Xiaomi-backed Black Shark has unveiled a new iteration of its popular gaming phone, the Black Shark 3S, in China today. This is a successor to the Black Shark 3, which was unveiled in March earlier this year. Black Shark 3S sticks with the Snapdragon 865 but upgrades the display, game engine, and other things to refine the gaming experience.
The design of the Black Shark 3S is the same as its predecessor. You can see the same triangular triple camera array and magnetic charger pins on the rear. It comes in two new colorways, namely Skyfall Black and Crystal Blue.
Under the hood, the Black Shark 3S is still powered by the Snapdragon 865 chipset instead of the overclocked 865+ chipset. We expected this to be one of the major new upgrades but it doesn’t seem to be the case here. The chipset is coupled with 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and up to 512GB UFS 3.1 storage (a minor upgrade over UFS 3.0 type storage aboard its predecessor).
Black Shark 3S comes in three configurations – all with 12GB RAM but different built-in storage. The 12GB+128GB variant is priced at 3,999 yuan (~Rs. 42,899) whereas the 12GB+256GB variant is priced at 4,299 yuan (~Rs. 46,125). You will, however, have to shell out 4,799 yuan (~Rs. 51,500) for the highest-end 12GB+512GB variant.
The company also announced a bunch of new accessories for the Black Shark 3S. This includes the CN¥79 snap-on shoulder buttons, CN¥238 Gamepad, and CN¥29 finger sleeves. This phone will take on the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel and ROG Phone 3 in the gaming phone niche.
