Smart Android And Trik-Commenting on Andorid indeed never endless, because smart devices this one is often updated every certain amount of time. So that the market can always be garapnya menerinya with pleasure. And it is not denied if this device has become the lifestyle of each society. To not wonder if the 6th business information and many are turning to mobail smartphone. With Android which thoroughly dominated the mobile industry, choosing the best Android smartphone is almost identical to choose the best smartphone, period. But while Android phones have few real opponents on other platforms, internal competition is intense.
Introduction and specs
Uncompromising gaming experience on the cheap. That's what Xiaomi is aiming for with its second-best gaming phone, the Black Shark 4. It offers pretty much everything the Pro version has but tones down the chipset to Snapdragon 870 and swaps the main 64MP camera for a 48MP one. It may sound like a significant downgrade, but the competitive price tag of just €500 may be enough to convince you to pull the trigger. And the Black Shark 4 has two of those.
On top of the already standard 144Hz OLED panel, Xiaomi has included other gaming-specific features such as the physical shoulder triggers. That may not sound much given that Asus and nubia are doing it too, but these ones are physical, clickable buttons. And nothing beats those when it comes to gaming.
Xiaomi Black Shark 4 specs at a glance:
- Body: 163.8x76.4x9.9mm, 210g; Glass front and back, metal frame.
- Display: 6.67" Super AMOLED, 144Hz, HDR10+, 1300 nits (peak), 1080x2400px resolution, 20:9 aspect ratio, 395ppi; Always-on display.
- Chipset: Qualcomm SM8250-AC Snapdragon 870 5G (7 nm): Octa-core (1x3.2 GHz Kryo 585 & 3x2.42 GHz Kryo 585 & 4x1.80 GHz Kryo 585); Adreno 650.
- Memory: 128GB 6GB RAM, 128GB 8GB RAM, 128GB 12GB RAM, 256GB 12GB RAM; UFS 3.1.
- OS/Software: Android 11, Joy UI 12.5.
- Rear camera: Wide (main): 48 MP, f/1.8, 1/2.0", 0.8µm, PDAF; Ultra wide angle: 8 MP, f/2.2, 120˚, 1/4.0", 1.12µm; Macro: 5 MP, f/2.4, AF.
- Front camera: 20 MP, f/2.0, (wide), 0.8µm.
- Video capture: Rear camera: 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/240fps, 1080p@960fps; Front camera: 1080p@30fps.
- Battery: 4500mAh; Fast charging 120W, 100% in 17 min (advertised).
- Misc: Fingerprint reader (side-mounted); NFC; 3.5mm jack; Physical pop-up shoulder triggers.
The handset is also geared with a set of powerful loudspeakers and a proper cooling system making sure performance lasts. However, the camera setup covers only the bare minimum. Then again, that's probably not what you are after if you are already here reading a gaming phone review.
What concerns us the most is the below-average battery capacity of 4,500 mAh. Hopefully, the extra fast 120W charging will make sure charging sessions are as short as possible. Xiaomi promises a full charge in just 17 minutes.
It's also important to note that if you reside outside of China, the Pro model is probably out of reach anyway so this model is as good as it gets from Black Shark. The 4 Pro is a China-only exclusive at the time of writing, so the non-Pro model has the uneasy task to challenge the Snapdragon 888-equipped nubia Red Magic 6, which falls in the same price range.
So in this review, we will see if the trade-off for Snapdragon 870 is worth it, considering competition and pricing. We will also test various games on the Play Store and see if Xiaomi's gaming phone can saturate the 144Hz screen with the corresponding framerates. Gaming optimization is the Achilles heel of modern gaming smartphones, and so far, Asus has the lead with the most supported HRR games.
Unboxing the Xiaomi Black Shark 4
The Black Shark 4 comes in a standard retail box that weighs a little more than expected, mostly due to the chunky 120W charger. The USB-A to USB-C cable for charging and data transfer is also at hand, along with a hard, plastic, semi-transparent case as a bonus.
The case doesn't wrap around the whole handset, and we can't say that it provides a good grip. On the upside, it doesn't make the phone bulkier than it already is.
Design and ergonomics
The Black Shark 4 adopts a typical glass sandwich build but contrary to our expectations, the official specs sheet doesn't mention Gorilla Glass at all. So we assume regular glass has been used not only for the back, but for the front too. The side frame is looks and feels like anodized aluminum, but we can't confirm for sure.
Given the weight of 210g, however, it's quite possible that Xiaomi has indeed used glass and metal for the chassis. The battery is definitely not a major contributor to the overall weight as it's just 4,500 mAh in capacity. On the other hand, the cooling system could be tipping the scales. As far as weight distribution goes, the handset does feel a bit top-heavy, but it's balanced overall. Long gaming sessions don't seem to cause discomfort.
One-handed usage, though, is a bit of a challenge. The phone features a tall 6.67-inch display, so reaching the top bezel is hard. The more aggressive curves of the back help a bit, but the rather thick profile of the phone (9.9mm) means handling is hardly a breeze.
Speaking of the back, it features cool patterns in typical Black Shark style that change as you turn the phone at a different angle. The gradient almost makes it look like brushed aluminum. At least the Mirror Black version of the phone that we received. This color and design also make smudges and fingerprints hard to notice.
The camera bump is rather unusual for 2021 trends. The shape of the module goes in line with the Black Shark aesthetics, and since the body of the phone is on the thick side, the bump doesn't protrude as much. It almost lies flush with the back panel.
Unlike most gaming phones, the Black Shark 4 goes the punch-hole path instead of using a thicker top bezel. This means that the front-facing camera will get in the way. Then again, we should give credit to Xiaomi for pulling off such a tiny cutout for the camera. The hole is really tiny but still renders a small portion of the screen unusable. You can still disable "the notch" from the settings menu, of course, but this will cut out a significant portion of the screen.
The silver lining is that all bezels are petty thin, even the chin. It gives the phone pleasant and premium looks.
The side frame is unorthodox too. It's not oval and has a clear-cut edge. However, that doesn't make the grip uncomfortable in any way, Xiaomi didn't go overboard with the sharpness of the edge.
The volume rocker is on the left, accompanied by the SIM card tray for the two SIM cards, as there is no microSD card support.
Black Shark 4 side frame
The power button that doubles as a fingerprint reader sits on the right side of the frame in a shallow cutout, right in the middle, so you won't press it accidentally during gaming. We also found it to be easy to reach with the thumb. The power button is surrounded by two flip switches that "unlock" the physical shoulder triggers. The switches make a satisfying click in both positions and are perfect for fidgeting.
Shoulder triggers
As far as the triggers are concerned, they feel really good. They offer good tactile, clicky feedback but fall a bit on the shallow side. The key travel isn't amazing, although some design limitations are probably at hand, and so Xiaomi had to work with the available space it had.
Apart from not incorporating at least some sort of Gorilla Glass for the front display and the use of a punch-hole design instead of a standard bezel are our only complaints. Even the weight and thickness didn't bother us. The phone feels solid and rather secure in the hand.
Flagship gaming display but with a punch-hole
The Black Shark 4 may not be a true flagship gaming handset given its Snapdragon 870 chipset, but the display sure does make this argument partially valid. It's no different from the Snapdragon 888-powered Pro version of the phone. A 6.67-inch OLED panel has been used, featuring a 1080 x 2400px resolution in a 20:9 aspect ratio. Xiaomi advertises 105% DCI-P3 color gamut coverage and 500 nits maximum brightness. Arguably the most important feature, however, is the 144Hz refresh rate. At least when it comes to gaming, that is.
We ran the usual tests and found that the maximum brightness is indeed pretty close to the advertised one - 498 nits. Setting brightness control to automatic, though, will boost the brightness in outdoor conditions up to 694 nits. We can definitely say that using the phone outdoors was no issue for us.
| Display test | 100% brightness | ||
| Black, |
White, |
||
| 0 | 498 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 694 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 450 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 821 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 444 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 492 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 806 | ∞ | |
| 0.349 | 498 | 1427:1 | |
| 0.434 | 613 | 1412:1 | |
| 0 | 472 | ∞ | |
| 0 | 818 | ∞ | |
Color accuracy can be really good with the Standard mode, which shows dE2000 deviation of just 2.4. Even the default Saturated mode surprised us with good white and gray accuracy.
HRR control is another important aspect of the phone's display as it helps preserve battery while keeping things running smoothly. In menus and general apps, the display didn't go above 120Hz, even though the refresh rate was set to "Ultimate" (read 144Hz). The next step is 90 and then 60Hz if you prefer to do this manually.
Additionally, the refresh rate doesn't drop below 120Hz when you aren't interacting with the screen. All apps run at 120Hz, including Chrome. YouTube does trigger a response, though, lowering the refresh rate down to 60Hz, which is good because you don't need more than that for video playback. The same goes for the native video player.
Speaking of video playback, JoyUI 12.5 offers a so-called Video toolbox. Once enabled, you can slide out a small panel with a couple of tools like recording, screenshot and casting - standard stuff.
The interesting bits are the Styles and Picture tools. The first one applies some sort of filter so you can watch the video with a color preset of your choice while Picture gives you control over the MEMC feature and real-time sharpening. Keep in mind that the former may produce smearing effect in some videos as it inserts black frames between each one to create the sensation of a smoother playback, but the important thing here, is that you can turn it on or off as you please.
Video toolbox
Last, but not least, the display is HDR10+ certified but since we weren't able to install Netflix on the testing unit, we can only confirm that HDR support in YouTube is present.
Battery life
In our tests, the BlackShark 4 battery life wasn't jaw-dropping, but it was also not too bad for a 4,500 mAh battery. The standby and web browsing tests boosted the phone's overall endurance rating but the rather low talk time figures and video playback tests set the handset's overall battery performance to about average. At least when compared to other gaming devices.
Our battery tests were automated thanks to SmartViser, using its viSerDevice app. The endurance rating denotes how long the battery charge will last you if you use the device for an hour of telephony, web browsing, and video playback daily. More details can be found here.
Video test is carried out at 60Hz when possible. The web browsing test is done under the highest screen refresh rate mode available. You can adjust the endurance rating formula manually so it matches better your own usage in our all-time battery test results chart where you can also find all phones we've tested.
Charging speed
The phone uses a bulky 120W charging brick that comes inside the retail box, and when combined with the 4,500 mAh battery, charging times are extremely short. We couldn't even run our 30-minute charging test because the battery charges from 0 to 100% in just 19 minutes. It's one of the fastest charging phones we've ever tested.
The downside is that the handset gets a bit too warm to our taste, which may potentially cause some faster battery deterioration over time. Then again, you probably won't leave the phone that long on the charger, as just 10 minutes would probably be enough to top-up your battery from a reasonable 20 or 30% charge.
30min charging test (from 0%)
- Xiaomi Black Shark 4
100% - OnePlus 9
100% - Asus ROG Phone 5
70% - vivo X60 Pro
68% - nubia Red Magic 6
63%
Time to full charge (from 0%)
- Xiaomi Black Shark 4
0:19h - OnePlus 9
0:29h - vivo X60 Pro
0:58h - nubia Red Magic 6
1:01h - Asus ROG Phone 5
1:05h
Speakers
The Black Shark 4 has two full-fledged speakers on each side. The top speaker is located on the side of the top frame and is symmetrical to the bottom-firing speaker.
With this arrangement, it's no wonder that sound comes out well-balanced with a clear punch, loud vocals and bass that would do the trick for most people. It's not amazing by any means, and even tracks that don't have a lot of bass in them sound flat. But overall, the speakers are great. Loudness, on the other hand, isn't stellar as it scored "Good" in our test.
Use the Playback controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.
JoyUI 12.5 coupled with Android 11
Xiaomi's Black Shark phones used to launch with nearly stock Android with a couple of added features but since 2019, they get a UI of their own. In this case, we are dealing with JoyUI 12.5 based on Android 11.
Similarly to the Poco launcher, which is ever so slightly altered MIUI for Poco phones, JoyUI is an adapted version for Black Shark phones. From what we gathered, there are only a couple of themes, wallpapers and gaming-related features that set it apart from the original MIUI.
The home screen, lock screen, app drawer and recent apps are business as usual for a typical MIUI-powered device, but this time around, the app drawer is set as a default option instead of the simplified home screen arrangement. There's also the revamped notification shade or should we call it Control Center.
Home screen, app drawer, standard notification shade
Swiping down from the home screen near the left edge of the display will bring down the notification cards and stacks. Which in turn can be customized further by switching over to MIUI style notification cards instead of the default Android ones. Swiping near the right edge will bring down the so-called Control Center - four highlighted toggles for the Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular and flashlight, while the rest are the usual toggles that can be rearranged. There's the brightness slider too. The highlighted toggles have a small triangle icon in the lower-right corner, tapping on it will show a context menu allowing you to manage your connections on the fly without having to open up the settings menu.
New control center
Another highly customizable feature is the always-on display. There are tons of clocks, animations and even a customizable theme for the always-on panel. The behavior of the always-on is also adjustable - scheduling, raise-to-wake, double-tap-to-wake.
Speaking of the display, on top of the usual options, you get а Sunlight mode that boosts the brightness even further when the brightness control is set to manual mode. Quite useful for people not liking the automatic adjustment. There's also the Anti-flicker mode that prevents the screen from flickering at lower brightness levels. And to our surprise, Dark mode is set by default as you switch the phone on for the first time. A list of apps on which you can force Dark mode is also available.
Display settings
MIUI's version of notification bubbles that are native to Android 11 are called Floating notifications. Aside from the slightly different aesthetics of the bubble and the floating window, the Floating window feature does exactly what Messenger's Chat Heads do. Other Android 11-intrinsic features include one-time permission management for apps as well as notification cards grouping in the notification shade keeping your ongoing conversations from chat apps separate from the rest of the app notifications.
Notification bubbles
We had no issues with unlocking the device itself. The power button doubling as a fingerprint reader seems to be doing its job very well. In fact, it's one of the fastest fingerprint readers we've used. And to prevent accidental readings, you can set the unlock method to be press-to-unlock instead of tap-to-unlock.
Unlike the rest of Android phones, including the other MIUI branches, the battery menu is tucked away in the Performance manager section. In addition to the standard Battery menu, you have a Process manager, Network assistant and Endurance optimization assistant at your disposal. The names of the features are pretty self-explanatory, but they also give you quite a bit of nerd stats such as CPU and RAM usage in real-time, network connection quality and detailed battery usage stats.
Performance and power management menu
Strangely, charging options are moved to the Additional settings menu, where you can toggle the charging animation on and off and the so-called Intelligent charging, which learns from your charging habits to preserve the battery health in the long run. After all, if you are doing overnight charging, you don't really need those 120W pumping juice into the battery. Supposedly, it would stop charging at some point and wait until the last few minutes before you wake up to fill up the remaining battery charge.
The one-handed mode is a mixed bag since the gesture requires swiping across the navigation buttons to activate it, and that works okay if you are not using full-screen gestures. Even if you leave the navigation pill, the gesture for one-handed mode doesn't work. It just switches between recently used apps, which in turn is the default behavior of the pill.
The Special features menu holds a couple of other neat tricks like a lighting effects for incoming calls (just like edge lighting on other phones) and lighting effects for music playback. Switching off the screen while playing something on your phone will show the those lighting effects.
Special features
Lastly, we have the so-called Magic window. This feature seems to be getting pretty popular on custom UIs and what it does is offer quick access to certain apps or tasks just by sliding out a small panel over other apps or menus. You can move it around the edges to your liking.
Gaming features and physical shoulder triggers
Since the Black Shark 4 is a gaming phone, there are a handful of gaming-related features. The so-called Shark Space is in the center of it all. There's no dedicated physical button to start the Shark Space so you have to either open the app itself or press and hold both shoulder triggers. The app allows you to manage your game collection, sync your accessories to the handset and set global settings such as locking the brightness level, toggle on the mistouch prevention feature, reject an incoming call automatically, mute notifications, etc.
Shark Space and Game Studio
You can do so in each game, too, by summoning the Game assistant by swiping from the corners of the display. Enabling or disabling some of the corner gestures in landscape and portrait mode is also possible.
In-game pull-down menu and other Shark Space features
Probably one of the best features to have on this phone is the ability to read notifications on bullet banners while in-game. Those bullet notifications can be customizable as well - position, speed, style, opacity, number of allowed lines.
Bullet screen notifications
In case you are in a game with a buddy, using the loudspeakers can sometimes interfere with the call quality, meaning you won't be able to hear the other side. The Game voice mono feature aims to solve this issue by temporarily disabling the top speaker so you can hear your friend's voice clearly.
Arguably, the best feature on this phone is the physical shoulder triggers. While the Black Shark 4's competitors go for the touch triggers, the Black Shark 4 keeps it simple and effective. And physical buttons are undoubtedly the best solution when it comes to gaming - they provide better tactile feedback, control and possibly, a faster response time.
But the triggers are useful outside of gaming too. You can assign different tasks to each trigger - the bottom one, for example, launches the one-handed mode by default. You can even set them up to work with the screen off.
Shoulder trigger settings
And paired with the excellent haptic motor, you can count on a great gaming experience. Seriously, Xiaomi really outdid themselves with the haptic feedback of the Black Shark 4. Effects while interacting with UI elements or typing on the keyboard is one thing, but elevating the gaming experience using the vibration motor and tuning it to be precise and strong at the same time, is a whole other challenge. Xiaomi seems to have done a great job of it.
Synthetic benchmarks
The Snapdragon 870 is a fairly new SoC, which is a slightly altered version of the Snapdragon 865+ SoC. Connectivity has been downgraded (supposedly to keep the costs low), but the same Snapdragon X55 5G-capable modem is on board. The chip is based on the 7nm manufacturing process and has an octa-core CPU with 1x Kryo 585 core @3.2 GHz, 3x Kryo 585 cores @2.42GHz and 4x Kryo 585 cores @1.8 GHz. The Snapdragon 865+ has the same CPU configuration, but the Prime Cortex-A77 core is ticking at 3.1 GHz. In both cases, the Adreno 650 GPU is on board, clocked at 670 MHz.
The available memory variants go from 6GB/128GB all the way up to 12GB/128GB, while a separate 12GB/256GB version is also available. The UFS 3.1 standard has been used for the storage solution. No storage expansion is possible, unfortunately.
GeekBench 5 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Asus ROG Phone 5
3710 - Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode)
3709 - ZTE nubia Red Magic 6
3586 - vivo X60 Pro
3490 - Xiaomi Black Shark 4
3448 - nubia Red Magic 5S
3386 - Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
3294 - Samsung Galaxy S21 5G
3238 - OnePlus 9R
3117
GeekBench 5 (single-core)
Higher is better
- ZTE nubia Red Magic 6
1124 - Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode)
1121 - Asus ROG Phone 5
1110 - vivo X60 Pro
1034 - Samsung Galaxy S21 5G
1032 - Xiaomi Black Shark 4
1029 - Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
988 - OnePlus 9R
969 - nubia Red Magic 5S
927
AnTuTu 9
Higher is better
- vivo X60 Pro
720352 - OnePlus 9R
676913 - Xiaomi Black Shark 4
605569
GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)
Higher is better
- Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode)
72 - Asus ROG Phone 5
71 - ZTE nubia Red Magic 6
63 - Samsung Galaxy S21 5G
60 - Xiaomi Black Shark 4
59 - vivo X60 Pro
59 - OnePlus 9R
57 - Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
57 - nubia Red Magic 5S
54
GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Asus ROG Phone 5
59 - Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode)
59 - Samsung Galaxy S21 5G
54 - vivo X60 Pro
51 - Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
51 - Xiaomi Black Shark 4
50 - ZTE nubia Red Magic 6
50 - OnePlus 9R
49
GFX Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Asus ROG Phone 5
43 - Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode)
43 - ZTE nubia Red Magic 6
40 - vivo X60 Pro
35 - Xiaomi Black Shark 4
34 - OnePlus 9R
34 - Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
34 - Samsung Galaxy S21 5G
29
GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Asus ROG Phone 5
40 - Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode)
40 - Samsung Galaxy S21 5G
38 - ZTE nubia Red Magic 6
37 - Xiaomi Black Shark 4
34 - vivo X60 Pro
34 - Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
34 - OnePlus 9R
31
3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)
Higher is better
- Asus ROG Phone 5
5744 - Asus ROG Phone 5 (X Mode)
5740 - ZTE nubia Red Magic 6
5714 - Samsung Galaxy S21 5G
5412 - Xiaomi Black Shark 4
4212 - vivo X60 Pro
4203 - Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G (Snapdragon)
4194 - OnePlus 9R
4154
As we already mentioned, the Snapdragon 870 offers little improvement in the clock speeds compared to the Snapdragon 865 and 865+, which has affected the overall single and multi-core performance. As you can see from the charts above, the Snapdragon 870 comes out on top of the most Snapdragon 865 and 865+ handsets in multi and single-threaded scenarios and falls short of the Snapdragon 888 just as expected.
Sustained performance
Sustained performance is particularly important for gaming-oriented phones. Since there's no built-in active cooling solution (the nubia Red Magic series are an exception to the rule), the hardware has to keep the internal temperature in check while still providing sufficient performance for those long gaming sessions.
And since the CPU is the main heat producer, we ran our standard stress test that utilizes 100% of the CPU's performance and assesses the drop in performance over time. Keep in mind, though, that games don't necessarily push the CPU to 100%, so this test isn't a representation of real-life usage, but it gives us a good idea of how the phone handles long sessions of peak loads.
CPU stress test without the external cooling fan
As you can see from the screenshot above, the Black Shark 4 was able to retain 95% of its performance during the hour-long CPU torture test, while the graph suggests that there are no sudden drops in performance, ensuring smooth gameplay. It's an excellent result indeed.
However, you should know the phone gets pretty warm during the test, with the side frame probably being the hottest part. Still, that doesn't mean it's uncomfortable to hold during normal gameplay.
Which leads us to our next point - the cooling solution. Xiaomi doesn't really go into details about what exactly makes this cooling system better than the rest, but the tech has allegedly been patented. From what we gather, dissipating heat from the SoC is a "sandwich" formation of two vapor chambers. One is placed between the motherboard and the display panel, and the other one is placed between the motherboard and the back panel.
We also got the chance to test out the so-called Funcooler 2 - an external cooling fan for the handset. It can be paired using the phone's Shark Space software via Bluetooth and also requires an external power source to its USB-C connector. This can either be from a nearby power outlet or from the phone itself.
The cooler has nice-looking LEDs and a tiny LCD panel that gives you temperature readings. More importantly, it brings down the surface temperatures quite a bit and helps the chipset run at maximum capacity without having to throttle down. We ran the same CPU stress test, and the app didn't detect any performance throttling at all. Zilch.
CPU stress test with the external cooling fan
The only drawback is that at maximum speed, the fan is a bit on the loud side, so you might want to tinker with the fan control in the Shark Space.
Gaming performance and HRR handling
It's needless to say that the Snapdragon 870 is fully capable of running every game on the Play Store with ease. It's a beast of a chipset and can handle pretty much everything you throw at it. However, we found that 144fps gaming is not possible on this phone yet.
At no point were we able to get framerates higher than 120fps - not even in menus. This leaves the 144Hz display rather unutilized.
The only game that ran at 120fps was Call of Duty Mobile, while PUBG Mobile was dead set at 90fps. Even games that we've seen push way beyond 60fps in the past refused to go beyond that ceiling. Sky Force: Reloaded, Dead Trigger 2, Real Racing 3 - they all ran at least at 120fps on other phones, so it's a shame we didn't see that happening here. If it's up to game developers to enable this for this device specifically, BlackShark has obviously failed to get them on board for the moment.
In-game FPS
Surely, you may find other games that are able to run at 60fps+, but we tried the more popular titles that we know for a fact to be HRR-compatible.
Standard triple-camera setup
Since this is a gaming phone, the cameras aren't of big priority. And it shows. The main sensor is the good old 48MP one, measuring 1/2.0" in size and offering 0.8µm pixels. The sensor is paired with an f/1.8 aperture.
For the ultrawide, Xiaomi chose another commonly used 8MP sensor measuring 1/4.0" in size with 1.12µm pixels. The lens provides f/2.2 aperture and 120-degree field of view. This 8MP camera is often used in mid-range handsets.
The third camera is for macro shots, and interestingly, it uses a 5MP f/2.4 camera with autofocus, which are better specs than the average.
The front camera is 20MP with f/2.0 opening and 0.8µm pixels.
Camera menus
The default camera app is pretty much the same as on any other Android smartphone. The camera modes are arranged in a carousel formation, additional settings can be found on top of the viewfinder where toggles for the HDR and AI are also at your disposal. However, the toggle for the ultrawide camera is separate from the toggle for the 2x zoom. The Macro mode is found in the hamburger menu.
Camera menus
The Pro mode offers control over white balance, manual focus, shutter speed, ISO and exposure. You can set those on any of the given cameras, too.
Daylight samples
Main camera
The main camera takes nice outdoor photos during the day with a typical for Xiaomi contrast-y look. Colors pop, sharpness is good and fine detail isn't missing from the photos without resorting to oversharpening. Shadows fall a bit on the dark side (no pun intended), but we attribute that to the scattered clouds in the sky.
The HDR algorithm does a good job of bringing out details from the darker areas of the image without clipping the highlights. Perhaps our only complaint would be the fairly noisy areas of uniform color.
12MP samples
And while outdoor shots mostly look clean, the indoor ones show considerably more noise. Sharpness also drops, but most of the detail is retained. Perhaps a brighter exposure would have been nice, too. Another thing we noticed is that the viewfinder often misrepresents the actual scene. Things always appear underexposed in the viewfinder, but the actual photo turns out well-exposed most of the time.
12MP samples
Going for the 48MP mode bears little to no benefits. You do get a bit more detail out of the scene, but you sacrifice sharpness and overall clarity. Full-res images are considerably noisier, and the HDR algorithm is disabled.
48MP samples
2x zoom
There's a dedicated 2x zoom toggle, but we can't say the results are great, which is to be expected. Since it's a cropped photo upscaled back to 12MP, you lose quite a bit of sharpness in the process. Zoomed photos tend to be noisier, too, but the overall rendition matches the standard photos.
Ultrawide camera
The ultrawide camera is average for a typical midranger, which means that pictures are generally soft and noisy. Dynamic range is narrower than that of the main camera, but color reproduction and contrast seem to be in line. The lens correction algorithm is doing a nice job while color fringing is quite limited. Overall outdoor shots are dependable, especially for social media posting and the same goes for indoor shots in ideal conditions.
Daylight ultrawide samples
Low-light samples
Main camera
Aside from being a little soft and that noise is prominent in certain areas of the image, the low-light photos taken in the default Photo mode are good. There's definitely some HDR kicking because even without Night mode, the highlights and shadows are well-balanced while light sources look great. There's plenty of detail in the shadows too.
Keep in mind, though, that a good portion of the samples turned out blurry and out of focus, probably because there's no OIS to keep the shooter stable during slow shutter speed settings. Colors, white balance and contrast seem to be on point.
Low-light Photo mode samples
There's hardly any difference between the standard Photo mode and the dedicated Night mode because the dynamic range is just as good. Upon closer inspection, however, noise has cleared up, much-needed sharpness has been introduced, making fine detail pop.
Interestingly, the Night mode goes for darker exposure in some situations, but that's not necessarily bad. As it restores the more natural look of the shadows and gives a more contrasty feel. The best part is that the Night mode doesn't take too much time to snap and stack all the shots. So choosing it over the standard Photo mode after dusk is strongly recommended.
Low-light Night mode samples
2x zoom
We weren't expecting miracles but tried out the 2x zoom at night as well. The results are far from usable, and the lack of OIS doesn't help much either. There's a noticeable increase of noise, and fine detail is smeared away. Hard to say that those photos are usable.
Low-light 2x zoom samples
Ultrawide camera
The ultrawide struggles to deliver quality photos at night - they are foggy, lack detail and have a narrow dynamic range. Sadly there's no Night mode to help too.
Low-light ultrawide samples
Time for some more pixel-peeping with our photo compare tool where you can see how the Xiaomi Black Shark 4 compares to its rivals.
Xiaomi Black Shark 4 vs nubia Red Magic 6 and the Asus ROG Phone 5 in our Photo compare tool
Macro camera
The macro camera is a step up from most phones, which feature 2MP sensors with fixed focus. The Black Shark 4 offers a 5MP macro unit with autofocus, which greatly improves the chances of capturing a clear photo. Sharpness and detail are good, color reproduction is mostly accurate. Easily one of the best macro shots in town due to the nice hardware.
Macro samples
Portraits
The portrait shots look excellent. They are sharp, colors are vivid without ruining the natural glow of the skin tone and the edge detection and blur effect are convincing enough. To no one's surprise, the well-lit outdoor scenes are easier on the camera, producing more detailed shots. But that doesn't mean you can't capture good-looking portraits in sub-optimal conditions like the second photo. Some detail has been washed away if you look close enough, the end result is quite impressive, nonetheless.
Portraits
Selfies
For a 20MP camera, the selfies are rather disappointing. At least when it comes to sharpness. Almost all selfies look like they are out of focus. Although, you can rest assured that the camera will always hit the right exposure for your face. Dynamic range is wide, and noise is kept to a minimum even in more challenging conditions. The portrait mode is convincing, too.
Selfies: Normal • Portrait
Video recording
Surprisingly, there's no 8K video recording, but the 2160p footage makes up for that. It looks sharp, well-balanced, smooth, without any noise and with the right contrast. We struggle to find any issues with the video at all. The white buildings in the distance aren't clipped, and the shadows under the trees have some detail in them, and that's usually hard to achieve. The cloudy conditions didn't help, but the Black Shark 4 took it like a champ.
Recording with the ultrawide camera is possible, but it's limited to 1080p resolution. Be prepared for noisy and considerably softer videos with a limited dynamic range.
Surprisingly, there's no EIS available for 4K recording, so your videos will be shaky. A missed opportunity, given its excellent performance on a tripod.
Once you are done with the real-world examples, take a closer look at our video compare tool to see how the Xiaomi Black Shark 4 stacks against the competition.
2160p: Xiaomi Black Shark 4 vs nubia Red Magic 6 and the Asus ROG Phone 5 in our Video compare tool
The Competition
Since the gaming smartphone segment is still in its early stage, competition isn't big, but there are still some alternatives to consider. The vanilla Black Shark 4's main advantage is its price. By providing a sub-flagship SoC, the handset manages to undercut the competition by few hundred bucks, in some cases.
The Black Shark 4's direct competitor is undoubtedly the OnePlus 9R. The only issue is that the latter's availability is quite limited. It's available in India where the Black Shark 4 is yet to launch but something tells us that pricing won't be all that different from the 9R's. Anyway, they both run on the same Snapdragon 870 chipset but the 9R "settles" for a less impressive 120Hz OLED panel, which is also smaller in size too. But the camera setup is more competent and offers shoulder triggers too. On the other hand, the Black Shark 4's limited HRR control doesn't make a good use of the full 144Hz OLED. So this leaves the considerably faster charging, and the physical, clickable shoulder triggers as its only advantages.
OnePlus 9R • ZTE nubia Red Magic 6 • Asus ROG Phone 5
Spending around €100 more for the nubia Red Magic 6 ensures a true flagship SoC - Snapdragon 888 and an even faster, more responsive 165Hz display. Taking advantage of the HRR display on the Red Magic 6 in games seems to be an easier task too. Nubia's contender runs more games above 120fps than the Black Shark 4. It also has a built-in cooling fan, which although a bit noisy, does the trick during long gaming sessions. The shoulder triggers are touch-capacitive but are just as responsive and recognize different pressure levels.
And an honorable mention would be the Asus ROG Phone 5 just because there aren't many gaming-oriented smartphones to begin with. The pricing is way above the three phones mentioned above but it provides undoubtedly the most uncompromised gaming experience. It can run more games at 144Hz than the rest, offers gives the user much more control over the hardware and the accessories' ecosystem is unbeatable. It all comes at a price premium, of course, as the current price of the vanilla ROG Phone 5 starts at around €750, which is €250 above the entry price for the Black Shark 4 and €150 more than what the Red Magic 6 asks.
Our Verdict
On paper, the Black Shark 4 seemed like an easy recommendation. It offers an excellent price/performance ratio, it has a unique set of physical shoulder buttons for gaming, a fast and bright 144Hz OLED panel, great-sounding stereo speakers, insanely fast charging and dependable camera performance.
But as we dug deeper, the 144Hz display turned out to be a gimmick. At least the state of the software during the review didn't allow us to experience the 144Hz in full, not even in simple menus and apps. Support for HRR gaming is also extremely limited, beating the purpose of buying the Black Shark 4 solely for gaming. And when you add the not-so-great battery life and the lack of 4K video stabilization to the cons list, it makes it hard for us to give the handset a higher score.
Pros
- Bright, 144Hz OLED display with HDR10+ support.
- Great-sounding stereo speakers.
- Dependable camera experience overall.
- Plenty of useful gaming features, physical shoulder triggers with additional functionalities.
- Super fast 120W charging.
- Awesome haptic feedback around.
- Solid sustained performance.
Cons
- No Gorilla Glass protection.
- Quite limited HRR gaming support, which beats the purpose of having a 144Hz display.
- Poor HRR control outside of gaming too, limited to just 120Hz.
- Not the best battery life.
- No EIS stabilization for 4K video.
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