Xiaomi-backed brand Black Shark has launched its next gaming phone, the Black Shark Helo, in China. The phone was teased for a global launch by the company recently. The gaming smartphone market has only a handful of players and the Black Shark Helo will take on the Razer Phone 2, which was launched earlier this month.
As expected, the Black Shark Helo comes with several gaming-focussed features and upgrades over the previous model that was unveiled in April. The Black Shark Helo comes in three RAM variants and features a bigger display for convenient gaming. However, currently the smartphone will retail only in China and there’s no word on a global launch yet.
Major upgrades include a new liquid cooling system that leverages double heat pipe partition to prevent the handset from overheating. The company also teased an X+1 antenna that will offer better connectivity. Additionally, it comes with front stereo speakers.
The biggest takeaway of this handset, however, has to be the 10GB of RAM on offer. Currently, there is only one other device that comes with 10GB of RAM, the Xiaomi flagship Mi Mix 3, which was teased earlier (and is incidentally being launched today). The Black Shark also features a top-of-the-line Snapdragon 845 SoC and an independent image processing chip.
Xiaomi also announced a controller dock for the Black Shark Helo, and is calling it the Black Shark Biplane Handle. The controller comes with a joystick and other buttons, and can be connected to the handset. There are also 6GB and 8GB RAM variants that will be shipped with a Biplane Handle for the left; the 10GB RAM model meanwhile will get one on both sides.
Coming to the pricing, the Xiaomi Black Shark Helo has been launched at a starting price of CNY 3,199 in China. This is for the 6GB RAM/ 128GB storage variant. The 8GB+128GB variant has been priced at CNY 3,499, and the premium 10GB RAM/ 256GB storage model comes with a price tag of CNY 4,199. Notably, the smartphone will ship only in Black. It is available for pre-order via the Xiaomi China site and will go on sale on October 30th.
Xiaomi Black Shark Helo specifications
The Black Shark Helo sports a 6.01-inch display with 18:9 aspect ratio. There is a 101.3% DCI-P3 colour gamut ratio. In terms of optics, it gets the same set of cameras offered on the previous version. The dual-rear camera setup includes a 12-megapixel primary sensor and a 20-megapixel secondary sensor with LED flash. There’s a 20-megapixel sensor at the front.
The Xiaomi Black Shark phone comes in 128GB and 256GB inbuilt storage variants. The smartphone packs a 4,000mAh battery and comes with Quick Charge 3.0 support.
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