Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro Smartphone Review – Xiaomi Black Shark lineup is one of the exciting gaming-centric smartphone lineups that delivers an impressive gameplay experience. The company recent release a new phone known as the Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro. Besides this, the smartphone makers also release the Black Shark 5 and Black Shark 5 RS variants. Both of them might not have as powerful as the Black Shark 5 Pro.
The Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro is a complete package of immersive gaming experiences, and it won’t let down your feelings while playing advanced games. Moreover, the phone can easily club with astounding gaming accessories, while the sale started in April 2022. Currently, the device is exclusive to mainland China. Besides this, the company will unveil this phone in June 2022 for the global market. With that said, let’s head toward the in-depth review of Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro.
Table of Contents
Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro Smartphone Review
Highlights
- The phone caters 6.67-inches OLED panel with a 144Hz refresh rate and HDR 10+ crispness.
- As for the software end, you are getting the Android 12 interface with the Joy 13 custom skin.
- The hardware brings the flagship-level Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset along with Adreno 730 GPU.
- As far as the camera department, a 108MP triple cam setup with a 16MP selfie lens at the front.
- Under the hood, a massive 4650 mAh battery arrives alongside the 120W fast charging support.
Design and Display
The Black Shark 5 Pro appearance looks pretty aesthetic as any gaming-centric phone. Moreover, the additional layering of the rectangular pattern box gives the phone an appealing look. On top of that, the camera board design also seems unique, while the metallic side panel offers pop-up gaming triggers. Following this, you can choose the phone from two different color variants.
You can purchase this handset in a classic black and white shade. Both phone models do look impressive and offer a pretty mind-blowing design layout. It’s hard to choose the best among the black and white options. So pick anyone that fits best to your color preference. But you can’t expect that the phone would have a slim body in the first place because the company added a 5-layering cooling system.
Even though, the phone holds a 220-grams weight. On the other hand, you will receive the 6.67-inches OLED display that properly enhances the colors and saturation while watching content and playing games. Moreover, the faster 144Hz refresh rate and astounding touch sampling rating further increase the overall gaming performance, while the HDR+ provides crisp results.
Memory and Internal
Under the performance department the Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro grants the flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip with the usual Adreno 730 GPU. But here is the twist, you can overclock the performance according to your needs from the dedicated game mode. Moreover, the gaming features make this phone more customizable for an advanced-level gaming experience.
In terms of the real-time performance, you won’t be disappointed by the processor, while the software layering gives additional tweaks and perks over the other phones. You are getting the Android 12 with lots of custom features from the Joy UI 13. Besides this, the battery optimization is pretty good, so you can play games without worrying about anything.
With this phone, play games like PUBG, Call of Duty, Apex Legends, and Gingese Impact at high-resolution settings. Yet, the most impressive part of using Black Shark 5 Pro would be the haptic feedback. On the other hand, there are RAM options from 8GB, 12GB, to 16GB with 256GB to 512GB internal space. Moreover, the company offers UFS 3.1 memory type with NVMe SSD. With this combo, the performance goes to the next level.
Camera
It’s a thumb rule that gaming-centric smartphones usually don’t have flagship-level camera quality, and it’s possibly correct for the Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro camera setup. It includes a triple camera island placed on the back panel, which lead by the 108MP primary lens. With this lens, you can capture fine details photos.
Following this, the camera bump offers a 13MP ultra-wide lens for a natural scene, while a 3MP telephoto macro lens improves the close shot details. In terms of the selfie camera, the company added a punch hole 16MP lens. Though, Xiaomi has already released an under-display camera in the Mix 4. But they didn’t interfere with that technology over this gaming phone, which is quite sad.
Anyway, let’s talk about the camera results. The daylight phones come out great thanks to the proper AI technology. Moreover, the punchy colors and contrast give an additional push to the overall limits of photography. As for the videography, the main lens goes up to 4K recording with average results. In short, the overall optics are great, but not to the standard of the flagship.
Battery and Others
The Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro arrives with a 4650 mAh battery capacity that can easily provide more than 5+ hours’ worth of gameplay. On the other hand, you can refill the battery using the 120W fast charging support. Although, the company doesn’t offer any wireless charging option on this phone.
As for the additional features, the fingerprint scanner is present on the side panel, while the comms and sensor work seamlessly smooth in every condition. Yet, the audio output does feel slightly underwhelming. The Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro is priced at $650 (Rs. 50,999) for the base variant.
Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro Pros and Cons
Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro Pros and Cons
Down below you can see the full specifications of the Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro smartphone.
| Specifications | Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro |
| Network | 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G |
| Announced | March 2022 |
| SIM | Dual SIM |
| Dimensions | 6.45 x 3.01 x 0.37 inches |
| Weight | 220 g |
| Size | 6.67 inches |
| Display | OLED Always-on display 1B colors 144Hz HDR10+ 20:9 ratio ~395 PPI density |
| Protection/Others | Physical pop-up gaming triggers |
| Resolution | 1080 x 2400 pixels |
| OS | Android 12, Joy UI 13 |
| Chipset | 4nm – Qualcomm SM8450 Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 |
| CPU | Octa-core 1×3.00 GHz Cortex-X2 3×2.40 GHz Cortex-A710 4×1.70 GHz Cortex-A510 |
| GPU | Adreno 730 |
| Card slot | No |
| RAM | 8GB, 12GB, 16GB |
| Internal | 256GB, 512GB UFS 3.1/NVMe SSD |
| Camera | 108 MP (wide), PDAF 13 MP (120Ëšultrawide) 5 MP (telephoto macro), AF LED flash, HDR, panorama Max – 4K@60fps, HDR10+ |
| Selfie | 16 MP, (wide) HDR Max – 1080p@30fps |
| Loudspeaker | Yes (stereo speakers) |
| 3.5mm jack | No 24-bit/192kHz audio |
| WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot |
| Bluetooth | 5.2, A2DP, LE, aptX HD, aptX Adaptive |
| GPS | Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, QZSS, BDS |
| NFC | Yes |
| Infrared port | No |
| Radio | No |
| USB | USB Type-C 2.0 |
| Sensors | side-mounted fingerprint, accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer |
| Battery | Li-Po 4650 mAh Fast charging 120W |
| Colors | Black, White |
| Expected Price | $650 (Rs 50,590 in India) approx. |
Conclusion
The Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro smartphone is a great phone if you are looking for something exciting in the gaming segment. Yet on the same note, it doesn’t have anything that stands out from the rest of the competition, apart from the SSD support. Despite this, the screen size is small, it doesn’t have a massive battery, and a few more other things.
On the other hand, you can also check out the recent Asus ROG Phone 5s Pro, which offers similar specs but offers better performance. If we have to recommend the Black Shark 5 Pro, we only pick it for the seamlessly smooth gameplay experience. However, the final decision is in your hand as it’s your hard-earned money.
