Black shark 2 review in Spanish (full analysis)

Black Shark 2 is already a reality and luckily we have had access to it for this review. A Smartphone built and designed to offer the best gaming experience, with incredible aesthetics and features that will leave you breathless and at the level of the best. And wait to see the details such as the JOYUI layer for games, its 4000 mAh battery or its lighting elements on the chassis. Without a doubt, a different mobile phone, powerful and with the best current hardware.

Available in two versions of RAM and Storage and in two colors. Which one do you choose? Before you will have to see our review, so let's get started!

And we must first thank Black Shark for the loan of this mobile for its analysis.

Black Shark 2 technical characteristics

Unboxing

There are not many manufacturers that can boast of having a mobile device designed for gaming, and among them is Black Shark, a manufacturer born directly from Xiaomi that is committed to creating a Smartphone with a unique and truly gaming design. It surprised the world with the first generation Balck Shark and has returned with an improved product in every way.

And as always, we will start with the Unboxing of this terminal, whose package or bundle is based on a small hard cardboard box that has practically the same dimensions as the terminal, or rather, the case that includes the terminal.

It has a fairly Premium finish with a micro texture in lines that allows you to take it better, and an entirely gray color with the "S" logo right in the center. In the back area we will only have the typical product coding information.

The next thing we will do is open it, so we just have to take it by the top, lift it and wait patiently for the box to slide under its own weight. And that would be it, we have a configuration based on several departments to separate the main product, located in the first instance, with respect to the rest of accessories, located just below. We see what they are:

• Mobile Black Shark 2 Transparent silicone case Charger (supports QC 3.0) USB Type-C cable for charging and data USB Type-C audio adapter - 3.5mm Jack Skewer to remove dual SIM tray Stickers and user manual

In this case, we do not have any type of headphones, something that we think would be appreciated by the price we are paying for the device. Although at least we do have the 3.5 mm Jack adapter, extremely useful and necessary.

External design of the new Black Shark 2

And a very important section in this Black Shark 2 is undoubtedly that of design, since we have many new features compared to the previous generation. From my point of view, both quality and aesthetics have improved a lot in this device, and where it first shows is in the touch and the good feelings it gives when it comes to having it in your hands, both vertically and horizontally.

Following the trend of current terminals, Black Shark has built an aluminum alloy based chassis that covers the entire side and central area of ​​the rear, and also glass, placed around this central area. In addition, green beveled edges are distinguished in the aluminum areas that give it even more gaming personality.

Nor should we forget that we have two color configurations, the one we have in black, and green called Shadow Black and the other in white and green called Frozen Silver.

All this paraphernalia of elements and metal edges, translates into dimensions of 163.61 mm long, 75 mm wide and 8.77 mm thick. Let's remember that its screen is 6.39 inches and has some noticeable top and bottom frames, so it is not a small phone. In addition, its weight is quite forceful, rising to 205 grams, and the use of a fairly effective copper dissipation system and its 4000 mAh battery have greatly influenced this.

The weight is undoubtedly quite high, and until we can get used to it, the truth is that it shows a lot in its use in one hand and in the pocket. The positive aspect is that the grip is quite good, the edges and the different planes do not slip anything and being long it is quite comfortable with two hands to play. In any case, for day to day the truth is that it is not the best option, we must bear this in mind, especially for those ladies interested in the terminal.

We continue to take a look at its back to realize that its two 12 MP optical sensors are installed vertically and also come out from the general plan of the Black Shark 2 at a distance of approximately 1 mm, it is little yes, but in a Smartphone this shows. Nor is it something that surprises us, since many terminals with more internal space than this, make use of this configuration. The flash on the other hand is kept just below, and in a simple configuration.

We must bear in mind that the manufacturer does not specify any Gorilla Glass certification on its glass elements, it only reports that they are anti-scratch. In this back area we will also find the logo of the brand that eye, has RGB LED lighting and configurable from the API of the operating system, then we will see it in action.

From the fingerprint reader on the back we have no trace, since the Black Shark 2 has it incorporated directly behind the screen.

Now let's continue to look at the sides of this Black Shark 2 to see its connectivity and interaction buttons. We will start with both sides, which do not have much to show with the naked eye, although they do have interesting functions.

Well, on the right side we will find a very small power button and well placed to access it, both with the right and left hand. Then we have a slightly larger and more outgoing button that makes the function of activating and deactivating the gaming mode or Shark Space of the phone.

And in the left area we will only find the volume increase and decrease controls also very well located. And we also do not forget two large lighting elements located in the center of these two areas that we can also configure in animations and color from Android. They act as notification leds and react when we are playing or listening to music.

Now we are going to go to the bottom area to see that we have a USB Type-C connector that will act as a charging port and data and sound interface, since it offers us compatibility with the aptX sound codec that improves latency and sound quality in headphones. We also have in this area the removable tray with capacity for dual Nano SIM. In this Black Shark 2 we lose the presence of the 3.5 mm Jack, as usually happens in almost all high-end terminals.

In the upper area we did not find anything remarkable except an opening for the audio output exactly the same as the one in the lower area. This is because the audio system consists of two speakers that offer noticeably better stereo sound than the previous generation, although it is still one step behind other gaming mobiles such as the Razer, for the simple reason that at high volumes it is distorted. the sound quality a bit, and the bass is relatively normal.

And we continue with the upper area of Black Shark 2. We can see that the screen is offered in a 2.5D border configuration without notch and with 7mm frames in both the upper and lower areas. In addition, we have a single 20 MP sensor without flash that we will see in more detail later, and a double microphone with noise cancellation that will be in charge of capturing the sound when we speak on the phone or during our online games.

And we almost forgot that we also have a transparent silicone case available for our Black Shark 2 terminal . The good thing about being the original is that it fits perfectly on all the edges and planes of our phone and also leaves it accessible in a very good way. controls and lighting.

And the truth is that it is a very thick case, we are talking about more than 1 mm on the sides and lower area, which gives a very good protection to the phone, although it also increases its weight and size. It has two small non-slip rubber elements to rest on the ground and also ensures that the two rear sensors remain protected and do not hit the ground.

Customizable lighting system

And as promised, here we have the rear lighting system and working side notification LEDs. It is not something as important as the screen or hardware, but it is worth seeing them before as external elements. Both side LEDs and rear logo will be manageable from an exclusive section in the configuration menu of the operating system.

In addition, we can configure them independently, since these sides offer us enough animations and features that will allow us to notify us of calls, notifications, charging status, power on and also the reaction to music as an entertainment mode.

It is a simple element, but it gives a touch of a lot of personality to the Black Shark 2 to differentiate itself from the competition. You can also see that the list of options has a small bug where two information texts and a speed selection bar overlap. Something that the boys from Black Shark will have to solve soon.

screen

And if there is an important element in a gaming smartphone like this Black Shark 2, it is the screen, which also brings us many new features compared to the first generation. The size increases from 5.99 inches to adapt to the times up to 6.39 inches, being an AMOLED TrueView panel that offers an FHD + resolution of 1080 × 2340 pixels. If we do the calculations, we will obtain a density of no less than 403 pixels per inch.

So we are facing a panoramic 19.5: 9 configuration that offers us a maximum brightness of 410 nits (cd / m2) which is not bad. Nor is the sensational 100% NTSC and 108.9% DCI-P3 color space, which give us a spectacular image quality worthy of the range in which it moves and its price. Of course the 10-point capacitive multitouch is a bread with anti-scratch finishes on the entire surface. It also supports HDR in video playback.

But we have not said anything yet that falls within a typical gaming configuration, but this screen incorporates intelligent motion compensation technology (MEMC) and different image configuration modes from the corresponding section in the configuration. Curiously we are left with a refresh rate of 60 Hz of image, although the response latency of the touch input has been improved to 43.5 ms thanks to a sampling frequency of 240 Hz.

Like other Xiaomi terminals, the four frames of this screen have come to have a 2.5D curvature that gives them a more current appearance and a more careful and elegant design. We will have already noticed that we do not have a notch of any kind and side frames of notable presence. This makes the ratio of useful surface to be 81%, somewhat lower than what we have in this range of terminals.

Security systems

We continue directly with the security of the device, and taking advantage of the fact that we have talked about the screen, we are going to connect by the fingerprint sensor, which is located in the front area and just below the screen. It is a practically generalized solution in high-end devices that improves system accessibility, although it certainly makes it a little slower.

In this Black Shark 2 specifically, we have a sensor very well located, in the central low area about 3.5 cm from the bottom edge and very accessible to the thumb, at least with my hand and for my taste. In addition, it has a good authentication speed and a nice animation while it is produced. If we carry out the process of detection and configuration of our fingerprint well, it will practically never fail in the procedure, so it works very well and at a speed similar to other terminals.

And we continue with the facial unlocking system, which is basically the one that Android incorporates in its version 9. It is a fairly basic system without 3D face detection, although certainly very fast, surprisingly fast we could say. The authentication failure rate is relatively high if we place the front camera very close, bent or if we have put on caps, glasses or we have cut our beards. In this sense, the system is quite basic. One point in its favor is that, by placing a photograph of us, the phone remains locked, detecting that it is not our real face.

Operating system and Game Dock

The operating system that is installed from the factory is Android 9 Pie without any modification or layer of customization, so it is just what we want, maximum performance of a system already full input.

Of course, elements such as screen configuration options, lighting and also a layer oriented to a gaming mode have been added. This layer is called JOYUI and it will only be activated and deactivated with the right side button above the on and off button.

When we slide it to the top, then we activate this layer that only shows us the games that we have installed. If instead we slide the button down, then we will return to the normal state.

The layer is extremely attractive and offers us a better immersion in the gaming function of Black Shark 2. If we slide any corner, we will get a top menu called Game Dock with enough configuration options that for example disable call notifications, shows a panel performance, a function of freeing up RAM, etc.

And it is not all, since if we enter the game that is, we will also get an option to access a device configuration panel that optimizes it in performance, on-screen display, network connectivity, touch input and sound configuration.

We will have a simple bar with which we can increase the power of the hardware so that the game performs better, up to a maximum called Ludicrous Mode, well, just like the Tesla… although of course it will use more battery.

Possibility of connecting two controls on its sides

Another very important aspect of the Black Shark 2's manageability in games is the possibility of installing two controls, one on each side, to convert it into a portable console. The problem is that these controls are sold separately, and we have not had the opportunity to test them, although we will tell you what it is anyway.

Well, these controls will be located on both sides of the mobile when it is placed horizontally. One of them has a classic joystick along with four buttons with D-Pad function, and the other incorporates the four typical function buttons of the consoles together with a touch panel for character management.

Both controls will connect to the mobile via Bluetooth instantly and can be managed from the gaming layer of the mobile. To charge them, they will use a USB Type-C connection each of them. It would have been a great detail that these controls already came in the mobile purchase pack, although the price went up, they are quite useful and necessary if we really want to play.

Hardware and performance Black Shark 2 the best gaming smartphone?

We continue with the section on hardware and its performance, measured through various benchmark software such as Antutu, 3DMark and GeekBench. In this way we will have more results to be able to buy the device with other Smartphone.

Inside this beast we have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 8-core processor and 64-bit architecture that will be able to work at 1.79 Ghz x4 cores, 2.42 GHz x3 cores and 2.84 GHz the last core. This chip includes an Adreno 640 GPU, making it the most powerful configuration available.

A dual channel LPDDR4X RAM configuration with a total of 8 GB or 12 GB has also been used depending on the version to choose. In our case we have the 8 GB. Regarding storage capacity, we will also have two versions available, ours, with 128 GB UFS 2.1 or up to 256 GB. In this case we will not have the option to expand it using a memory card. Let's now look at the results of the benchmarks.

Thanks to the hardware configuration and a clean system and good optimization, this Black Shark 2 is capable of waging war and outperforming much more expensive mobiles, great work that has been done on this terminal, making it clear what it is built for.

Another element to consider in this terminal is the cooling system, since high-level liquid cooling has been implemented where the manufacturer ensures that temperatures will be 14 degrees better than conventional systems. For this, a double layer of copper plates has been used as a sink, on a graphene plate with tubes of liquid circulating inside. The result is a CPU resting at 50 degrees and about 60 degrees under stress.

Autonomy

The next aspect that we will see is that of the battery and the autonomy that we have more or less obtained during our tests and days of use of this terminal.

We have a fairly large 4, 000 mAh battery that also supports fast charging with 27W Qualcomm Quick Charge 4.0 technology through its USB Type-C connector. The charger available in the purchase pack only supports Quick Charge 3.0, so we will not get that maximum of 27W, staying at about 17W exactly after having measured it with our wattmeter. We think that a mobile phone in this range should include the maximum charge charger available, instead of one cut in possibilities.

Regarding the autonomy that we have obtained, it can be summarized in three parts or three experiences:

• Demanding the maximum from the mobile while playing and with a brightness of 50%, we have been able to spend a total of 6 and a half hours with a full charge without stopping. By making intensive use of it for navigation, watching videos with a brightness of 50%, we have obtained about 10 hours screen and around a day without loading it. And if we limit ourselves to using it for very basic functions such as WhatsApp and calls we can be close to two days without loading it.

Regarding the charging speed, we already see that the 27W is not reached, so we will need about 35 minutes to reach 50% and approximately 110 minutes to complete a charging cycle. In any case, they are not bad figures to have such a large battery, but of course, we will not take advantage of those 27 W of capacity.

As you may have guessed, we do not have wireless charging, we imagine that due to internal space limitations.

Black Shark 2 cameras

Now it's time to talk about the photographic section, which is important in this Black Shark 2 and in any other mobile, since we need functionality for everyday use. And the first thing we have to say is that they have improved a lot compared to the previous generation, especially in difficult low-light conditions.

Well, in the back area we will have a dual sensor configuration signed by Sony. The first one is 48 Mpx (12 MP effective) with a 0.8 µm lens and 1.75 focal length. The second consists of a 12 Mpx sensor with a 1 µm lens and a 2.2 focal length for telephoto support. We also have a normal LED flash.

This configuration is capable of recording content in 4K, videos in super slow motion of 120 fps, supports HDR, autofocus and also has Artificial Intelligence to improve and better adapt to the conditions in which the photograph is taken.

The front sensor is also from Sony, with 20 Mpx, 0.9 µm lens and 2.0 focal length. In this case it does not have AI. Both sensors will be able to take snapshots in portrait mode with enough quality and moderate preprocessing that we can also change to our liking.

Rear camera photos

Photo

zoom in detail

with AI

with AI

rear camera portrait mode

no AI

Front camera photos

Photo

zoom in detail

Backlit front camera

front camera portrait mode

Here we see some captures in different conditions, both in portrait mode and with AI activated. We can say that the quality in night photos has improved, although the AI ​​introduces too much processing to the photos, and this makes the colors look very saturated and unreal. It is true that the conditions are not good at all, since there is very little light and a lot of darkness around.

As for portrait mode, I liked it a lot on both cameras, although the rear gives an extra quality in the different planes of the image, and depending on what occasions it is difficult to differentiate between what is in front and what is behind, it is not We have made it easy with that insect in motion.

In general, it is a significant improvement in this Black Shark 2, although it still lags behind some mobiles that are located around it, such as the Samsung, Pixel and Huawei. In any case, if you are not too demanding, you can see that the photos are quite good.

Connectivity and network

We are nearing the end of this long review, and now we have to talk about the connectivity of this Black Shark 2 and the sensors and network elements that it has, which the truth is that they are not few.

You could not miss the presence of a tray with dual nano-SIM capacity, but it is not compatible with SD memory cards. But we already know this, so the important thing is that we will have Wi-Fi connectivity through an X-type antenna plus two side antennas to never lose connectivity. It supports connections with the IEEE 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac dual band protocols and for 2 × 2 connections with MIMO. In addition, we have Bluetooth 5.0 LE.

As for the rest of the sensors that it incorporates we have: gyroscope, geomagnetism, gravity, distance, ambient light and pressure sensors, under the fingerprint screen. And finally satellite navigation consisting of dual-frequency GPS L1 + L5, A-GPS, GLONASS and Beidou.

We have been left with interesting elements such as FM radio, and other more important ones such as NFC connectivity that in a mobile of this range would be quite successful to implement.

Final words and conclusion about Black Shark 2

We come to the end of this review to give our conclusions about this Black Shark 2 and we are going to make a short summary of what we liked the most and the things that can still be improved.

And one of the strong points is undoubtedly the choice of hardware Snapdragon 855 + Adreno 640 is the most cutting-edge, along with 8 or 12 GB of RAM give us some results that place this Smartphone among the tops. 128 or 256 GB of storage is also ideal. The screen quality is also spectacular with a 6.39 ”60 Hz AMOLED panel and improved touch response.

The second strong section is aesthetics, the use of high-quality materials shows, in touch and grip. With a clear gaming personality, but at the same time elegant and with a very current design. The screen ratio of 81% is not bad for not having a notch and the buttons are very well located. Have USB Type-C and Jack adapter for headphones, so we will not have connectivity problems.

In terms of features and security, we see a good fingerprint reader, fast and safe, and fast facial recognition, but needing ideal conditions to capture our face, and failing in difficult conditions. We have Android 9 Pie unmodified, very well optimized with brutal performance, and a separate layer called JOYUI activatable from a button has been added, only for gaming very well designed and with great aesthetics and functionality.

Visit our guide to the best high-end mobiles

Both the network connectivity and the autonomy are fabulous, 4000 mAh that will withstand more than 10 hours of screen in normal use and about 7 hours of non-stop playing. We have QC 4.0 fast charge although the charger only supports QC 3.0, and we do not have wireless charging. We have also been left by the way the NFC and FM radio.

The photographic section is correct, dual rear sensor of 12 MP and a front one of 20 MP that has improved in adverse conditions, although the AI ​​adds a lot of processing in the photos. In general it has been a remarkable leap forward, as has the sound, dual stereo speaker with good volume, but we expected a little more being a gaming mobile.

Finally, this Black Shark 2 will be available at a price of 549 euros for the 8/128 GB version in black, and at a price of 649 euros for the 12/256 GB version in white. It is a fairly round mobile in terms of pure performance and screen quality, with a unique design and great autonomy. Without a doubt, something different from what we are used to.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ PERFORMANCE OF YOUR HARDWARE TOP	- NO NFC OR SERIAL CHARGER IS NOT QC 4.0
+ UNIQUE DESIGN AND QUALITY OF MATERIALS	- BASIC FACIAL RECOGNITION
+ GREAT QUALITY OF YOUR SCREEN AND GOOD RATIO	- NOTABLE IMPROVEMENTS IN AUDIO AND CAMERAS, BUT STILL ONE STEP BEHIND THE BEST
+ ANDROID 9 VERY WELL OPTIMIZED
+ INDEPENDENT LAYER JOYUI IDEAL FOR GAMING
+ USB TYPE-C AND JACK ADAPTER

The Professional Review team awards you the platinum medal and recommended product:

Black Shark 2

DESIGN - 93%

PERFORMANCE - 100%

CAMERA - 80%

AUTONOMY - 97%

PRICE - 92%

92%