The gaming phone trend is still going strong, and this week Xiaomi introduced two new models in its Black Shark lineup of devices.
The Black Shark 3 Pro (above) and Black Shark 3 (below) have gone up for pre-order in China. While the two phones share a similar design, the Black Shark 3 Pro has some notable upgrades over its non-Pro sibling.
The Pro model is equipped with a larger 7.1-inch 3120x1440 AMOLED screen with 90Hz refresh rate, while the non-Pro version has a smaller (but not small) 6.67-inch 2400x1080 display. The non-Pro model does retain the 90Hz refresh rate of its Pro counterpart, though.
Another notable feature of the Black Share 3 Pro are its physical shoulder buttons. These buttons located on the right side of the phone can emulate the feel of triggers on a real controller and potentially give you an edge when you're gaming. According to Engadget, the regular Black Shark 3 sticks with capacitive shoulder buttons.
Xiaomi has given the Black Shark 3 Pro a bigger battery as well. There's a 5000mAh battery packed into the Black Shark 3 Pro while the regular Black Shark 3 has a 4720mAh battery. Both phones do support up to 65W fast charging as well as pins on their backsides that support 18W charging for those times you don't want a cable sticking out of the side of your phone.
Both the Black Shark 3 and Black Shark 3 Pro are powered by a Snapdragon 865 processor that gives them 5G support. They both come in variants with 8GB or 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and the Black Shark 3 is available with 128GB or 256GB of storage, while the Black Shark 3 Pro is only available with 256GB.
The two phones also have a 64MP main camera with f/1.8 aperture, 13MP wide angle camera, and 5MP depth camera. There's a 20MP camera around front for your selfies.
Rounding out the features of these two gaming phones are dual speakers, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a cooling system to make sure your phone doesn't get too toasty during intense games.
Pricing for the Black Shark 3 starts at 3499 yuan ($504 USD) for the 8GB/128GB model while the 12GB/128GB version will cost you 3799 yuan ($548 USD) and the 12GB/256GB variant is priced at 3999 yuan ($577 USD). If you'd prefer the Black Shark 3 Pro and its physical shoulder buttons, you can expect to pay 4699 yuan ($677 USD) for the 8GB/256GB model or 4999 yuan ($721 USD) for the top-end 12GB/256GB variant.
