Black Shark 2 review: Turning up the heat for gaming phones

Gaming phones are more and more changing into an increasing number of widespread, with ASUS, Razer, and Xiaomi providing gadgets tailor-made to this class. The first Black Shark machine was unveiled final April, adopted by the Black Shark Helo in November, and Black Shark 2 earlier this 12 months.

There’s so much to love in the Black Shark 2: the machine has daring styling that can instantly enchantment to players, backed by top-notch {hardware} and optimizations to the touch latency that make interactions ultra-smooth. And like all gaming phones in the market in the present day, the Black Shark 2 comes with a set of equipment: a customized case with two controllers that connect on both aspect, and a gamepad.

The Black Shark 2 made its debut in China again in March, and the machine was launched in India in June. The firm has already introduced a Black Shark 2 Pro that comes with a 90Hz show and Snapdragon 855+, however that exact mannequin is not coming to international markets till later in the 12 months. Even with the Black Shark 2 Pro on the horizon, the normal Black Shark 2 is an fascinating machine to contemplate because it’s more likely to be discounted as soon as the Pro mannequin comes alongside.

About this evaluate

I’m penning this evaluate after utilizing the Black Shark 2 for over a month in Hyderabad, India. The telephone was linked to Jio’s 4G community all through the evaluate interval, and acquired one replace with bug fixes.

Black Shark 2 Hardware

Phone design has plateaued in the final two years, with most gadgets in the market in the present day sporting the similar metal-and-glass designs. Don’t get me unsuitable; I like the gradient patterns on the P30 Pro and the Redmi Ok20 Pro, however the total aesthetic is basically unchanged throughout most mainstream gadgets.

That’s not the case on the gaming aspect of issues. Manufacturers are persevering with to experiment with fascinating new designs and supplies, and the Black Shark 2 instantly stands out as a gaming telephone. it has RGB LEDs at the again, and two RGB LED bands operating alongside the sides as effectively. They gentle up for notifications, incoming calls, and when charging the machine, and you’ll configure the lighting results and alter the coloration of the LEDs from the settings.

There’s so much happening at the again: you get a reflective inexperienced accent operating round the edges of the machine, with a thick metallic band in the center breaking up the glass design. The metallic is anodized — which provides it a matte…