Far from the hype of flagship announcements, the rich Black Shark event also reserved some surprises with the Chinese brand renowned for gaming which, in particular, also presented a medium range for eSports and low latency earphones
At the end of the event that saw the presentation of the new Black Shark 5, real top range for mobile gaming lovers, the historically videogame partner brand of Xiaomi showed off not just one “one more thing” but two, with the Black Shark 5 RS mid-range telephone and low latency Black Shark Fengming wireless earphones.
The Black Shark 5 RS (163.69 x 76.21 x 9.9 mm, for 220 grams, in the colors Sky Black and Yaoxing Yellow), while sharing the numbering of the older brothers, by design is more to be seen as a variant SE, second edition, of the already known and previous Black Shark 4S Pro. Aesthetically, the device is presented, like the top models, with a perforated front at the top center for the selfiecamera, here with 20 megapixels, placed in the visual area of the display, an AMOLED panel 6.67-inch, resolved in FullHD +, with a 144 Hz refresh rate, 720 Hz touch sampling, 8.3 ms response time, 1,300 nits peak, 5,000,000: 1 contrast, MEMC, DCI-P3 support, 3D touch functionality in two areas of the screen, and an underlying fingerprint.
On the back, the bumper has a visor arrangement, therefore with a horizontal hexagon flattened and placed in the center at the top, to accommodate a triple camera, from 64 (main, Samsung Isocell S5KGW3, 1 / 1.97 ″, f / 1.79, HDR10 video, vlog video, slow motion at 960 fps, time-lapse. video stabilization), 8 (120 ° ultra wide angle, distortion correction), and 5 (macro, GC02M1) megapixels. The audio section includes two 1216P speakers, a Hi-Res Audio certified output and support for DTS: X Ultra. On the side frame, there are always magnetic triggers that can be extracted via switch, which however belong to the 1st generation.
In terms of performance, the user can choose between the set-up (3,299 yuan, about 467 euros) with 8 RAM (LPDDR5 6400 Mbps) and 256 GB of storage (UFS 3.1 + SSD, according to disk array 2.0 technology, to increase the read and write speeds as seen in the top models of the series), which will be equipped with the Snapdragon 888 processor, and a version (3,799 yuan, about 538 euros) with 12 + 256 GB which, however, will lean towards the Snapdragon 888 processor +: in both versions, the Black shark 5 RS can count on the Adreno 660 GPU, on the optimizations (eg RAMDISK) of the GameEngine and, compared to the 4S predecessors, on a sandwich heat dissipation system with “liquid cooling VC anti-gravity “and several layers of copper between the heat source and the vapor chamber.
Equipped with a 4,500 mAh battery with 120W fast charge, the Black Shark 5 RS shares the connective section of the “big brothers”, with standalone and non-standalone 5G, Wi-Fi ax / 6 (with intelligent switching from 5G and antennas 4 X 4 MIMO), GPS (A-GPS, Beidou, Glonass, Galileo, QZSS), Bluetooth 5.2 (with aptX and aptX HD, LHDC HD, aptX Adaptive and LDAC codecs), microUSB Type-C and Multifunction NFC to comply with contactless payments. The software choice varies since, even if Android 12 is also confirmed in this case, the proprietary interface stationed in this model is the JOYUI 12.8.
Turning to the model of earphones, it is impossible not to first notice their biblical name which, read in full is, drum roll, “Black Shark Fengming True Wireless Bluetooth Headset Ultra Low Latency Standard Edition”: basically, it is a model of IPX4 waterproof earphones, with soft rubber plugs in the ears, and flat-sided, sharp-edged temples to receive touches. Inside the emission units there are 12 mm moving coil drivers, a noise reduction system (up to 40 decibels) and the chip for the Bluetooth connection, with low latency mode (85 ms).
Included with the new true wireless low-latency earphones of the Chinese manufacturer is the quick coupling system (as soon as they are extracted from the case, placing them in which they will disconnect): from the Black Shark Gear Box app, then, it can be activated (with benefit autonomy) also the in-ear detection system (which pauses the earphones when extracted from the ears) or, via the “Shark Sauce” function, customize the message that warns of the remaining autonomy at 10 or 20 with various styles %, the sound for mode switching, for in-ear detection, and for incoming calls.
Autonomous for over 2 hours of gaming due to the 35 mAh microbatteries, thanks to the case (400 mAh, equal to 4 charging cycles), with mecha motifs and the Black Shark logo on the outside, it is possible to reach the total 30 hours of autonomy: the price, in this case, is 299 yuan, equal to about 42 euros, against 349 yuan, about 49 euros for the limited edition.