A few years ago, ASUS and Lenovo unveiled their gaming smartphones powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 Plus chipset. Around the same time, Xiaomi’s gaming sub-brand Black Shark introduced an upgraded version of the Black Shark 3, called the Black Shark 3S. The Black Shark 3S was officially launched in July 2020 and was designed as an upgraded gaming phone for that period.
The Black Shark 3S brought several improvements, including a higher refresh rate display and faster UFS 3.1 storage. However, unlike some competitors at the time, it continued to use the Snapdragon 865 processor, which was a flagship chipset in 2020 but not as powerful as the newer Snapdragon 865 Plus.
Snapdragon 865 Plus was essentially an overclocked version of the Snapdragon 865 and offered slightly better gaming performance. Despite this, the Snapdragon 865 still delivered flagship-level gaming performance at the time of its release in 2020.
Let’s take a closer look at the Black Shark 3S specifications.
Black Shark 3S Specifications
The biggest upgrade in the Black Shark 3S was its display. The smartphone featured a 6.67-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display with a resolution of 2400 × 1080 pixels. It supported a 120Hz refresh rate and HDR10+, which was considered high-end for gaming smartphones in 2020.
The display offered a typical brightness of 500 nits and supported the DCI-P3 color gamut.
The screen also included pressure-sensitive zones, allowing users to assign custom controls for gaming. These zones enabled gamers to perform actions more quickly without touching on-screen buttons. The phone also included Shark Space gaming tools with customizable controls and gaming features.
The Black Shark 3S was powered by the Snapdragon 865 processor, paired with Adreno 650 GPU, and 12GB of RAM. It launched with JoyUI 12 based on Android 10 and later received an update to Android 11.
Camera
In the camera section, the device has a triple camera setup. That comprises a primary 64MP camera, a 13MP ultra-wide-angle camera and a 5MP depth sensor. Moreover, the rear camera supports 4K video recording at up to 60 FPS. On the front, you get 20 megapixels and a front-facing shooter.
Battery and Charging
The device included a 4720mAh battery with support for 65W fast charging. Black Shark claimed the phone could charge from 0 to 100% in approximately 38 minutes under ideal testing conditions.
However, the Black Shark 3S does NOT support wireless charging, unlike some other flagship smartphones. For security, the phone featured an in-display fingerprint scanner.
3S price and Availability
At launch, the Black Shark 3S was available in two storage variants:
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12GB RAM + 128GB storage: CNY 3,999 (approximately $570 at the 2020 exchange rate)
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12GB RAM + 256GB storage: CNY 4,299 (approximately $615 at the 2020 exchange rate)
The phone went on sale in China in July 2020. It is now discontinued and no longer available for new purchase in most markets.
