Xiaomi Black Shark 4 Pro is a great choice if your budget is around $500, and you are mainly focused on gaming. Even if you are not into games, this phone may still impress you because it does well in most departments. One of the phone’s greatest strengths is its superb gaming experience delivered by the Adreno 660 GPU. The presence of a 144 Hz refresh rate, physical pop-up gaming triggers, and RGB lighting certainly elevates the experience. The Qualcomm SM8350 Snapdragon 888 5G processor delivers great overall performance.
However, there are phones with better processors out there. Moving to the software, Xiaomi Black Shark 4 Pro runs Android 11 with Joy UI 12.5 on top. The UI isn’t user-friendly, so if you are not a power user, you might not like it. Another thing you might not like is that the device has bloatware, and you can’t uninstall some unnecessary pre-installed apps. The phone weighs 220 grams and measures 6.45 by 3.01 by 0.39 inches. It should be mentioned here that the device is heavy and isn’t easy to operate with a single hand.
It has a glass back with a matte finish that does a good job resisting fingerprints. Xiaomi Black Shark 4 Pro has a familiar X pattern on the back. For colors, you get to choose from Shadow Black, Misty Grey, Cosmos Black, Dark Blue, and Silver. The phone’s display quality and multimedia experience are amazing as well. It has a 6.67-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED screen with an aspect ratio of 20:9. The phone has a screen-to-body ratio of 85.8% and a PPI density of 395. Besides having support for HDR10+, it can also go up to 1300 nits of brightness.
This means you will have a great multimedia experience, no matter if you are indoors or outdoors. The presence of high-resolution audio, stereo speakers, and the uncommon 3.5 mm headphone jack helps the experience, for sure. Gaming phones usually don’t impress when it comes to cameras. Unfortunately, Xiaomi Black Shark 4 Pro is no exception. The phone delivers acceptable performance, but it struggles in low-lighting conditions. The 64 MP main wide-angle camera is the star of the show. Besides the aforementioned camera, the device has an 8 MP ultrawide and 5 MP macro sensor camera on the rear.
For selfies, the device has a 20 MP wide-angle camera. It has features such as LED flash, HDR, panorama, and HDR10+ and can record videos up to 4K. However, the selfie camera’s video recording abilities are limited up to 1080p. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi 6, dual-band Wi-Fi, Hotspot, GPS, and Bluetooth 5.0. While it does have USB Type-C 2.0 and NFC, it lacks FM Radio. The phone has all the usual sensors. Xiaomi Black Shark 4 Pro will get you over the day on average use, which is adequate.
However, the battery drains quicker while gaming. Xiaomi Black Shark 4 Pro supports 120W fast charging, which is one of its greatest advantages. Even in 2022, it remains among the best phones when it comes to charging time. Speaking of time, the phone can go from 0 to 100% of charge in just 15 minutes (per the ads), which is mind-blowing. The phone comes at a starting price of $551 and in four RAM and ROM combinations. These are 8 GB + 128 GB, 8 GB + 256 GB, 12 GB + 256 GB, and 16 GB + 512 GB. The device supports an SD card but can support connections from 2G to 5G. Also, it can accept two Nano-SIM cards.
