Black Shark 3S Review
The rise of mobile entertainment, led to the long-dusted Gaming mobile phone industry, just two years to attract many fans, seems to become another windfall in the smartphone industry.
However, the reality is often cruel, due to technical limitations, the current gaming mobile phone can not make configuration differences with the flagship mobile phone, can only turn around to cooling, peripheral research, and development, but these are by no means user pain points, compared to the overall level of increasingly strong flagship mobile phone, gaming mobile phone configuration does not prevail.
The appearance and software of a gaming phone are especially important. Every gaming phone manufacturer is trying to find out how to make a design that is accepted by the public and has a gaming style, and Black Shark is one of them.
From the last generation, the Black Shark gaming phone began to add more Tencent elements, indicating that the partnership with Tencent began to deepen, there is nothing wrong with this road, as far as now, Tencent is currently one of the best domestic game manufacturers, especially in the field of hand games, almost a king’s existence, backed by this mountain, can add a lot of color to the game characteristics.
| Model | Black Shark 3S |
|---|---|
| Display | 6.67 inch 120Hz AMOLED screen |
| SoC | Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 |
| RAM ROM | LPDDR5 UFS 3.1 |
| Rear Camera | 64MP + 12MP + 5MP |
| Front Camera | 20MP |
| Unlock | Fingerprint under the screen, camera face unlock |
| Battery Charging | 4720mAh, 65W wired flash charging |
| UI | JOYUI 12 |
| Size | 168.72 × 77.33 × 10.42mm |
| Weight | 222g |
| Colors | Sky Cloud Black/Crystal Blue |
We recently got the Tencent Black Shark 3S gaming phone, from the naming can be seen, it is not a substantial upgrade, but a small iteration of the product update, where the new, down the next look. Tencent Black Shark gaming phone 3S offers sky cloud black, crystal blue color, we have this one in hand for crystal blue.
Black Shark 3S Unboxing
The front of the Tencent Black Shark 3S is a non-shaped screen, a complete screen is very important for a gaming phone, and all gaming phones on the market nowadays basically use a non-shaped screen. At the same time, the body height is also 168.72mm, which is longer than the regular model, mainly for the balance of a two-handed grip, while the front of the screen has speakers at the top and bottom, also for consideration when holding with both hands.
The power button is asymmetrical design, but the power button is too close to the top due to the height and symmetry of the fuselage, so when you hold it with one hand, you need to move up to get the power button.
In terms of parameters, the Tencent Black Shark gaming phone 3S uses a 6.67-inch Samsung AMOLED screen with a refresh rate of 120Hz, supports MEMC frame insertion technology, up to 120Hz video frame insertion, the screen sampling rate of 270Hz, the official claim that the single-finger touch response delay is as low as 17ms, 30% higher than the previous generation, and has a unique DC dimming and TrueView screen color intelligence adjustment and other features.
Back of the Tencent Black Shark 3S is a continuation of the previous generation, with two irregular triangles symmetrically placed on the top and bottom, one for the camera and the other for the magnetic charging port; inheriting the X design language, the back cover is made of frosted metal and glass, with the glass part adding highlights and 12 layers of technology to produce different effects in a different light while retaining the logo lighting effect.
Compared to regular phones, gaming phones often show off their exaggerated looks, and the Tencent Black Shark 3S is no exception.
The Tencent Black Shark gaming phone 3S frame is prismatic design, the material is metal, and rounded can not get to the edge, hold in the hand feels very hardcore.
System and Features
The Tencent Black Shark mobile phone 3S is running on Android 10 JOYUI 12, in fact, in essence, the ROM belongs to the MIUI 12 game version, based on the latter added more game features, while making deep optimization, we have this system version of 20.07.14 in hand.
System interface
Like MIUI 12, JOYUI 12 also has a super wallpaper function, the home screen, and lock screen wallpaper seamlessly; negative screen has more game-related features, such as daily game statistics, recent games.
Game functions
In addition to the hardware, the software features of the gaming phone are equally important, and the Tencent Black Shark 3S can summon the game status bar by sliding the top left corner of the screen when you open a game, including the control center, macros, network status, and a series of other functions commonly used during gaming.
Toggle the game button on the right side of the body to open the game space, which allows you to individually set the performance, display, touch, audio, and other aspects of a game, providing users with more options.
In terms of game control, users can set up screen pressure mapping, voice control, and motion control options, which greatly enhance the player’s interaction with the game.
Finally, there is the motion control, which uses gravity sensing to achieve game interaction, such as flipping to the left, flipping before, etc. All these functions are designed to reduce the number of steps in the game process, instead of just touching the screen.
All of these features are designed to reduce the number of steps users have to take during the game, instead of simply touching a button to make it easier for users to operate, but in practice, the pressure-sensitive buttons on the screen are more practical, and the other two features will take users a long time to get used to.
JOYUI 12 brings a new smooth screen casting function, the phone can be cast to the PC after opening the game, and the keyboard and mouse buttons correspond to the function keys of the hand game, to achieve keyboard and mouse control of the game, the operation is undoubtedly more convenient and quicker.
Besides, JOYUI 12 built-in game assistant has a “hunting mode” function, when the function is turned on, the system screen will automatically reflect the color, this effect allows players to find the enemy hidden in the dark faster during the game, such as some “Voldemort” in the bushes, turn on the hunting mode can be seen directly.
Light efficiency and performance stewardship
Tencent Black Shark 3S retains the iconic logo lighting effect, and users can adjust the color of the light effect in the settings; Performance Butler is an intuitive display of the current CPU and network status.
Gaming Accessories
Gaming phone manufacturers have been keen to introduce peripherals, including Black Shark, which varies with each generation, and this time, too, bringing gaming shoulder keys and gaming fingertips.
The previous controller is different, the Black Shark gaming shoulder keys this time the physical keys, clip-on fixed design, meaning that peripherals do not need to be powered to connect to Bluetooth, directly using the switch to achieve screen operation, using the gaming mouse Omron micro-mechanical switch, known as press life up to 5 million times, through the copper and silver alloy conductive medium, capacitive micro frequency sensing, to achieve no delays, no false touch effects.
In addition to the gaming shoulder keys, the Black Shark also brought the Black Shark gaming finger casing, thin to 0.25mm, is easy to sweat palms of the gospel, finger casing to better slide the screen, reduce the sweat caused by hand screen break touch.
Black Shark 3S Review: Camera
Tencent Black Shark gaming phone 3S rear triple camera, respectively, 64-megapixel main camera + 13-megapixel wide-angle + 5-megapixel depth of field lens, of which the main camera is GW1 CMOS, support pixel four-in-one.
In fact, for most gaming phones, the camera configuration is the biggest difference between the flagship phone and the flagship phone in addition to styling, the current flagship phone especially focuses on the camera configuration, while the camera of the game phone is not the focus, after all, for gamers, the camera can daily swipe a code is enough.
The Tencent Black Shark 3S is a gaming mobile phone, such imaging quality is enough for daily use, no problem at all.
Black Shark 3S Review: Performance
After talking about form and camera, let’s take a look at the performance, after all, this is the core key to the gaming phone, Tencent Black Shark 3S coming with Snapdragon 865 chip, our phone this one is 12GB + 128GB version.
It’s a great way to get the most out of a game phone, but it’s also a great way to get the most out of a flagship phone. The Tencent Black Shark 3S continues to use a “sandwich” type of three-dimensional liquid cooling by covering the key heat source with two liquid cooling tubes, which is officially claimed to increase the cooling capacity of the key heat source by 100 percent, as well as pioneering the center axis. The design of the motherboard, the maximum distance between the handgrip area, and the heat source core area of the motherboard when gaming horizontal grip.
Antutu Benchmark
After actual testing, the Tencent Black Shark Gaming Phone 3S has an AnTuTu score of 613604, with the CPU and MEM belonging to the normal performance, and the GPU score becoming the main boost, which is inseparable from the built-in liquid cooling, effectively suppressing the heat source and enabling the SoC to run at high performance for a long time. Also, the machine’s UX performance has been improved, mostly due to the high refresh rate of 120Hz.
Storage test
After actual testing, the Tencent Black Shark gaming phone 3S’s storage score is 53,411 points, which is the normal performance of UFS 3.1 flash memory.
Black Shark 3S Gaming Performance
After one game, the Tencent Black Shark Gaming phone 3S has no screen stutter at all, but the heat is higher than the Glory of Kings, due to the high frame rate and anti-aliasing on, which overloads the SoC, but the temperature boost did not affect the game frame rate.
With the extremely high frame rate on, “Crossfire” game process at around 120Hz, the picture is more smooth. Besides, there are more than a dozen Tencent games that support the 120Hz refresh rate, and the official said the follow-up will be added.
In addition to say, in the 120Hz and 60Hz refresh rate scenario to play the same game, almost a world of difference inexperience, I hope the follow-up manufacturers actively follow up the game-high refresh mode.
Black Shark 3S Review: Charging and endurance
Having said that, most handset users are also very concerned about the charging range of their gaming phones, and the Tencent Black Shark 3S is equipped with a 4720mAh battery, and we used videos and games to briefly test its performance.
Online video power consumption test
Game power consumption test
Charging test
The Tencent Black Shark 3S continues the previous generation’s 65W wired fast-charging, series charge, and discharge dual battery system, with the advantages of fast charging and long battery life.
Through real-world testing, the Black Shark Gaming Phone 3S took 35 minutes to charge from 5% to 100%, including 42% in 10 minutes and 91% in 30 minutes. The machine is also equipped with an 18W magnetic charging back, making it convenient for users to play games in the landscape without blocking their hands.
Summary
From the beginning of the generation, it can be seen that Black Shark wants to make something different in the gaming phone, to deepen the user experience in the features that many manufacturers do not value, such as better screen quality, rear 64 megapixels triple camera, etc. Due to cost reasons and different user groups, gaming phones can save on the camera configuration, but Black Shark has not reduced the camera since its release, which is worth praising.
The Tencent Black Shark 3S continues the previous generation’s “sandwich” three-dimensional liquid cooling, covering key heat sources so that the core can continue to run at full load, which is a common practice in the industry, and has better heat dissipation compared to flagship phones.
In terms of gaming shortcuts, there are two options: shoulder keys and screen pressure, and the Tencent Black Shark 3S belongs to the latter, so I won’t go into details.
After many days of gaming experience, the author, who is not used to hand games, believes that the machine, in the current technology to meet the conditions, will be how to do a good mobile phone to play games this solution to a new height, especially the pressure of the screen and 120Hz high refresh rate of adaptation, will be more than a step up the game interaction and screen.
As a small iteration of the product update, Tencent Black Shark 3S made due upgrades, in terms of the global 120Hz refresh rate, many game features, these upgrades can not be said to be perfect, but sincere enough, worth making a friend.
Note: Original Review Published on Antutu by author tangzheng