We finally have a date for the launch of the Xiaomi Black Shark 4 gaming smartphone. According to a launch teaser image, the handset will be launching in China on March 23 at an event slated for 3pm - that's about 7am GMT, 6pm ACT, 3am ET, or midnight PT.
This teaser image was posted on Chinese social media site Weibo by Black Shark, Xiaomi's gaming sub-brand, but it shares no other detail or even a look of the smartphone. Well, we can see a bright LED pattern on the back of the phone, but given the looks of previous Black Shark phones, this isn't exactly a surprise.
We've heard various leaks about the Xiaomi Black Shark 4 but nothing is confirmed, so all eyes will be on the launch event to see what the latest gaming phone of the year is like, and how it compares to the previous two.
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Black Shark 4: what to expect?
The Black Shark 4 gaming smartphone is set to take on the likes of Nubia Red Magic 6 and Asus ROG Phone 5, which both launched in March - it's been a busy month for mobile gaming fans. While we don't know much about the Black Shark 4, we can make a few guesses as to its specs, based on the Black Shark 3 as well as the specs of its rivals.
The Black Shark 4 will likely come with the newest Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset, in order to compete with the other two gaming phones. In terms of display, we expect it might feature a 144Hz display with a Full HD+ resolution. And the Pro variant might feature a Quad HD+ resolution.
The Black Shark 4 series is likely to be powered by a 4,500mAh battery and both variants will apparently support 120W fast charging. The top-end variants of both the Nubia Red Magic 6 series and the Asus ROG Phone 5 feature 18GB RAM, hence something on similar lines is expected with the Black Shark 4 series.
In terms of cameras, the Black Shark 4 is set to come with a triple-camera setup which was evident in photos posted by the Black Shark CEO. Interestingly, a rumor is going around that the Pro variant might feature a 108MP camera, but we were unable to find the source for this.
The leaked images of the smartphone showed that it does not look much like the gaming smartphones of the past, but rather like your average smartphone. It has no sharp angles, no big shapes, no LED lights, and no red or black color pattern, though the tiny phone in the teaser image contradicts this.
A closer look at the images seems to suggest that it comes with a side-mounted fingerprint scanner and two trigger buttons, but no Shark Space slider for automatically entering the gaming mode.
For now, this is all speculation. We'll have to wait until the Xiaomi Black Shark 4 launches to know for sure what it's like, and how it stacks up against its two big rivals.
