I just finished testing the Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro – more precisely, I finished gaming non-stop, which I think is acceptable considering it’s a gaming phone – and it was a tough job to get rid of.
The phone is great for gaming, with a powerful processor and good looking screen, but my favorite aspect is the physical triggers, which you can set for in-game functions. This means that when you press these edge-mounted buttons, the phone thinks you’re pressing a specific area of the screen, so in a shooting game you can assign one to the shooting button and the other to the shooting button, making it faster to tap both.
In fact, the Black Shark 5 players were very useful, and I felt like I had an unfair advantage while playing competitive online titles, such as the recently launched Apex Legends Mobile.
Phone players
Physical triggers aren’t entirely new to Android phones, and for a few years now, gaming mobiles like the Lenovo Legion Phone Duel and Nubia Red Magic 6 have featured haptics — meaning that the pressure of your finger is captured when you tap a spot on the edge of the device.
The Black Shark 5 Pro has the best version of this I’ve tried though (I should point out that the Black Shark 4 Pro and Poco F4 GT also use it, but I haven’t tested them).
The triggers actually pop, which means you get a satisfying ‘click’ when you press on them – meaning you know exactly how much force to use to squeeze them, and you know when the touch was picked up. It’s the closest feeling I’ve had to using a game console when testing the phone.
But that’s the problem – I’m the only one using these triggers.
display unit
The world of mobile gaming is incredibly diverse in terms of hardware. Play in a team alongside people with a high-end Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, or Motorola’s budget phone, and you’ll never know.
For the most part, game developers cater to this discrepancy and make titles as accessible as possible, so having a poor mobile phone is not a hindrance. But still, screen quality and refresh rate can make a difference – and for players, this is especially true.
It’s hard to deny that triggers give you an edge when you play online shooting games. Since you generally use the same thumbs to move, to shoot and to attack someone, you need to stop your movement, move your thumb, find and press the fire button. This can be a time consuming process. You can move and shoot, but it’s hard.
The stimuli interrupted this process. Just keep your index finger on the phone frame, and when you need to shoot, press your number a little; It is very easy.
While your opponent spends time reaching for the “shoot” button, your finger is already taking your finger off him after you blast him.
Apex Legends launched at a bad time…
I’ve been looking forward to Apex Legends Mobile for a while, but its launch came around the same time the Black Shark 5 Pro showed up at my door – and I just described how much feature this phone gave me.
Black Shark made it very easy to deal with frenetic battles, when a lot of different teams converge on the same point at once. I didn’t have to play tactically like everyone else, because the improved response times made me a killer.
After checking my stats now, my average damage per match is over 2000, while my KD is over 35; In the nine matches I’ve played, I’ve won seven of them.
And I have to make it clear that I’m not bragging – I’m just average at games most of the time. But these devices have given me such an advantage that they have raised me from “indistinguishable from a bot” to “a normal best player”.
Is this cheating? Well, that depends on your definition – I don’t literally hack the game, as many people do on online shooters, but I use tools that not every player has access to.
Fortunately, I don’t need to sit in this moral quandary for long – I’m already testing another phone without drivers – but it’s definitely something to consider if you’re thinking of buying a Black Shark or a similar device.
#phone #good #gaming #feel #cheating