Black Shark 2 review

09 July 2019


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  • h
  • hcrvelin
  • Mxp
  • 12 Jul 2019

This month ROG is coming and so is MI 9T Pro expected as well (I believe India, but I hope this translates to Europe as well). Right now, phones in this segment all have something that seems to be a bit better then other one has so I guess we are still not there. 9T Pro I expect to be the same as K20 Pro so perhaps that one is better choice for those less gaming oriented while others might wait for new ROG and what it brings on table (though BS2 looks really nice and I don't mind frequency thingy - at least not for games I play, but most likely BS3 will have that addressed as well along with whatever new comes then like once again new CPU, more battery, changes to cooling). I'm more casual player, but in my case cooling plays important role as during the summer it is so hot outside then playing for couple of hours might just be impossible in some cases (not to mention phone responsiveness) so I look forward always to cooling and battery life.

    • N
    • NoM
    • p@5
    • 12 Jul 2019

    Gaming smartphone with 60fps refresh rate? Are you serious Xiaomi? Good luck selling that sh.. !!! Yes you do not need 60fps to play game but you must have at list 90fps when you call phone gaming. Oneplas 7 pro is more gaming than this, how will buy this phone when redmagic is on market.

      AnonD-429807, 11 Jul 2019Yeah but those you called "cold hard facts" are never gonna... moreWhatever fairy tale helps you sleep at night is fine by me :-)

        wow. I have to stop reading after seeing the display's 60 Hz refresh rate. what then makes this a gaming phone vs the Redmi K20 pro
        I wouldn't mind an LCD display as long it has 90-120Hz display refresh

          • D
          • AnonD-429807
          • PEI
          • 11 Jul 2019

          Marco M, 11 Jul 2019It's not theory it's cold hard facts. Just because you wan'... moreYeah but those you called "cold hard facts" are never gonna be a valid reason to omit expandable storage because I said before that expandable storage is mainly for media files that won't need some internal storage level speeds. Sure there's cloud but it's inconvenient when you have tons of them and you have limited data (and ofc there's issue with the transfer speed as well, something you've been arguing the whole time).

            Kangal, 11 Jul 2019Those speeds are worse than what I've typically seen. Yet,... moreYes, multimedia is what I used SD cards for previously, and what I consider them most useful for. But now streaming is, well streaming and cloud storage also helps a lot. That said, I have perhaps 2000 offline songs in highest quality on three spotify playlists, and it's doesn't make a dent in my local storage. A massive multimedia/game library can still be stored compared to when I had 16-32GB internal and 32-64GB on SD a few years ago.

            At most I had 64GB internal + 128GB SD, on my old Mi Max. Technically speaking it still has it, just not being used anymore. A nice backup device :-)

            Still, with 256GB internal being more and more standard, and higher, the need for my sake, and most others, for SD slot is gone.

            SD cards deciding to die out of nowhere, I had especially bad luck with three Samsung professional cards, I decided to have both Google Photos and Microsoft OneDrive keep my photos and videos safe - all 28.000+ of them.

              • R
              • Rex
              • M3u
              • 11 Jul 2019

              Anonymous, 10 Jul 2019A gaming phone with No 3.5mm audio jack or microSD slot is ... moreGaming on mobile is a joke, let alone a gaming phone. All ruined by microtransactions in every game, or forcing you to watch ads to earn in game currency instead of just paying once to purchase it and play. Laughable to think of a handset dedicated to gaming.

                AnonD-429807, 11 Jul 2019All this speed comparison thing between internal storage an... moreIt's not theory it's cold hard facts. Just because you wan't it to be something else doesn't make it so.

                  Marco M, 11 Jul 2019Yes, really. And app2sd is gone, but having SD formatted to... moreThose speeds are worse than what I've typically seen.
                  Yet, they're still fine for storing movies, videos, music, and files. It's pretty handy to also store your Photos from the phone, and even 4K-HDR videos (if the microSD card isn't cheap). Not to mention Emulator Roms (Roms like game ISO's for PS1, PSP, PS2, PS Vita, Dreamcast, DSi, GameCube, Wii, WiiU, Switch) like I have stated above.

                  I get it, we should be getting better performing microSD cards (and higher capacity) ones already. But that's no excuse to killing off a very useful feature. It's akin to killing off the Headphone Jack then telling the consumers to deal with it, and forcing them to pay higher prices.

                    • D
                    • AnonD-429807
                    • PEI
                    • 11 Jul 2019

                    Marco M, 11 Jul 2019Yes, really. And app2sd is gone, but having SD formatted to... moreAll this speed comparison thing between internal storage and SD cards (or whatever type of external storage) is just plain theory (in my opinion), just as comparing benchmark numbers. If real life test shows it just works then I prefer not to argue about the technical details.

                      AnonD-429807, 11 Jul 2019Really? (I'd believe if you just went straight to reply on ... moreYes, really. And app2sd is gone, but having SD formatted to be a part of internal storage is still an option, but the speeds of A2 card don't impress - not in smartphones.

                      They do perform up to 900MB/s read speeds on CrystalDiskMark on a PC when connected to the PCI-E slot. In a card reader it's 169.1MB/s sequential read and 99.54 MB/s sequential write speeds.

                      SanDisk Extreme 128GB A2 benchmarks:
                      Sequential Read on android is 83.66MB/s
                      Sequential Write on android is 52.84 MB/s
                      Random Read on android is 7.56MB/s
                      Random Wirte on android is 2.69MB/s

                      This is in line with SanDisk's own specifications:

                      SanDisk Extreme microSD Cards with A2
                      400 GB 256 GB 128 GB
                      Sequential Read Speed up to 90 MB/s
                      Sequential Write Speed 70 MB/s
                      Minimum Sequential Write Speed 30 MB/s



                      So essentially weaker than eMMC 4.5 speeds by nearly 50% in read.

                      Not to mention only 4.000 IOPS, whilst internal storage is 40.000-63.000 IOPS. Much higher durability.

                      But we've come a long way since eMMC 4.5, with 5.0 at 250MB/s and eUFS 2.0 from 350MB/s to 850MB/s. eUFS 2.1 reached 1000MB/s and the new eUFS 3.0 reaches 2100MB/s, so not even the A2 SD card at in PCI-E slot comes close.

                      You really did not understand that my reference to a 4200 rpm HDD was due to it's speed, and not the technology itself? It was pretty obvious, but yeah obviously not for everyone.

                        gaaron, 11 Jul 2019this phone is gorgeous amazing but without no sd card this ... moreYes the most stupid decision.
                        To skip a SD card slot.

                          • D
                          • AnonD-429807
                          • X%p
                          • 11 Jul 2019

                          Marco M, 11 Jul 2019I found no video supporting your claim, and measurements sh... moreReally? (I'd believe if you just went straight to reply on me before even trying to search)

                          All my supporting video claims are unfortunately in my language which you probably wont understand. They all test those A2 cards by playing games that has been moved to it and the result is basically a slight fps gain (or at worse just the same but never worse than playing on internal storage). Also I want to say that comparing an SD card to 4200rpm HDD is unwise because SD cards are flash memory while HDDs are well.... hard drives.

                          However (like I said before), smartphones that are capable of transferring apps to micro SD are getting scarce so SD cards are not exactly for installing apps directly but more of an extension for storing more media files so you can free more space on your internal storage for all of your games. Which means all of claims whether playing apps on micro SD slows the performance down or not is just no longer relevant when you can't even move them anyway.

                            AnonD-429807, 10 Jul 2019Depends on the micro SD. In fact, recent models with A2 app... moreI found no video supporting your claim, and measurements showing that A2 cards work no wonders on current phones.

                            To get A2 cards to shine you need a PC and it's PCI-E slot, or SanDisk readers, not smartphones. Unless you have a smartphone with terrible local storage.

                              Kangal, 10 Jul 2019But don't forget there's some of us that want to play games... morePhones just keeps getting bigger ROM, so not really anything to worry about.

                              Swapping SD card which requires SIM Pin etc and SD cards still being fragile during swapping is what eventually put me off them. So now I only use SD cards in my cameras, not smartphones.

                                Anonymous, 11 Jul 2019Smoother UI and experience. How about you use a 90-120Hz di... moreBuying a gaming phone whose higher than 60 Hz refresh rate only makes sense in UI is pointless.

                                90Hz is pointless regardless, but 120Hz is good. 30, 40 and 60 fps/Hz all works nicely with 120 Hz, only 30 with 90 Hz.

                                  • ?
                                  • Anonymous
                                  • iF4
                                  • 11 Jul 2019

                                  Anonymous, 11 Jul 2019Smoother UI and experience. How about you use a 90-120Hz di... moreYep. It's a huge difference. Night vs. day.

                                    • ?
                                    • Anonymous
                                    • ftb
                                    • 11 Jul 2019

                                    Anonymous, 10 Jul 2019So, there is no performance gain compared to mi9 or any ot... moreThey didn't show the benchmark test with GPU boost enabled, this phone is by far faster than any other, the device also has an independent image processing chip for up-scaling video and gaming quality, and the cooling system is able to keep that performance.

                                      • A
                                      • Adrianqbs
                                      • JxV
                                      • 11 Jul 2019

                                      I find it odd that nothing is said about one the the black shark 2's largest selling points.
                                      The pressure sensitive screen. Aside from the controllers, that's a major differentiator fro. Any other phone in the market.

                                        • g
                                        • gaaron
                                        • sxs
                                        • 11 Jul 2019

                                        this phone is gorgeous amazing but without no sd card this phone is wack!...

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