Black Shark 4S Review
Introduction
“The gaming phone in the bearer.” This phrase is the official microblogging profile of the Black Shark gaming phone, indicating that the brand has strong self-confidence. The game phone category has not yet been fully formed, there is nothing wrong with saying so. Review the Black Shark generations of cell phones, there are indeed unique. As for how the real sales, in the end, is not the top, I believe that not too many people to be true.
From the product point of view, Black Shark can be regarded as a brand that listens to user opinions and makes corrections. The first two years, for example, the back design was deeply troubled, but this year’s Black Shark 4 began to make drastic changes, and the front also used a hole cut screen, which is one of the few game phones with a shaped screen.
The gaming phone development for so many years, Black Shark 4 Pro is what I think can be called a gaming phone model. Subject to the phone itself and the industry, the chip supplier can not develop a new series to the game phone alone, which is equivalent to the CPU and GPU two roads closed, and Black Shark 4 Pro took a different approach, stuffing the phone with an SSD, which improved its reading and flash performance by leaps and bounds, directly overtaking the car.
Black Shark 4 Pro’s storage solution means that the gaming phone is no longer simply adding a few game functions and shortcuts, but truly a change from the hardware. Other brands also have alternative solutions, such as heat dissipation, not to say much here.
Not long author ago got the new Black Shark, named Black Shark 4S, which is the brand’s release law, the first half of the iteration upgrade, the second half based on the previous generation of small updates, from the naming can be seen, this should also be the case.
Specifications
| Model | Black Shark 4S |
|---|---|
| Display | 6.67-inch Samsung E4 AMOLED screen, resolution 2400×1080, support 60/90/120/144Hz refresh rate (144HZ for game scene), 720Hz touch sampling rate, multi-finger touch delay as low as 8.3ms, 1300nit peak brightness, JNCD ~0.36, delta E~0.35 |
| Colors | Black, Fog white, Gundam Limited Edition |
| Size | 9.9mm thickness, weight 210g |
| SoC | Snapdragon 870 (CPU frequency 3.2GHz) |
| RAM/ROM | LPDDR5, UFS 3.1 flash memory |
| Camera | 48MP main camera ( IMX582) 8MP super wide-angle 5MP macro lens Front: 20MP |
| Unlocks | Side fingerprints, camera face recognition |
| Battery and charging | 4500mAh, 120W wired flash charging |
| Advanced features | fully symmetrical stereo speakers, magnetically powered shoulder buttons, Screen dual zone pressure sensitivity, Z-axis linear motor |
| OS | JOYUI 12.8 based on Android 11 |
| Price | 8+128GB at 2699 yuan 12+128GB at 2999 yuan 12+256GB at 3299 yuan Gundam Edition: 12+256GB at 3499 yuan |
The Black Shark 4S series contains standard and Pro versions, here is in hand is the standard version, a total of three kinds of Xuan Black, Fog White, Gundam limited edition can be selected, the picture reward for Xuan Black and Gundam limited edition. Black Shark and Gundam’s cooperation direction are right like to play the game most of the boys have Gundam’s dream, and this Gundam limited edition, really handsome.
The Black Shark 4S Gundam Limited Edition has a new packaging design, full of Gundam style, but the size and thickness of the two are identical, the limited edition does not come with peripheral products.
The black shark 4S all use the same screen, the game phone rare centered hole screen design, the aperture is 2.76mm, is currently one of the smallest hole digging screen solutions, the actual look is also acceptable, and without the front camera upper bezel is narrower, the Black Shark 4 screen ratio has a more obvious improvement. The previous generation is also the same, not many users spit this point.
If you can’t accept it, you can also open the hidden bangs function in the game assistant, the dugout part will be black, but this is not very meaningful, after all, less part of the screen display.
The game phone is more suitable for under-screen front camera technology, even at the expense of the selfie effect can also be, but the under-screen front camera can not support the high-quality screen, it will have to stop.
Parameters, like its predecessor, the Black Shark 4S has a full 6.67-inch straight screen design with the latest E4 light-emitting material Samsung AMOLED screen, supporting a high refresh rate of 144Hz and three custom refresh rates of 60/90/120Hz, with a touch sampling rate of 720Hz and a multi-finger touch delay of 8.3ms.
In addition, the screen has 100% DCI-3 color gamut, 1300nit peak brightness, piece-by-piece screen calibration, JNCD ≈ 0.36, delta E ≈ 0.35, and has passed SGS eye protection certification and HDR10+, as well as dual-zone screen pressure-sensing 5.0, which is standard across the system.
The ordinary version of the back of the body and the previous generation is not bad, the overall style is the same, only the pattern has been changed, to save costs, small upgrade models do not need to develop new molds, but compared to previous generations, the style of the Black Shark tends to be conservative, no longer exaggerated gaming elements, but also more suitable for everyday use.
Black Shark 4S back cover through the nano-lithography process so that each pixelation unit has its light-sensitive direction, through the sequence of calculation and alignment, pixel unit continuous formation of light column effect, and then with AG matte effect, with the change of light and shadow. Then look at the Gundam Limited Edition.
Black Shark 4S Gundam limited edition and the ordinary version of the same design, but full of Gundam pattern, with the white back cover, with a very strong mecha wind, the lens part added a red circle logo, recognition is completely pulled full.
The right side of the body is the same as its predecessor, with a two-in-one fingerprint recognition power button on the side, and two physical lift buttons, of which the Gundam Limited Edition has a red and blue color treatment.
Performance and Heat Dissipation
The Black Shark 4S is equipped with Snapdragon 870, which the author didn’t expect, and the author was slightly surprised to learn about it, but on second thought, compared to Snapdragon 888, Snapdragon 870 with stable power consumption seems to be more suitable for users who are not so extreme in their pursuit of games, and Black Shark changed its product strategy from the beginning of the year, and a single model cannot meet the market demand, so it is understandable to carry the next flagship Snapdragon 870.
As for the Black Shark 4S Pro is rightly equipped with Snapdragon 888 Plus, as well as UFS 3.1 + SSD disk array technology, representing top performance, but unfortunately, the Black Shark 4S is not, equipped with Snapdragon 870 + LPDDR5 memory + UFS 3.1 flash memory, taking into account more power consumption, this time author got only the Black Shark 4S equipped with Snapdragon 870, let’s take a look at its performance.
As shown in the figure, the Black Shark 4S AnTuTu Benchmark run score of 725737, compared to the recently released Snapdragon 870 models, the two results are the same, that is to say, the Black Shark 4S did not make too much adjustment to the performance, and the regular phone, the algorithm is not aggressive, while the UX and MEM results are also relatively normal.
The storage is also relatively normal, using the conventional UFS 3.1 flash memory, sequential read speed of 1690MB/s, sequential write speed of 771MB/s, which belongs to the normal reading performance. Does this mean that the Black Shark 4S is more like a regular phone full of gaming features? Not so, take a look at the heat dissipation configuration.
The Black Shark 4S continues the previous generation of sandwich liquid cooling system solution, based on this upgrade, such as the front of the motherboard with a large area of 3400mm² high cavity liquid cooling plate direct contact heat dissipation, with 3D three-dimensional capillary structure of the strip power pump through the heat sink, accelerating the liquid flow inside the liquid cooling, so that it quickly dissipate heat. The back of the motherboard also has a 500mm² liquid cooling tube, forming a three-dimensional heat sink.
The 5G chip, processor unit, charging chipset is the highest internal heating components of the phone, the Black Shark approach is to isolate their layout, each heat source independent cooling, and each has a large area of direct contact copper block. To quickly conduct heat to the liquid-cooled heat sink of the motherboard, a new NTC temperature sensor is added to detect the grip area, and adjusted according to the system temperature control strategy, thus forming a “sandwich” liquid-cooled heat dissipation system 2.0.
System Features and Experience
Gaming features
As a gaming phone, the system features are one of the main differences from conventional phones. After all, the core configuration is the same, so the only changes that can be made are the shape or the game shortcut keys. The Black Shark 4S continues the magnetic power lift shoulder key, thanks to the contactless magnetic drive, which increases the lifting life by 10 times.
Compared with the common touch-type shoulder buttons on the market, individuals prefer the physical shoulder buttons like the Black Shark. Pressing is more hand-feeling and closer to the game controller. When not in use, you can just toggle it to hide it.
The Black Shark 4S full support screen pressure-sensitive function, the left, and right screen according to finger pressure mapping shortcut keys, this function is very good, such as “peace elite” shooting game, the phone in the targeting slide at the same time, only need to press the screen slightly harder to shoot, is the earliest use of this program game phone.
In addition to lifting shoulder keys, screen pressure sense, Black Shark 4 support voice control, body control two shortcuts, which body sense should be the use of the phone’s built-in gyroscope and gravity sensor, and when combined with the algorithm to achieve, the actual use is not as direct as the shoulder keys or screen pressure sense to.
Then there are the software changes in the limited version of Gundam, mainly in the use of the Gundam theme and wallpaper, which is currently common practice of custom or co-branded version.
As shown, only the software icon and wallpaper has a Gundam atmosphere, open the software is still the default interface, which provides 144Hz/90Hz/60Hz refresh rate three grades, of which 144Hz only in part of the game scene to achieve, the default is still 120Hz refresh rate display.
The Game Dock and its predecessor, the game information in the center position, view intuitive and clear, next to the additional functions designed for the game, such as game configuration, notification shield, phone rejection, anti-touch, and other functions.
Black Shark 4S built-in speed mode, through the Ramdisk disk acceleration technology, the application is installed directly in the RAM, such a practice can save the application of running data from the disk load time to memory, to improve the application read and write speed, but only support 12GB and above RAM version models.
Additionally, there is a function called hidden bangs is hidden digging a hole, forced to dig the hole area does not show, to achieve the effect of the full screen, I feel that the aperture of the Black Shark 4S is small enough to play games basically will not affect. But it is also a way to provide players with another display.
Gaming experience
After all, is said and done, let’s see how the Snapdragon 870 equipped Black Shark 4S gaming performance, on the popular hand game simple test, including the game frame rate and the temperature of the back cover of the body, test before stating that the Black Shark 4S in author’s hands is not yet a major version of the update, because it has not been released, so some games may not be high frame rate, subject to the game settings, so do not wait for the subsequent update.
Peace Elite
For a popular mainstream handheld game like “Peace Elite”, the Black Shark 4S naturally takes it very seriously, and it can even be said that a large portion of this user group, the Black Shark gaming phone, started to run “Peace Elite” smoothly.
Therefore, the Black Shark 4S is fully capable of running “Peace Elite” smoothly, and the whole process is almost maintained to 90fps, steady into a straight line, no frame lock or frame drop, and the body heating is not obvious, with a maximum temperature of 41.6 on the back cover and an average temperature of 37.6.
The Original God
The flagship killer “Original God”, the game process of running maps and brush four black, no hang-ups, it is clear that the Snapdragon 870 slightly strained, the early stage is fine, the later frame rate fluctuations, but the good thing is that there is no frame lock, the whole process maintained 60 fps, the average frame rate of 53, but the body temperature increased, rising to 39.9, the highest temperature of 44.2.
Glory of Kings
MOBA mobile games like “Glory of Kings” are even handier. The Black Shark 4S maintained 90 fps throughout the game, with slight fluctuations caused by the loading of the game.
Call of Duty
Call of Duty is a fast-paced first-person shooter, the game quality needs to be loaded in real-time, but a game is only one picture, most of the GPU tasks only need to load the character animation, so the frame rate is also very stable, significant frame drops belong to the loading process at the end of a game.
CrossFire
The Black Shark 4S supports 120fps for some games, such as Crossfire, which can be turned on at an ultra-high frame rate. The graphics are silky smooth and feel like a brand new game, basically 120fps throughout.
QQ Speed
The Black Shark 4S is also adapted to “QQ Speed” at 120fps, which is stress-free for this kind of racing game, but the game ends too soon, making the screen switch causing frame drops, thus affecting the average frame rate maintaining 120fps throughout the game is not a problem at all.
Battery Life and Charging
The battery capacity of the Black Shark 4S is 4500mAh, which is not large and belongs to the regular level. Don’t be confused, if you weigh the 210g of the body, you can understand why it is not on a larger battery, but the whole system supports 120W wired fast charging, and it can be revived in ten minutes. As usual, this time continues to use the AnTuTu stress test function to carry out superpower consumption test.
The stress test is a built-in feature of the AnTuTu test, which tests the stability of the device’s performance by performing high-load calculations, requiring the CPU to perform a large number of calculations, so the power consumption is greater compared to video and daily use scenarios.
Test conditions: do not insert SIM card, device connected to Wi-Fi, open positioning, fully charged, screen brightness to the highest, close all background services. Open AnTuTu stress test, an uninterrupted test, every 30 minutes to record the remaining power of the device.
Under the superpower consumption test, equipped with Snapdragon 870 Black Shark 4S persisted for 170 minutes, as a comparison, another tested not long ago equipped with Snapdragon 870 Realme GT Master Explorer Edition is 180 minutes, both 4500mAh, and considering the Black Shark 4S screen is slightly larger, this battery life performance is normal.
It should be noted that this result is based on the CPU is fully loaded all the time, taking into account our daily use and bright screen time, so this data should be converted to a multiple, resulting in the Black Shark 4S having more than 6 hours of continuous use, note that it is continuous use, not daily screen off, back to the message, etc. Next is the charging aspect, the Black Shark 4S supports 120W wired fast charging, to see how fast.
After the actual test, Black Shark 4S took 16 minutes to charge to 100%, including 3 minutes to charge 33% of the power, 12 minutes to charge 85%, is the normal speed of 100 watts fast charging, can make people completely forget about the night charging, because the time to wash a rinse in the morning can be fully charged, to a certain extent to ease the battery life anxiety.
Camera
Camera, the black shark 4S rear is a 48-megapixel main camera (IMX582) + 8-megapixel ultra-wide angle + 5-megapixel macro lens, the front is the familiar 20-megapixel selfie lens, the overall belongs to the moderate.
Daytime Sample
The 48-megapixel main camera is quite adequate, and some macro details are visible, including the veins of the leaves. The IMX582 is adequate for a well-lit environment. Combined with the camera algorithm, there is no problem with daily shooting.
Night Samples
The night view algorithm of Black Shark 4S is slightly violent, the brightness is very high, but the night view mode will suppress the highlights after opening, and the default film is to enhance the brightness so that the light source is discolored, you need to manually adjust the brightness to restore, but for a gaming phone, this quality is enough.
Summary
First of all, the Black Shark 4S is a qualified gaming phone, especially the introduction of the lift shoulder key and screen dual-zone pressure-sensitive, so that the player can also achieve six-finger operation, these external game features, is bound to be a great tool for hand games, the core configuration is also basic pull full, compared to conventional models, the Black Shark 4S as a gaming phone in full compliance with its positioning.
The next talk about the Black Shark 4S in the end what is the significance, it is not for the users who already hold the Black Shark gaming phone, but for the group who want to buy a phone to play games, this is also the meaning of many manufacturers small upgrade models, after all, this upgrade absolutely can not meet the users who already hold the previous generation.
Then is another tangled problem, the author already has the main machine, whether you need another phone to play games, this kind of belongs to personal needs, if it happens to have strong funds, then buy a game phone is certainly better to use, but also to keep entertainment and life separate, and the Black Shark 4S for example, the game characteristics pull full, playing games can also be more comfortable. Especially this time and Bandai joint name launch Gundam limited edition, the direction is right.
Note: This review was originally published on AnTuTu Benchmark by author Tangzheng.