The Black Shark 2’s Ludicrous Mode promises the smoothest mobile gaming

Last year’s Black Shark gaming phone was a beast of a phone with monstrous specs, a unique design, and incredible gaming performance. Unfortunately, it had some weak points that meant we struggled to recommend it —–chief among them was some dodgy software.

But that has not stopped the Black Shark Company from having another crack at it. The Black Shark 2 is the result of its hard work and it is packing upgraded specs, a new and huge AMOLED display, and the all-new gaming-focused “Ludicrous Mode”. Here’s absolutely everything you need to know about the Black Shark 2 gaming phone.

Design and display

While companies like Samsung and Apple are working to make phones as sleek and stylish as possible, the Black Shark is a little different — and has accents that might help make it look like something gamers would want. The device has a 6.39-inch display on the front, with rounded corners and a small forehead and chin. More important, however, is perhaps what’s on the back — you get bright green accents, a dual-sensor camera, and a Black Shark logo.

The display isn’t necessarily the most impressive display out there, coming in at 1,080p, but the result will be an extended battery life, which might appeal more to gamers than a high-resolution display. The display is, however, built to be ultra-low latency — Black Shark says the latency on the device sits in at 43.5 milliseconds, which means it should remain highly responsive. It also supports HDR, and the phone even has SDR to HDR conversion algorithms for games that don’t support HDR natively.

Even cooler is the fact that the display is pressure sensitive. What that means is that you can map parts of the display to act as game controls when pressed down on, making for a more natural-feeling gaming experience.

Specs and battery

Key Specs

• CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
• Memory: 8/12GB
• Storage: 128/256GB
• MicroSD storage: None
• Screen size: 6.39 inches
• Resolution: 2,340 x 1,080
• Battery: 4,00mAh
• Size: 163.6 x 75 x 8.77 mm
• Weight: 205g (7.2oz)

Under the hood, the Black Shark 2 is no slouch. The device comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor, coupled with 8GB or 12GB of RAM, depending on the model you get. That should make it more than fast enough for most gaming situations, especially high-performance mobile gaming. There is plenty of storage for those games too — you will get either 128GB or 256GB, depending on the model that you get.

Perhaps most interesting about the phone, however, is that it has a so-called “Ludicrous Mode.” When activated, the device will use all processing power for the game being played, ensuring that the framerate remains as high as possible throughout gaming.

The battery on the phone is a relatively nice one, too. At 4,000mAh, the Black Shark 2 should easily last a solid day of normal use, even if you spend some time gaming each day. Sure, you won’t get 12 hours of solid gaming time, but for the average user that also likes to game, the phone should hold up. That battery can charge pretty quickly, too — the phone has a 27-watt fast charging mode, which Black Shark says will give the device 30 minutes of game time in five minutes of charging.

Software and special features

When it comes to software, the phone comes with an unspecified version of Android, but it’s the other software on the device that makes it really interesting. For example, users can connect the device to a display through an HDMI cable to turn the device into a gaming host. Then, you can see your game on the display, using the actual phone as only a controller. There are even physical controllers that you can attach to the device. Called Game Pad 3.0, the controllers make Black Shark 2 somewhat of a Nintendo Switch competitor.

Camera

While largely for gaming, the phone looks like it could be a solid choice for photography. The dual-sensor rear-facing camera offers one 48-megapixel sensor coupled with a 12-megapixel sensor. There’s also a 20-megapixel front-facing camera. While we’ll have to wait and see just how high-quality these cameras are, at least specs on paper are decent.

Price and release date

Interested in getting the Black Shark 2 gaming phone for yourself? Unfortunately, the phone is primarily for China. It’s now available in China starting at CNY 3,200, or around $480, for the base model with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, though for the higher performance model customers will need to pay CNY 4,200, which equates to around $625.

Updated on March 18, 2019: The Black Shark 2 has been announced.