The Black Shark 4 series arrives with 120W charging and mechanical shoulder triggers

If you’re a mobile gamer, this should whet the appetite—the Black Shark 4 is here! To be honest, I’m a little surprised that the Chinese company has opted not to skip the number four (traditionally/culturally considered to be an unlucky number). Regardless, two versions have been announced: a standard Black Shark 4, and a Snapdragon 888-powered Black Shark 4 Pro.

Both models share a number of gamer-focused (of course) specs, although the biggest difference is the processors under the hood. Sound good? Here’s everything you need to know.

Pricing and availability

Pre-orders for the Black Shark 4 series will open on the 26th of March in China, with pricing as follows:

Black Shark 4 – 6GB RAM, 128GB storage – CNY 2,499 (~RM1,582)
Black Shark 4 – 8GB RAM, 128GB storage – CNY 2,699 (~RM1,709)
Black Shark 4 – 12GB RAM, 128GB storage – CNY 2,999 (~RM1,900)
Black Shark 4 – 12GB RAM, 256GB storage – CNY 3,299 (~RM2,090)
Black Shark 4 Pro – 8GB RAM, 256GB storage – CNY 3,999 (~RM2,533)
Black Shark 4 Pro – 12GB RAM, 256GB storage – CNY 4,499 (~RM2,850)
Black Shark 4 Pro – 16GB RAM, 512GB storage – CNY 5,299 (~RM3,357)

Unfortunately, there has not been an official release for Malaysian-specific pricing or availability. The official distributor for the company here has, however, confirmed that a launch date in Malaysia will be announced “soon”. On the global site, a global launch has been scheduled for April 2021.

Black Shark 4 and Black Shark 4 Pro

Of course, Qualcomm’s latest chip, the Snapdragon 888 is available in the series, although this is only limited to the Pro model. The vanilla Black Shark 4, meanwhile, utilises a Snapdragon 870 instead. That’s mated to LPDDR5 RAM and UFS3.1 storage on both models, and you should note that configurations for the Pro models go up to 16GB, with the regular Black Shark 4 available with up to 12GB of RAM.

One of the headlining features of the new phones are the mechanical pop-up shoulder buttons. These are supposed to offer “precise control” of touch-based mobile games, with “magnetic power lift” technology offering better tactile control. Meanwhile, the shoulder buttons can also be used as hotkeys for other functions: screenshots, screen recordings, and so on.

Both models also share the same 4,500mAh battery, which can be charged at a staggering 120W via USB-C. This, according to company, means that the standard Black Shark 4 can be charged from 0–100 percent in just 16 minutes, while a full charge on the Pro model is slightly quicker at 15 minutes. Black Shark also says that the series’ multi-tab cell and circuit design means that heat is kept to a minimum here, while the phones also utilise a “sandwich” design for liquid cooling.

The series also uses 6.67″ Samsung AMOLED displays pushing a refresh rate of 144Hz at an aspect ratio of 20:9. Meanwhile, Black Shark says that the 720Hz touch sampling rate means that the display offers a touch latency of 8.3ms, which is supposed to be an industry-leading figure. Of course, this won’t really be perceivable by your regular user—but hardcore gamers, the obvious target market here, might be able to appreciate this a little more. Plus, the Black Shark 4 Pro comes with the proprietary Master Touch 5.0, which is essentially the pressure-sensitive display that we saw in previous iterations.

Other features like Black Shark’s Shark Space and stereo speakers are available on both devices, while 5G support is available across the board. Cameras for both devices are nearly identical too: a 64MP main shooter, an 8MP wide-angle camera, and a 5MP macro lens. Only the Pro supports HDR10+ for video recording, however.

So, what do you think? Would you get this over the Asus ROG Phone 5? It’ll almost certainly be more affordable, so you’ll need to take that into account. In any case, be sure to keep SoyaCincau.com bookmarked on your browser for the latest developments.