Black Shark 5 Pro: A Buyer’s Guide

Black Shark has returned. This time, the 5 Pro is powered by a fresh Snapdragon and Android 12. Other small changes to the new model include its appearance and battery size, but that’s about it. Let’s take a closer look at the newest smartphone to determine whether it’s a keeper.

Design & Display

Unlike typical, monochrome iPhones and Pixels intended for widespread consumption, gaming phones are targeted at a specific clientele. This allows makers to be more daring, choosing for sci-fi and future-themed looks that you’d never see on a popular device.

Take, for example, the Black Shark 5 Pro. Its satin-finished backside is engraved with gridlines and a tiny RGB LED indication. The glass panel reflects in an attractive and delicate way under varied lighting circumstances. Instead of the horizontal camera configuration of its predecessor, the 5 Pro’s bump is merely a basic square. If the purpose of Black Shark was to blend in with the millions of other phones on the market, it succeeded.

In terms of design, the Black Shark 4 Pro has a 3.5mm headphone jack, however the 5 Pro did not. Even while wireless headphones have gotten more popular and affordable, nothing rivals the zero-latency audio that gamers need for high-level play.

We’re also satisfied with the Black Shark’s other features, like as its characteristic retractable side triggers and pleasant hand feel. The fingerprint sensor on the right side, which also serves as the power button, is one of the most consistent and responsive we’ve tested.

On the front, there is a 6.67-inch OLED display that refreshes at 144Hz. The Black Shark produces enough light (up to 1,300 nits) to make mobile gaming as enjoyable outside as it is inside. When switching between surroundings, users will be amazed by how natural the auto-brightness was. When the display ramps up the brightness, the shift is gradual and does not startle you.

The Black Shark has a maximum resolution of 1080p, which is more than adequate for most people. While the display isn’t as crisp as, example, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, it’s well-calibrated, and the colors are saturated just enough. Of course, there are display options that allow you to adjust the color settings to your preference.

Going from 120Hz to 144Hz isn’t a game changer, but the greater refresh rate is really useful for mobile gaming. The animations and visuals are silky smooth, and the additional hertz is on par with high-end gaming displays. Furthermore, Black Shark allows you to reduce the refresh rate to 90Hz.

Overall Performance

After all, this is a gaming phone, so here’s a list of its biggest gaming features.

• Pop-up triggers
• Shark Space
• Liquid cooling

Now if we talk about the performance, the Black Shark 5 Pro will provide a smooth ride on a daily basis, which is to be anticipated from a phone with 12GB of RAM and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor at the helm. The standard applications for social networking, emailing, move data and managing your workload.

At medium/high settings, the phone performs all games well, sustaining a steady 60fps for roughly 5–7 minutes before slowing or heating. Only at ultra/max settings will you notice the odd jitter and heavy power consumption. Even yet, the Black Shark maintains an amazing 60 frames per second performance.

While the Black Shark 5 Pro is substantially identical to the similarly priced RedMagic 7 Pro, it outperforms the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra and Black Shark 4 Pro in almost every way. The 3DMark Wild Life Extreme score will especially excite you, as it demonstrates the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1’s processing power and efficiency. Clearly, the enhanced processor has an effect on the most important aspects of gaming phones: graphics and rendering.

Camera

Camera quality is generally an afterthought when gaming features are prioritized. That is somewhat true of the Black Shark 5 Pro. This model comes with a new 108MP primary lens, a 13MP ultra-wide lens, and a 5MP macro lens. Before you get too excited about the large 108MP count, keep in mind that more megapixels do not automatically imply higher quality.

In the case of the Black Shark 5 Pro, we found the obtained photographs to be adequate but not exceptional. The camera employs AI smarts to modify the colors and lighting for simple point-and-shoot settings. This comes at the expense of shutter latency, which necessitates a few moments between photos. Things only get worse with the ultra-wide and macro lenses, which are just placeholders that allow Black Shark to sell a “triple camera array.”

Overall, if you’re looking for a dependable shooter, we wouldn’t suggest any gaming phone. However, for casual shooting and sharing photos with family and friends, the Black Shark 5 Pro will suffice.

Battery Life

The Black Shark 5 Pro’s 4,650mAh battery provides four hours of screen time (SOT) on average per charge. A typical day featured social media surfing, emailing, video streaming, and roughly an hour of gaming. It’s sad that the 5 Pro only receives a 150mAh increase over its predecessor; a 5,000mAh battery would be more appropriate for the $799 asking price.

To compensate for the poor battery life, Black Shark includes a unique 120W charging brick that can charge the 5 Pro from 0 to 100 percent in only 15 minutes. Those are the figures that the corporation promotes. In actuality, completely charging the 4,650mAh battery takes roughly 19 minutes. We can’t really complain about it. Black Shark’s Hyper Charge technology continues to outperform conventional smartphones, particularly in North America, and makes you reconsider your previous, slow-charging habits.

Final Verdict

The Black Shark 5 Pro is definitely the greatest phone from the manufacturer, and it deserves a position on our list of the best gaming phones. Retractable shoulder triggers are vital for mobile gaming, and internal hardware is not skimped on. In short this is your best bet for a gaming phone this year.