Xiaomi Black Shark 2 Pro could rival the ROG Phone 2 thanks to this upgrade

The new Black Shark 2 Pro has been announced, and it looks like Xiaomi will give Asus a run for its money in mobile gaming hardware.

With a post on Chinese social media site Weibo, Xiaomi announced a new gaming phone, the Black Shark Pro 2 with a release set for July 30. The standard Black Shark 2 was released in March 2019 with a Snapdragon 855 chip, so we can surmise that the reason for another launch is to upgrade to the latest Snapdragon 855 Plus.

We don’t know too much else about the phone at this stage but it’s likely more information will appear in the run-up to release.

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Android Police reports that the Asus ROG Phone 2 will also pack the Snapdragon 855 Plus — along with a 120Hz refresh rate display, which beats even the OnePlus 7 Pro.

When we reviewed the original Asus ROG Phone, we gave it 4 out of 5 stars and praised it not only for its great screen and solid performance but also for the air trigger controls and peripherals (such as a second screen or TV docking) that really set it apart as a device built for gamers. Having said that, the battery did not last as long as we’d like, and that’s a shortcoming we’d definitely like to see addressed in the ROG Phone 2.

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While these devices refine what we are familiar with, plenty of changes are now on the horizon which are set to reshape the landscape of mobile gaming.

As 5G rolls out, we expect manufacturers and developers to harness the power of this new connectivity to give unprecedented performance, while new streaming services such as Google Stadia could revolutionise the way we play, taking away from consoles altogether and making mobile gameplay of central importance. It will be interesting to see how manufacturers like Asus and Xiaomi respond to such massive change.