Black Shark is a subsidiary of Xiaomi that’s been selling gaming phones in the Chinese market and internationally for the past few years, and the company’s latest models come in three versions.
The Black Shark 5, Black Shark 5 RS, and Black Shark Pro are set to go on sale in China April 2 with prices starting at around $425, $520, and $660, respectively.
All three phones have 6.67 inch AMOLED displays, LPDDR5 memory, triple rear cameras, and a set of features aimed at gamers, including dual vapor chambers to help keep the CPU from overheating during game sessions and magnetic shoulder buttons.
The key differences are the processors, how much memory and storage are supported, and what kind of storage – the Black Shark 5 Pro and RS models combine UFS 3.1 storage and an NVMe SSD for faster read/write speeds.
Meanwhile, if the specs and design for the middle-tier Black Shark 5 RS look familiar, that’s because it appears very similar to the Black Shark 4 Pro which launched in China last year and got a global release just last month.
Here are some key specs for the Black Shark 5 family. Note that some details weren’t available at time of publication, so I’ve omitted some details (like th edisplay resolution for certain models).
| Black Shark 5 Pro | Black Shark 5 RS | Black Shark 5 | |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 | Qualcomm Snapdragon 888+ | Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 |
| Display | 6.67 inch AMOLED 2400 x 1080 pixels 10-bit HDR10+ 144 Hz refresh rate 720 touch sampling rate 2 ambient light sensors | 6.67 inch AMOLED 2400 x 1080 pixels 1300 nits peak brightness 10-bit HDR10+ 144 Hz refresh rate 720 touch sampling rate 2 ambient light sensors | 6.67 inch AMOLED 2400 x 1080 pixels 10-bit HDR10+ 144 Hz refresh rate 720 touch sampling rate 2 ambient light sensors |
| RAM | Up to 16GB LPDDR5-6400 | Up to 12GB LPDDR5-6400 | Up to 12GB LPDDR5 |
| Storage | 256GB UFS 3.1 256GB NVMe SSD | 128GB UFS 3.1 128GB NVMe SSD | Up to 256GB UFS 3.1 |
| Battery | 4,650 mAh | 4,500 mAh | 4,650 mAh |
| Charging | 120W (wired) | 120W (wired) | 120W (wired) |
| Audio | Stereo speakers 4 microphones | Stereo speakers 3.5mm audio jack | ? |
| Cameras | 108MP (primary) 13MP (ultra wide-angle 5MP (telephoto/macro) 16MP (front) | 64MP (primary) 13MP (ultra wide-angle) 5MP (telephoto/macro) 20MP (front) | 64MP (primary) 13MP (ultra wide-angle) 2MP (telephoto/macro) 16MP (front) |
| Starting Price | 4,200 CNY (~$660) | 3,299 CNY (~$520) | 2,700 CNY (~$425) |
via GSM Arena and Black Shark / Weibo