The Black Shark 3 Phone Review

 

The Black Shark 3 is a gaming phone, and while it's certainly not the most affordable device you'll find on the market it does have a few features that can make it worth looking at if you're in the market for a new smartphone.

The first thing you'll need to know is that the Black Shark 3 is a notch-free device with an always-on display, which means you can play games with your hands free while your screen stays active. Its a big advantage for gamers, and you can even opt to have one of the phone's 'Master Triggers' on the back pop up to actuate.

Another feature that's on offer here is a custom switch located on the phone's side, which you can use to activate the firm's Shark Space 3.0 software. This is a custom game mode that can be used to adjust RGB light patterns and create profiles for different games.

It's an excellent feature, and it's great to see a firm embracing this kind of technology in its 2020 phones. We're not sure if it's going to catch on with the wider gaming community, but at least you'll have the option to tweak your settings.

JoyUI, which the phone ships with, is a clean and modern Android OS that's designed to be compatible with'stock' apps and games without too much of a learning curve. It's an experience we really enjoyed, and it's certainly a lot cleaner than the stock Android experience you'll find on competing devices.

You'll also be able to install a number of third-party apps on the phone, including dedicated video players and media editors. That's something you won't find on the OnePlus 8 or even some other high-end flagships, but it's still good to have options in this department.

We did have a few issues with some Cobra 8 of the more intensive games that we tried, though. For example, PUBG and CoD both struggled with the phone's battery life when gaming in 90Hz mode, resulting in a fairly noticeable drop in performance at times.

The phone has a custom IR blaster that can be used to snipe enemies, as well as a front-facing camera that's great for selfies and group shots. It also has a secondary sensor that can be used to capture low-light imagery with a dedicated night mode, but we couldn't get the best results from these snaps.

In terms of picture quality, the Black Shark 3 isn't as good as some other high-end handsets. It has a main 64MP rear camera that's joined by a 13MP ultrawide and 2Mp depth sensor, which is fine in the out of the box modes, but it didn't have the same picture quality as some of the other flagships we tested in this area.

It also suffered a bit from a lack of contrast, which meant that some areas looked washed out in low-light situations. That's a bit of a pity considering the phone is capable of taking some stunning portrait-mode photos too.