Black Shark 4 and Black Shark 4 Pro official with 144Hz screens, SSD-based storage, 120W fast charging, and more

Xiaomi subsidiary Black Shark has launched its new line of gaming smartphones, the Black Shark 4 and Black Shark 4 Pro. Both phones come with some industry-first specifications for Android devices, such as an SSD for storage. Unlike other gaming smartphones released this year the Black Shark 4 and Black Shark 4 Pro run different chipsets.

Both the Black Shark 4 and Black Shark 4 Pro come with a 6.67-inch AMOLED screen with a refresh rate of 144Hz, a touch sampling rate of 720Hz, peak brightness of 1,300 nits and 111% coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut. Black Shark claims that the display has a touch delay of 24ms. However, dynamic refresh-rate adjustment doesn't seem to be present, presumably due to the lack of a MEMC chip. The devices also come with two pop-up mechanical shoulder buttons that can be remapped to perform other tasks. Both smartphones draw power from a 4,500mAh battery that supports 120W fast charging. Black Shark claims that it is possible to charge the battery completely in fifteen minutes.

Moving on to the internals, the Black Shark 4 Pro runs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC, while the Black Shark 4 settles for a 'new' Snapdragon 870. Memory/storage capacities max out at 12GB/256GB for the Black Shark 4 and 16GB/512GB for the Pro version. The Black Shark 4 Pro is also the world's first-ever smartphone to run a solid-state drive. Renowned leaker Ice Universe posted the phone's AndroBench numbers, which showed Sequential Reads of 3,000MB/s and Sequential Writes of 1,158MB/s. Both phones also pack an impressive set of speakers, which recently put it on the top of DXOMarks smartphone audio list.

Both Black Shark 4 smartphones come with three rear camera modules. The Pro version has a 64MP primary sensor, which the non-Pro variant replaces with a 48MP counterpart. It is accompanied by an 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens and a 5MP macro lens. At the front, we get a 20MP module for selfies and video calls. Lastly, connectivity options on the Black Shark 4 and Black Shark 4 Pro include Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, and a 3.5mm audio jack.

Price and Availability

The base Black Shark 4 variant with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage will retail at RMB 2,499 (US$383). Similarly, the Black Shark 4 Pro with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage costs RMB 3,999 (US$613). The phones will be available for pre-order in China starting March 26. A global launch is expected to follow suit soon. Black Shark has also launched two new accessories alongside the smartphones; a cooling dock called the Black Shark FunCooler 2 Pro and a pair of wired headphones, for some reason.

Buy the Black Shark 3 on Amazon