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Over the last 1-2 years we’ve seen a new type of smartphone category start carving itself a niche in the market: the gaming smartphone. Last year, the original Black Shark was amongst the first devices to try to cater to a gaming audience, offering characteristic “gaming designs” as well as promising to offer software features to differentiate itself from the more usual smartphone offerings. This year, Xiaomi has updated its Black Shark line and brand with the new Black Shark 2. The phone is very much a continuation of what we saw last year with the Black Shark, but offering the newest hardware innards and iterative improvements to the design and features. The premise of a gaming phone is a bit of an odd one. The one aspect that differentiates classical gaming products from regular ones is their more exotic and futuristic design as well as the notion that they’re optimised for the gaming experience. I think the wider audience would understand the latter point as not only including features that simplify or augment the gaming experience, but also just plainly optimise the raw gaming performance of a device. In this regard, gaming phones pretty much just have one aspect in which they can greatly differentiate themselves and improve upon other “regular” devices: thermal design and heat dissipation. Indeed, more recently we’ve seen products that specifically try to highlight their improved thermal capabilities, which in turn allow for higher and longer sustained gaming performance. Today we'll be investigating how the Black Shark 2 fares in this area, and if it's able to fulfill the expectatons of a "gaming phone". Black Shark 2 | | Black Shark 2 | SoC | Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
1x Kryo 485 (Cortex-A76) @ 2.84GHz
3x Kryo 485 (Cortex-A76) @ 2.42GHz
4x Kryo 485 (Cortex-A55) @ 1.80GHz
Adreno 640 @ 585MHz | DRAM | 8/12GB LPDDR4X | Display | 6.39" AMOLED
2340 x 1080 (19.5:9) | Size | Height | 163.61 mm | Width | 75.01 mm | Depth | 8.77 mm | Weight | 205 grams | Battery Capacity | 3900mAh (Design)
4000mAh (Typical) | Wireless Charging | - | Rear Cameras | Main | 48MP IMX586 0.8µm pixel w/PDAF
f/1.75 | Telephoto | 12MP 1.0µm pixel
f/2.2
2x optical magnification | Wide | - | Extra | - | Front Camera | 20MP 0.9µm
f/2.0 | Storage | 128 / 256GB UFS 2.1 | I/O | USB-C
no 3.5mmheadphone jack | Wireless (local) | 802.11ac Wave 2 Wi-Fi
Bluetooth 5.0 LE + NFC | IP Rating | none | Other Features | In-screen optical fingerprint sensor | Dual-SIM | 2x nanoSIM | Street Price: | 8+128GB: 549€
12+256GB: 649€ |
Naturally, a gaming phone requires the best SoC available, and in this regard the Black Shark 2 remains relatively in-line with what’s available in the market, featuring a Snapdragon 855 SoC. The SoC should enable excellent gaming performance as we saw the Adreno 640 to be quite competitive if it’s able to unleash full potential. In terms of memory, the phone comes in either 8GB or 12GB RAM configurations, with either 128 or 256GB of UFS 2.1 storage. 
The front of the phone is relatively classic and more in line with 2017 designs. We see a 19.5:9 aspect ratio AMOLED screen with at resolution of 2340 x 1080. In terms of gaming features, the one aspect in which the display differentiates itself isn’t by the panel itself, but rather by the touch screen. Here Xiaomi claims to offer a 240Hz touch controller which is meant to reduce input lag compared to other 60 or 120Hz devices in the market. Indeed, in my subjective experience with the phone, I noticed that its touch responsiveness is much better than that of other devices. The tap latency improvements aren’t as quite noticeable in everyday usage, but the scroll latency is quite distinctively improved, with screen content able to follow one’s finger significantly better. 
Overall while being a gaming phone, it’s not quite as oversized as you’d expect – at 75.01mm wide it’s still very much in the range of comfortable and useable by most people. 
The back of the phone accentuates the whole design of the phone. The device is mainly solid aluminium – both on the sides as well as middle of the phone. The middle metal piece feels non-continous to the rest of the body of the phone, being interrupted by a glass inlay surrounding it. The design seems to help with the gaming aesthetics as well as the weight of the phone as there's a bit less metal employed. I’m not quite convinced by the build quality because when pressing the back near the “S” logo I can clearly feel the panel flex a bit and touch the internal components / battery, meaning there’s a small air gap on the inside. 
Camera wise, the Black Shark 2 adopts a similar camera assembly as the Mi9, minus the wide-angle. The main sensor is again Sony’s IMX586 sensor, paired with an f/1.75 aperture lens. There’s no OIS on the phone which doesn’t bode too well, as we’ve seen the sibling Mi9 fall flat on its face in low-light conditions. The secondary module is a 2x magnification telephoto module with a 12MP sensor and an f/2.2 aperture.  
The top and bottom of the phones are relatively barren – we see just a microphone hole at the top, whilst finding the USB-C connector as well as the dual nanoSIM slot at the bottom. The design is characterised by two large chamfers surrounding the phone, adding to the design of the phone.  
The sides of the phone are a bit more populated; we find the regular volume rockers as well as power buttons on the left and right side, but we also find a toggle switch above the power button. This is the “Shark key” that puts the phone into Shark mode. Alongside both sides we find two LED strips which can showcase the charge level of the device when charging – varying in strip length and colour from red to green. 
On the software side of things, Shark mode and the "Shark Space" is essentially a secondary launcher interface that mimics the home screens of console UIs, with a basic listing of installed games as identified by the launcher. In the case that a game is not identified, you can still manually add apps to the list. 
While in-game, you don’t really notice much difference to a regular phone, with the exception if you swipe from the bottom right (top right in landscape) corner you get an OSD menu with some options. In general, there’s not too much useful in here – under the advanced menu you get some performance monitoring options and notification toggles. There’s an FPS OSD overlay you can switch on, which can be interesting, although the CPU frequency and electrical current draw (not power) options are not very useful.  
The one interesting and useful addition the Shark mode enables is “MasterTouch”, which is two pressure sensitive mapping areas which can be set up as actuation zones for configurable virtual click functions anywhere on the screen. This is actually an interesting addition and is particularly useful for shooter games where you’re using virtual analog sticks for movement and aiming, enabling you two additional functions without lifting your fingers off the screen. Turning off gaming mode while inside a game doesn’t really change much and you still get your FPS OSD and MasterTouch still works - but flipping the toggle switch back on will interrupt your game and bring you back to the Shark launcher. Overall, the software features of the Black Shark 2 were interesting but nothing really extraordinary that would dramatically differentiate the phone from other devices. The pressure sensitive screen and the MasterTouch feature I found was the only worthwhile addition to the “Gamer Studio” software suite. Naturally, what should really define a gaming phone is its performance, so let’s move on to see how the software stack and hardware is optimised for this task. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 翻译：在过去的1-2年中，我们已经看到一种新型的智能手机类别开始在市场上占据一席之地：游戏智能手机。去年，原始的“黑鲨”是首批尝试迎合游戏受众的设备之一，提供了独特的“游戏设计”，并承诺提供软件功能以使其与更常见的智能手机产品区分开。 今年，小米通过新的Black Shark 2更新了其Black Shark系列和品牌。该手机非常类似于我们去年在Black Shark中看到的产品，但提供了最新的硬件技术以及对设计和功能的迭代改进。 游戏手机的设计有点奇怪。将经典游戏产品与常规游戏产品区分开的一个方面是其更具异国情调和未来派的设计，以及针对游戏体验进行了优化的观念。我认为，更广泛的受众会理解后一点，因为它不仅包括简化或增强游戏体验的功能，而且还只是简单地优化了设备的原始游戏性能。在这方面，游戏电话几乎只具有一个方面，它们可以在很大程度上与众不同并可以在其他“常规”设备上进行改进：散热设计和散热。的确，最近，我们看到了专门强调其改进的散热能力的产品，这些产品又可以提供更高和更长的持续游戏性能。今天，我们将研究黑鲨2在这一领域的表现，以及它是否能够满足“游戏手机”的期望。 游戏手机需要最好的SoC，因此，Black Shark 2仍然与市场上的产品保持一致，并配备Snapdragon 855 SoC。 SoC应该能够提供出色的游戏性能，因为我们看到Adreno 640能够释放出全部潜力，因此具有相当的竞争力。
在内存方面，手机采用8GB或12GB RAM配置，并具有128GB或256GB UFS 2.1存储。
手机的正面是相对经典的，更符合2017年的设计。我们看到的是长宽比为19.5：9的AMOLED屏幕，分辨率为2340 x1080。就游戏功能而言，显示屏与众不同的一个方面不是面板本身，而是触摸屏。小米在此声称提供了240Hz触摸控制器，与市场上其他60或120Hz的设备相比，它旨在减少输入滞后。
确实，在我对手机的主观体验中，我注意到它的触摸响应性要比其他设备好得多。在日常使用中，点击延迟的改善并不是很明显，但是滚动延迟却有了明显的改善，屏幕内容可以更好地跟随手指。
总体而言，虽然它是一款游戏手机，但并没有您所期望的那么大。它的宽度为75.01毫米，仍然在大多数人舒适和可用的范围内。
手机背面突出了手机的整体设计。该设备主要由实心铝制成–在手机的侧面和中间。中间的金属片感觉与手机的其余部分不连续，被周围的玻璃镶嵌物打断。该设计似乎有助于游戏美学以及手机的重量，因为所使用的金属更少。我对构建质量不太满意，因为当在“ S”徽标旁边按后盖时，我可以清楚地感觉到面板弯曲了一点，并触摸了内部组件/电池，这意味着内部有很小的间隙。
在相机方面，Black Shark 2采用了与Mi9类似的相机组件，但不包括广角镜。主传感器还是索尼的IMX586传感器，与f / 1.75光圈镜头配对。手机上没有OIS效果不佳，因为我们已经看到同级Mi9在弱光条件下会平放在其表面上。辅助模块是具有12MP传感器和f / 2.2光圈的2倍放大远摄模块。
手机的顶部和底部相对贫乏-我们只看到麦克风手机的顶部和底部相对贫瘠-我们在顶部仅看到一个麦克风孔，而在底部找到了USB-C连接器和双nanoSIM插槽。该设计的特点是围绕手机的两个大倒角，为手机的设计增添了色彩。
手机的侧面更密集。我们在左侧和右侧找到了常规音量摇杆以及电源按钮，但在电源按钮上方还找到了一个拨动开关。这是使手机进入“鲨鱼”模式的“鲨鱼钥匙”。
在两侧，我们找到两个LED灯带，它们可以在充电时显示设备的充电水平-灯带的长度和颜色从红色到绿色不等。
在软件方面，Shark模式和“ Shark Space”本质上是辅助启动器界面，它模仿控制台UI的主屏幕，并具有由启动器标识的已安装游戏的基本列表。在未识别游戏的情况下，您仍然可以手动将应用添加到列表中。
在游戏中，与普通手机的区别并不大，只有从右下角（横向右上角）滑动时，您才能获得带有某些选项的OSD菜单。通常，这里没有太多用处-在高级菜单下，您可以使用一些性能监控选项和通知切换。您可以打开一个FPS OSD叠加层，这很有趣，尽管CPU频率和电流消耗（不是功率）选项不是很有用。
Shark模式启用的一个有趣且有用的功能是“ MasterTouch”，它是两个压敏映射区域，可以将其设置为屏幕上任何位置可配置虚拟点击功能的驱动区域。这实际上是一个有趣的功能，对于射击游戏非常有用，在射击游戏中，您使用虚拟模拟摇杆进行移动和瞄准，从而使您拥有两项附加功能，而无需将手指从屏幕上移开。
在游戏中关闭游戏模式并没有太大改变，您仍然可以使用FPS OSD，并且MasterTouch仍然可以使用-但是重新打开切换开关将中断游戏，并带您回到Shark启动器。
总体而言，Black Shark 2的软件功能很有趣，我发现压敏屏幕和MasterTouch功能是“ Gamer Studio”软件套件中唯一值得添加的功能。
自然，真正应该定义游戏手机的是它的性能，所以让我们继续前进，看看如何针对此任务优化软件堆栈和硬件。
转载至：anandtech 作者：Andrei Frumusanu (如侵删)
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