Following the launch of its Black Shark gaming smartphone earlier this year, Xiaomi has announced a successor, the Black Shark Helo. The new device upgrades the LCD display of its predecessor with a 6″ HDR-ready AMOLED screen, a resolution of 2,160 × 1,080, an aspect ratio of 18:9 and 402 ppi.
Xiaomi’s Black Shark Helo gaming smartphone.
It runs Android 8.0, powered by a Snapdragon 845 chipset, with up to 256GB internal storage and up to 10GB of RAM. A 12+20MP dual-lens primary camera can shoot video in up to 2160p30 and HDR, while the 20MP internal camera sticks to 1080p30. It features a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, a fast-charging 4,000mAh battery, USB-C connectivity and Bluetooth 5.0.
The Black Shark Helo is available for preorder now, priced from 3,199 Chinese yuan (about $460), with handsets scheduled to ship from October 30th.
Meanwhile, DxOMark recently published the results of its in-depth analysis of the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 smartphone camera. The rear camera comes with a main 12MP wide-angle camera, featuring a 1/2.55″ image sensor, an f/1.8-aperture lens and optical image stabilisation. The secondary tele-camera is not optically stabilised, offering a roughly 2x zoom factor and a slightly slower f/2.4 aperture.
Xiaomi’s Mi Mix 3 smartphone impressed DxOMark.
“Achieving an overall score of 103 points, the Mi Mix 3 is an extremely capable device for smartphone photography,” DxOMark wrote. “It excels for still photos, with an excellent photo score of 108 points, putting it among the best devices we’ve tested. The handset’s key strengths for still photos are exceptional colour in all lighting conditions — but especially shooting outdoors — fast and accurate autofocus performance and outstanding flash pictures.”
As for video, the Mi Mix 3 scored 93 points. DxOMark concluded, “Video performance is very similar to the Mi 8’s, although improved stabilisation gives the Mi Mix 3 an advantage when shooting low-light movies. Combining electronic and optical stabilisation, the smartphone has reduced the number of blurry frames captured in low light and, while it’s still not perfect, it’s a welcome improvement.” (BR)
