to also be this standard model. Note the same punch-hole selfie camera (unusual for a gaming phone) and side-mounted fingerprint scanner.
You also get a look at a new fan accessory, likely to be sold separately.
#DigitalChatStation
The appearance of Black Shark 4 comes out, centered ultra-microporous OLED + rear horizontal three-camera + lifting shoulder button + side fingerprint, this generation of design does not kill Matt…😎 pic.twitter.com/Vkn9MJSlES— Digital Chat Station (@chat_station)
March 18, 2021
There’s not much else known about the Black Shark 4 line at the moment, but looking at the previous entries, we think it’s likely that they’ll also feature options for 8 or 12GB of RAM, 128 or 256GB of storage, an optical in-display fingerprint sensor (in the case of the Pro), at least three cameras and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
We’ll be updating this article as more news becomes available, but in the meantime check out our best gaming phones roundup to see what alternatives are available.
