Xiaomi Black Shark 3

Specifications

Pricecompare

Reviews for the Xiaomi Black Shark 3

80% Black Shark 3 review
Source: Tech Advisor
The Black Shark 3 is far from flawless, but significant improvements to camera performance and charging speeds make this a worthy rival to the identically-priced Red Magic 5G.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 02/03/2021
Rating: Total score: 80%

80% Black Shark 3: The big boss of gaming?
Source: Pocket Lint
This big, powerful gaming phone has stupendously fast-charging to ensure you'll never go short. If you're after a phone that's always fast and responsive, this is definitely that. For a 5G phone with top-notch internals, it's affordable too.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 07/12/2020
Rating: Total score: 80%

80% Xiaomi Black Shark 3 review
Source: Techradar
If you're looking for a smartphone to play mobile games on, you'll be safely serviced with the Black Shark 3, as its hardware and software work well together to make your gaming experience a treat. It's also surprisingly good for photography, although it's not as good as dedicated camera phones. The actual build of it might put off many though, because it's big with a very bold appearance.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 07/10/2020
Rating: Total score: 80%

Foreign Reviews

83% Black Shark 3, análisis: 90Hz, luces de colores y la máxima potencia en el móvil ‘gaming’ para todos
Source: Andro 4 All ES→EN
Single Review, online available, Very Long, Date: 06/26/2020
Rating: Total score: 83%

Review Lengkap Black Shark 3 Resmi: HP Gaming 5G Paling Murah & Kencang di Indonesia
Source: Jagat Review ID→EN
Positive: Powerful hardware; high gaming performance; support 5G; excellent display; attractive price.
Single Review, online available, Long, Date: 06/19/2020

Comment

Model:

The Xiaomi Black Shark 3 is the newest gaming phone from the Xiaomi subsidiary. Black Shark is a company that has been targeting the mobile gaming phone niche market for a few years now, and the Black Shark 3 is its latest device. This smartphone is not just a phone that has been designed to be great for gaming, but rather a device that has been created seemingly only for mobile gamers, as all its unique selling points are ones which will be far more useful for someone who plays lots of games than for the everyday smartphone user.

Just like any other Black Shark phone, the Black Shark 3 seems to scream ‘gamer’ in terms of its appearance with the rear bedecked with a massive ‘X’ pattern that houses the three camera bumps in its triangular top zone and a four-pin pad used for magnetic charging on the bottom side. The ‘Shark Space’ switch, which trigger the gaming-focused mode, is situated on the bottom of the right edge. This phone also comes with a single USB-C port for charging and wired data transfer purposes. In addition, there is a 3.5mm headphone jack on the top of the phone.

An interesting design element of the Black Shark 3 has to be the presence of LED strips on the back part of the phone. One LED strip is situated by the camera array, another one by the magnetic pad, and a main central one in the Black Shark logo. The purpose of these strips is to display a range of colours in different patterns, and it can be customized by the user based on their individual needs and preferences. While it is definitely fun to customize and play with the pattern, it should be noted that this feature does drain the battery if left on for too long.

In terms of its display, this smartphone has a 1080x1400 AMOLED 6.67-inch screen. While this is not the highest resolution screen that can be found on a phone, it is definitely good enough for gaming purposes, as most gamers stay at 1080p. The refresh rate is 90Hz, which makes scrolling through social media more fluid. As for the camera, the Black Shark 3 has been equipped with a 64-megapixel main camera along with a 13-megapixel ultra wide lens and a 5-megapixel depth-sensing snapper at the back. Apart from that, there is a 20-megapixel front camera for selfies.

The Black Shark 3 comes with a Snapdragon 865 chipset that is either paired with 8 GB or 12 GB of RAM. In terms of battery, this device has been packed with a 4,720mAh battery, which is normally pretty big for a smartphone, but rather appropriate for this model due to its large screen. The phone powers up through 30W charging in the 8GB version, but upgrades to 65W fast-charging with the 12GB version. This difference might justify the price variation between the two. Overall, this model definitely deserves consideration in the mobile gaming niche market for its features.

Hands-on article by Jagadisa Rajarathnam

Qualcomm Adreno 650: Graphics chip for smartphones and tablets that is integrated within the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC. Qualcomm claims that it is 25% faster than the Adreno 640 in the Snapdragon 855 SoC and offers 50% more compute units (ALUs). For Android it should be one of the fastest graphics cards in 2020.

Modern games should be playable with these graphics cards at low settings and resolutions. Casual gamers may be happy with these cards.

» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Graphics Cards and the corresponding Benchmark List.

SD 865: High-end SoC for smartphones that was introduced in late 2019 and manufactured in 7 nm at TSMC (improved N7P). Integrates one “Prime Core” based on a ARM Cortex-A77 architecture clocked at up to 2.84 GHz. Three more performance cores are also based on the A77 but clock up to 2.42 GHz. Furthermore, four energy saving cores are integrated that are based on the ARM Cortex-A55 architecture and clock at up to 1.8 GHz. In addition to the processor cores, the SoC integrates a WiFi 6 modem (including 60 GHz mmWave support), a Hexagon 698 DSP (up to 15 TOPS) and a Spectra 480 ISP. The integrated memory controller now supports faster LPDDR5 memory with up to 2,750 MHz. LTE is not included anymore in the SoC, but the external Snapdragon X55 5G modem has to be used.» Further information can be found in our Comparison of Mobile Processsors.

6.67":

It is a small display format for smartphones. You shouldn't be severely defective in vision, and you won't see much detail on the screen and only have a small resolution available. For that, the device should be small and handy, easy to transport.

Xiaomi:

Founded in 2010, Xiaomi Corporation is a Chinese multinational electronics company and produces consumer electronics and related products, including smartphones, televisions, fitness bands, power banks, headphones, smart devices and accessories. Xiaomi offers its products under the Mi, Redmi and POCO brands.

81.66%: This rating is slightly above average, there are somewhat more devices with worse ratings. However, clear purchase recommendations look different.

» Further information can be found in our Notebook Purchase Guide.

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