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The Black Shark 3 takes amazing photos but suffers from one massive oversight

The Black Shark 3 takes great photos, but there's a catch. (Image source: Black Shark)
The Black Shark 3 takes great photos, but there's a catch. (Image source: Black Shark)
The Black Shark 3's 64 MP camera looks to be combining four such images into one resulting in massive file sizes and long processing times. The lack of storage expansion comes as a handicap for anyone wishing to take a lot of 64 MP photos. Although the photos look clear, the resulting post-processing apparently makes them look like an oil painting.

The Black Shark 3 phones offer some sweet specs tailored for mobile gamers with the Black Shark 3 Pro's display size dwarfing even the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra. Mobile gaming prowess aside, the Black Shark 3 phones feature a 64+13+5 MP triple-camera setup that should result in some excellent photos. However, it looks like the Black Shark 3 takes things a bit farther than the norm.

Famous leakster Ice Universe posted a few photos taken by the Black Shark 3 on Twitter. According to him, the Black Shark 3 actually combines four 64 MP photos for a massive 256 million pixels. Processing such large image data (13824 x 18432 pixels) naturally takes time and the phone takes no less than 10 seconds to combine four 64 MP images into one. Not just that, the resulting file size of each photo is upwards of 100 MB! 

Now, the issue here is that the Black Shark 3 tops-out at 128 GB storage while the Pro version is a bit more generous at 256 GB. There is no microSD expansion available so, someone who indeed wishes to make the most of the 64 MP camera will find their onboard storage depleting fast. Xiaomi could have equipped the phone with some sort of storage expansion. An OTG storage device might still be a viable option, though.

The other issue seems to be with respect to the post-processing. Ice Universe says that the photos look good but have an oil paint-like feel. This is something that can be fixed with a later OTA update, but how quickly can Xiaomi address this in time for the global rollout remains to be seen. Previously, the oil painting artefacts were a common complaint with phones such as the OnePlus 5 forcing users to look for alternative camera apps.

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> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2020 03 > The Black Shark 3 takes amazing photos but suffers from one massive oversight
Vaidyanathan Subramaniam, 2020-03- 6 (Update: 2024-09- 9)