Xiaomi Black Shark 2 Pro: The ASUS ROG Phone 2 and Nubia Red Magic 3 challenger is arriving July 30; Geekbench listing has it trailing the Galaxy Note 10

Xiaomi has not hesitated in upgrading its gaming smartphone, following the announcements that ASUS and Nubia would be doing the same. Enter the Black Shark 2 Pro, the probable quasi-sequel to its namesake, the Black Shark 2. Xiaomi has only confirmed that it will be releasing the device on July 30, leaving all other details up for speculation.

However, several Geekbench listings have recently been uploaded that lift the lid on the Black Shark 2 Pro. All four have been posted today, each of which is named the Blackshark DLT-AO. The listings show the device as having 11506 MB of RAM, so expect to see the Black Shark 2 Pro come with 12 GB of RAM. Some Xiaomi insiders like @xiaomishka have pointed out that the Geekbench listings reveal the Blackshark DLT-AO to have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus SoC, although our research suggests that the one in the DLT-AO is a Snapdragon 855 instead. Incidentally, the Blackshark DLT-AO has about 10% better multi-core performance than the recently posted Samsung Galaxy Note 10 (SM-N970F), but about 20% worse single-core performance.

Either way, we would not be surprised to see Xiaomi follow ASUS and Nubia in updating its flagship gaming smartphone to the Snapdragon 855 Plus. The Black Shark 2 comes in 8 GB and 12 GB variants too, which Xiaomi may continue with the Black Shark 2 Pro. In short, we doubt that 12 GB will be the base model unless Xiaomi markets the Pro as a special edition version of the regular Black Shark 2. Keep your eyes peeled for July 30.