The Xiaomi Black Shark Helo is a another gaming smartphone, which is an addition in the Black Shark gaming series. Just like its predecessor, this new phone is aimed to impress with powerful internals and many decent features, all at a competitive price. Let me show you some important information of the Xiaomi Black Shark Helo, such as its full specification, features, price and availability.
Xiaomi Black Shark Helo Feaures
The main difference between the two generations of Black Shark gaming smartpones is the screen. The Xiaomi Black Shark Helo ditches the former LCD panel for an AMOLED display, though it is a notch-less 6.01 inch in diagonal with Full HD+ (1080 x 2160) resolution.
Also read: Xiaomi Black Shark Specifications, Features, Price and Availability
The Xiaomi Black Shark Helo is powered by a Snapdragon 845 chipset paired with a 6GB or 8GB of RAM (depending on the option you bought), while the internal storage remains constant at 128GB. However, we are expecting a third premium option, which boasts of a massive 10GB RAM and 256GB internal storage. Though there is no information about microSD support yet.
The camera department of the Xiaomi Black Shark Helo is quite impressive though. It boasts of a 12MP + 20MP camera combo, with the main 12MP sensor sitting behind a fast f/1.75 lens and featuring a big 1.25um pixels. The selfie shooter delivers 20MP resolution and f/2.2 aperture.
Also read: Oppo R15x Specification, Features, Price and Release Date
Moving to the battery, the Xiaomi Black Shark Helo is powered by a 4000mAh battery, with Quick Charge 3.0 standard support, but we are not sure of the software version for now. Though we are guessing it would be Android 8.1 Oreo, running out-of-the-box with Xiaomi’s MIUI 10 on top.
Now, let us move to the main reason the phone was built, which is the gaming experience.
Gaming Experience With The Xiaomi Black Shark Helo
Xiaomi has got users covered on that aspect by introducing better accessories than last year. The 6GB and 8GB version of the Xiaomi Black Shark Helo ships with one analog stick attachment while the 10GB model will come along with two controllers – one for each side of the phone. There’s also a hardware button that puts the phone into gaming mode on the fly.
The Gamer Studio app lets you tweak the CPU, display, network, etc., so you can create different gaming profiles for each game. These profiles can even be shared via the “Shark Code” feature.
That is not all, the Xiaomi Black Shark Helo has a front-facing stereo speakers, RGB LED-illuminated back logo and side strips, vapour chamber for cooling and HDR 10-compliant screen. A dedicated mobile chip by Pixelworks helps converting SDR content to HDR in real-time much like the recently announced Nokia 7.1. Unfortunately, the headphone jack is missing from the equation, which is a rather odd decision to make when creating a gaming-centric smartphone.
Xiaomi Black Shark Helo Specification
NETWORK | |
| Technology | GSM / CDMA / HSPA / EVDO / LTE |
| 2G bands | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 – SIM 1 & SIM 2 |
| CDMA 800 & TD-SCDMA | |
| 3G bands | HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 |
| CDMA2000 1xEV-DO | |
| 4G bands | LTE band 1(2100), 3(1800), 4(1700/2100), 5(850), 7(2600), 8(900), 20(800), 34(2000), 38(2600), 39(1900), 40(2300), 41(2500) |
| Speed | HSPA, LTE-A (3CA) |
| GPRS | Yes |
| EDGE | Yes |
LAUNCH | |
| Announced | 2018, October |
| Status | Coming soon. Exp. release 2018, November 10 |
BODY | |
| Dimensions | 160 x 75.2 x 8.7 mm (6.30 x 2.96 x 0.34 in) |
| Weight | 190 g (6.70 oz) |
| SIM | Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by) |
DISPLAY | |
| Type | AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors |
| Size | 6.01 inches, 93.2 cm2 (~77.5% screen-to-body ratio) |
| Resolution | 1080 x 2160 pixels, 18:9 ratio (~402 ppi density) |
| Multitouch | Yes |
| – 100% DCI-P3 coverage | |
PLATFORM | |
| OS | Android 8.0 (Oreo) |
| Chipset | Qualcomm SDM845 Snapdragon 845 (10 nm) |
| CPU | Octa-core (4×2.8 GHz Kryo 385 Gold & 4×1.8 GHz Kryo 385 Silver) |
| GPU | Adreno 630 |
MEMORY | |
| Card slot | No |
| Internal | 256 GB, 10 GB RAM, 128 GB, 6/8 GB RAM |
MAIN CAMERA | |
| Dual | 12 MP, f/1.8, 1.25µm, dual pixel PDAF 20 MP, f/1.8, 1.0µm, AF, 2x optical zoom |
| Features | Dual-LED dual-tone flash, HDR, panorama |
| Video | 2160p@30fps, 1080p@30fps, 720p@120fps |
SELFIE CAMERA | |
| Single | 20 MP, f/2.2, 1.0µm |
| Video | 1080p@30fps |
SOUND | |
| Alert types | Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones |
| Loudspeaker | Yes, with stereo speakers |
| 3.5mm jack | No |
| – Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic – Type-C to 3.5 mm headphone jack adapter | |
COMMS | |
| WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, WiFi Direct, hotspot |
| Bluetooth | 5.0, A2DP, aptX HD, LE |
| GPS | Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS |
| Radio | No |
| USB | 2.0, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector |
FEATURES | |
| Sensors | Fingerprint (rear-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass |
| Messaging | SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM |
| Browser | HTML5 |
| – Fast battery charging 9V/2A 18W (Quick Charge 3.0) – XviD/MP4/H.265 player – MP3/WAV/eAAC+/Flac player – Photo/video editor – Document viewer | |
BATTERY | |
| Non-removable Li-Ion 4000 mAh battery | |
MISC | |
| Colours | Black |
| Price | About 450 EUR |
Xiaomi Black Shark Helo Price and Availability
The Xiaomi Black Shark Helo price in China cost CNY3,199 for the 6GB version, which is about $460 in the United States. The 8GB version cost CNY3,499 (approximately $505). The Xiaomi Black Shark Helo 6GB and 8GB option will be available only in China starting from November 10. The price and availability of the premium 10GB RAM + 256GB storage version is yet to be confirmed.
