Xiaomi’s Black Shark 3 Pro has pop-up shoulder buttons

You could make an argument that pretty much every phone in existence is a gaming phone, but the goal of gaming gaming phones is to make them as near-indistinguishable from dedicated handheld consoles as possible. Which brings us to the Black Shark 3 Pro, a phone that features customisable pop-up triggers, keeping your digits away from the screen. As you’d expect, it’s far from a looker in the traditional sense, but on-the-go gamer gamers won’t care. They’ll be more interested in the stonking 7.1in AMOLED 2K display, 90Hz refresh rate, liquid cooling system, 5G antenna, and the Snapdragon 865 under the hood. You also get a surprisingly meaty triple camera setup, consisting of a 64MP main camera, a 13MP ultra-wide snapper, and a 5MP camera for bokeh. Theres’s a night mode too. The 5,000mAh battery can purportedly be half-charged in just 12 minutes, and there’s even a 3.5mm jack for your equally chunk wired gaming cans. If you’re happy to swap proper shoulder buttons for capacitive ones, the display for a 6.67in FHD+ panel, and the big battery for a smaller 4,720mAh cell, you can instead opt for a non-Pro Black Shark 3. That is, if and when both phones arrive from China.

Matt Tate Contributor

About

I'm fascinated by all things tech, but if you were going to leave me on a desert island, I'd probably ask for my Nintendo Switch, a drone, and a pair of noise-cancelling cans to block out the relentless seagull racket. When I'm not on Stuff duty you'll probably find me subscribing to too many podcasts, playing too many video games, or telling anyone who will listen that Spurs are going to win a trophy this season.

Areas of expertise

Video games, VR, smartwatches, headphones, smart speakers, bizarre Kickstarter campaigns