Black Shark, Red Magic vs mainstream flagships

18 July 2019


Sort by:

  • D
  • Dometalican
  • 7BB
  • 20 Jul 2019

s-pen pusher, 20 Jul 2019this is off-topic and correct me if i'm wrong- i have obser... moreHence why 'tech/specs geeks' want phones to return to that 16:9 ratio. Until games and YouTube videos can run perfectly on 18:9 without issues, phones should try to bring on flagships at that 16:9 ratio. Had the Razer Phone 2 had a bigger battery, it would have been nearly the best phone of 2018.

    • F
    • Fayth
    • uSY
    • 20 Jul 2019

    with built in gamepad then they are worthy to be called gaming phone

      • g
      • geordie8t1
      • S3y
      • 20 Jul 2019

      unless we have console quality games then gaming phones are pointless in my view, nothing more then a marketing gimmick, sure they MAY operate a bit better under stress or it may havea slightly better refresh rate or a bit longer battery, but lets face it, mid range phones nowadays can handle almost any game from the play store which means ANY flagship that supports it will, give me some powerful games with stellar graphics and proper gaming experience rather then watered down app based games and then come back with these gaming phones

        • b
        • booldega
        • mVX
        • 20 Jul 2019

        Great gsmarena, one of the best and most complete smartphone performance review I have read, especially the sustained CPU and GPU performance tests, more reviews like this please ! Congratulations ! 👏

          Found Black shark 2 (12/256 GB variant) on AliExpress for just over 500euro.
          I guess it's a fair price for what you're getting..

            • ?
            • Anonymous
            • ftb
            • 20 Jul 2019

            taghack, 19 Jul 2019Hi. Thank you for the feedback. We actually ran AnTuTu more... moreRun the tests on the Black Shark with GPU boost enabled (dial *#*#666#*#*) brings antutu score to above 400K (mine was 410K).

              • ?
              • Anonymous
              • y{4
              • 20 Jul 2019

              Anonymous, 20 Jul 2019Duh, of course gaming phones have a place in this market. T... morecomparing gaming phones with phones non gaming/mainstream flagship is inevitable since both of them has mostly similar flagship specification (such highend SoC, bigger ram/rom, high res screen or amoled, bigger battery etc). Its like comparing gaming laptop with high spec multimedia laptop because they both had cpu i7, discreet gpu, etc although both of them targeted for different market, but it is can be interchangeable.. Comparing CAT phone with gaming phones, the answer is CAT phone are inferior (in term of spec) because CAT phones didn't have flagship spec except ruggedness (but CAT phones are superior if u using on extreme environment) where's your logic?

                • ?
                • Anonymous
                • g3t
                • 20 Jul 2019

                So I expect Samsung & Huawei to come up with specialized gaming phone lineup next year complete with top of the line cooling system with fan and big batteries and accessories.

                Apple might launch a gaming phone in 2029.

                  • ?
                  • Anonymous
                  • SpN
                  • 20 Jul 2019

                  I think benchmarks while phones are hot should be included in later reviews if possible.
                  It would give an insight to people seeking gaming on a budget.

                    • ?
                    • Anonymous
                    • ftb
                    • 20 Jul 2019

                    Faheem, 19 Jul 2019These phones don't worth it. key points: 1. Gaming phones ... moreBlack Shark 2 has an independent Image processing chip which is close to a dedicated GPU, it's function is to upscale from SDR to HDR in games and movies and increase FPS in videos, I have this phone and it works very well.

                      Doom, 20 Jul 2019Hi GSMArena, you should consider having the CPU Throttling ... moreYes, that's a good idea.

                        s-pen pusher, 20 Jul 2019this is off-topic and correct me if i'm wrong- i have obser... moreYou're right, I noticed that since 2017, the games crop in due to the unusual aspect ratio and you lose some space.

                          srscat, 20 Jul 201960Hz Black Shark 2 is not a gaming phone. There is no good ... moreHonestly, most games are capped at 30-60 FPS, so I'm not sure the RM3 will make use of the 90Hz, except in the UI and maybe browser?

                          This site test display's response time, and the RM3 is slower:
                          https://www.notebookcheck.net/Nubia-Red-Magic-3-Smartphone-Review-8K-videos-and-active-cooling.424873.0.html#toc-display
                          https://www.notebookcheck.net/Xiaomi-Black-Shark-2-Smartphone-Review.420208.0.html#toc-display-xiaomi-black-shark-with-amoled-display-and-fhd-resolution

                            • ?
                            • Anonymous
                            • tZ0
                            • 20 Jul 2019

                            Shadocx, 19 Jul 2019I'm not surprised the Red Magic 3's fan doesn't help much, ... morepretty sure you dont know how laptop fanswork. In laptop, fan are not on top of the chipset instead they use copper pipe to transfer heat to the fan and extract all the heat to outside. this is similar how the redmagic fan work. iinm redmagic uses thermal pad+copper heat pipe from the chipset. This obviously decrease the overall device temp in prolong run.

                              • s
                              • s-pen pusher
                              • PMT
                              • 20 Jul 2019

                              this is off-topic and correct me if i'm wrong- i have observed that mobile games are actually built for 16:9 aspect ratio, right? i have a razer phone 2 and my brother has the asus rog phone; i am noticing that the rog's 18:9 screen is cropping the top and the bottom of the game to stretch it to the full screen, so it is ending up having lesser view than my razer phone 2. i have not checked it with other gaming phones but i do have a pocophone f1 with 18.5:9 aspect ratio, i don't usually play games on it but i installed pubg just to check- it does crop the top and the bottom part of the game to show it full screen. this leads me to the conclusion that games indeed, especially those that go by landscape mode, are built for 16:9 aspect ratio. can anyone confirm this?

                                60Hz Black Shark 2 is not a gaming phone. There is no good reason why the company has chosen a slow screen. Xiaomi gaming laptop has a 60Hz screen with very bad response time. Screens are just bad.

                                  • ?
                                  • Anonymous
                                  • 0xV
                                  • 20 Jul 2019

                                  Should have included the mi9 in comparison,

                                    • G
                                    • Giselle
                                    • thc
                                    • 20 Jul 2019

                                    im getting a blackshark

                                      • ?
                                      • Anonymous
                                      • v3F
                                      • 20 Jul 2019

                                      Duh, of course gaming phones have a place in this market. The MOBA market has been growing year after year, every single gaming news/community have been highlighting this, it's not news people. Why are we still having this boring old debate?

                                      Asus ROG phone has already proven this like years ago; the dedicated cooling, the GPU chip graphics bump, the customisable touch trigger controls for competitive mobile games, the amazing gaming accessories that no one even comes close to having exclusive for their phones. Why would ASUS go through such lengths for a phone if there was no market?

                                      Comparing gaming flagships to non gaming ones? Really? They're so widely and obviously different; all the phones you've compared/mentioned are clearly aimed at PHOTOGRAPHY or SOCIAL/MEDIA consumption. What's so difficult to understand?

                                      By that logic, why not you guys compare phones designed by CAT too LOL?!

                                        • S
                                        • Sahil
                                        • gMy
                                        • 20 Jul 2019

                                        I loved reading the whole article, this was an interesting comparison between flagships.
                                        Please include one more smartphone i.e. OnePlus 7 PRO coz that has heatsink built in and has 8 layers cooling as advertised. So it would have been more interesting to see if that much layer cooling works or not.
                                        Thanks