2019 might be still in its infancy, but we’ve already seen some impressive phones this year like the Huawei P30 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S10.
However you don’t have to spend upwards of £1000 to get a flagship-worthy smartphone anymore, and the Black Shark 2 really proves that.
The second iteration of the brand’s gaming-focussed smartphone has just gone on sale in the UK and you can pick up one of the super-powered devices for £479 from Black Shark’s online store. That’s not far off being half the price of the £899 Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus.
Related: Xiaomi Mi 9 review
Like the Galaxy S10, the Black Shark 2 packs 8GB RAM, 128GB storage and Qualcomm’s latest flagship Snapdragon 855 chipset. We’ve been using this phone in the Trusted Reviews office over the past week and have already found it to be one of the fastest Android phones around. Considering the price, that’s an impressive feat.
The real focus here is gaming and to try and improve that experience Black Shark has added in a new cooling system to improve performance both from the CPU and the Adreno 640 GPU. Black Shark said this is 20x more effective than traditional cooling.
Another nifty addition is the pressure-sensitive 6.4-inch FHD+ OLED display, which works in a similar way to 3D Touch on an iPhone giving you another way to interact with the phone. For instance, when you’re gaming instead of having to hit another part of the screen to shoot, you can just apply more pressure to get the same result.
If you’re hankering after slightly more storage and think 8GB RAM just isn’t enough for your needs then there is also a 12GB RAM and 256GB storage option available too. This beefed up version will set you back £559. Considering there’s no expandable storage here, it doesn’t seem like a bad idea for pick up this model.
We’ll have a full review of the Black Shark 2 very soon but for now you can check out our very in-depth hands on directly from the Chinese launch of the phone.
- Read our Black Shark 2 review: hands on
Interested in picking up the Black Shark 2? Let us know @trustedreviews.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.