News, Smartphone

Black Shark 3S Launched in China With Faster 120Hz Screen & JoyUI 12

Black Shark recently introduced a new gaming smartphone in China, the Black Shark 3S. As its name suggests, it is an incremental upgrade over the Black Shark 3, which was unveiled back in March this year. In fact, there is really only one major hardware upgrade that differentiates the two phones: the screen.

Previously packed with a 90Hz screen on the Black Shark 3, the new Black Shark 3S comes with a faster 120Hz panel. Beyond this higher refresh rate, the updated gaming smartphone still features a 6.67-inch 2400 x 1080 AMOLED display; no changes to the size or resolution of the screen. Of course, the 270Hz touch sampling rate is retained as well to minimise input lag.

Aside from that, the Black Shark 3S…is practically identical to the Black Shark 3. Well, except for one more thing: it ships with the latest JoyUI 12 software, which adds screen mirroring capability to the device. This is done via the gaming phone’s USB-C port, and while this is only offered on the Black Shark 3S at the moment, we reckon the Black Shark 3 (as well as the Pro model) will also receive the JoyUI 12 update in the future.

Software aside, the Black Shark 3S is still powered by a fast Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset. It would’ve been great if this gaming phone was updated with the newer Snapdragon 865+ SoC – which offers 10% better CPU and GPU performances – but at least the regular Snapdragon 865 processor can still deliver a respectable level of performance.

A gaming smartphone has to deliver good battery life, and in this aspect, the Black Shark 3S wouldn’t disappoint. It comes with a generous 4,720mAh battery, which should be able to offer above average battery life. On top of that, the 65W fast charging support ensures that the battery can be charged up very quickly.

In the camera department, the Black Shark 3S features a familiar triple camera system. It’s made up of a 64MP f/1.8 primary shooter, a 13MP f/2.3 ultra-wide angle lens, and a 5MP f/2.2 depth sensor. Not a super impressive camera configuration, but this is expected from a gaming smartphone; camera performance isn’t exactly the main focus here.

Other specifications of the Black Shark 3S include a 20MP f/2.2 selfie camera, 12GB of RAM – an upgrade over the Black Shark 3’s 8GB RAM – up to 512GB of internal storage, an in-screen fingerprint sensor, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The Black Shark 3S is currently only available in China with a 3,999 Chinese yuan starting price, which comes up to about RM2,430. No word yet on the Malaysian availability of the gaming smartphone, but we’re optimistic it will eventually arrive here.

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