On April 13, 2018, the first generation of Black Shark gaming phone was released. For the mobile phone market at that time, people did not pay too much attention to this new category. After all, mobile games were just a simple “entertainment” in people’s eyes. Time came to 2020. Thanks to the booming mobile game industry, gaming phones have finally entered the mainstream market. Affected by the epidemic, all walks of life have been hit, and home isolation seems to have indirectly promoted the development of the mobile game industry.
In July, many manufacturers announced that their new gaming phones will be available soon, and the competition is unprecedentedly fierce. As the industry leader, Black Shark also promptly launched the Black Shark Gaming Phone 3S, a new upgraded version. Before the product was released, we were fortunate to interview Li Xin, the software director of Black Shark Technology, who explained to us the “gains and losses” of the Black Shark Gaming Phone 3S.
Looking at the mobile phone market in 2020, high refresh rate screens are a compulsory course that all brands cannot avoid. But compared to the flagship phones that are turning painful, gaming phones undoubtedly have higher requirements for high refresh rates and more perfect optimization. This time, the Black Shark gaming phone 3S adopts a 120Hz solution. The top screen from Samsung has a great display effect, making Black Shark the only gaming phone that uses a Samsung AMOLED screen. From a numerical point of view, there are now 144Hz products. Black Shark did not “hurry for quick success and instant benefits”, but conservatively chose 120Hz. When talking about the reasons, Li Xin said: The refresh rate of the screen cannot be separated from the game, and must be combined with our current game content.
First of all, Li Xin believes that the mainstream frame rate of mobile games on the market today is still between 90-120Hz, and 144Hz is a bit “overkill.” “Software and hardware integration” is a key point that Li Xin has emphasized many times. He believes that only when matching hardware and software work together can the best performance be achieved and the best experience be brought to users.
In addition to the hardware support for high frame rates, the Black Shark 3S also brings a 270Hz touch sampling rate and a single-finger response speed of 17ms. Compared with the previous generation, our single-finger response speed has increased by 30% and the in-game response speed has also increased by 17.5%. Refresh rate and sampling rate are a pair of good brothers, and both are indispensable for a smooth touch experience.
Not only that, in response to the “uneven” game frame rates on the market, Black Shark has also added game frame rate synchronization technology to match the screen refresh rate with the actual game frame rate. Li Xin gave an example: “In the current game market, the frame rate modes of different games are not the same. First, when you play a game that supports 90Hz, still turning on the 120Hz refresh rate will increase the power consumption of the phone. Second, if the frame rate of some games cannot be better synchronized with the refresh rate of the mobile phone screen, it will make your screen feel torn. Third, we are not just pursuing a high refresh rate. Black Shark always insists on bringing the best picture performance to players. This is why we insist on choosing Samsung AMOLED screens. With the support of the diamond pixel arrangement solution, its picture quality performance is indeed better than other products.” It is also through the above three considerations that Black Shark believes that the 120Hz Samsung AMOLED screen is more suitable for the current game content environment and can bring users the best gaming experience.
In addition to the screen, another major upgrade of the Black Shark Gaming Phone 3S is JOYUI 12. As a “brother” of MIUI, JOYUI 12 focuses on optimizing the gaming experience while inheriting the former’s improvements in UI, interaction, privacy, etc. Among them, functions such as gyroscope, game macro, bullet screen notification, front light effect, etc. are all key points.
Among the many new features, Li Xin has a special liking for “game macros”. Speaking of “macro”, I believe that old players of “World of Warcraft” are no strangers. This function that can free your hands and play freely has finally come to mobile phones. Li Xin frankly said that the addition of this function to the Black Shark gaming phone 3S is actually based on the calls of the majority of players.
When talking about whether “game macros” will affect the fairness of the game, Li Xin said that they have taken this aspect into consideration. Li Xin said that when developing this function, they made a relatively good balance between the fairness of the game and the playability and operability, and also communicated with many game studios. For games like SLG, developers are particularly welcome to game macros and have made many suggestions; for games with strong competition, they will choose to turn off this function for the fairness of the game. What is more practical is that the “game macro” function of the Black Shark Gaming Phone 3S can be implemented independently without the need for adaptation with game manufacturers.
In addition, JOYUI12 has also added a “hunting mode” for “Battle Royale” games such as “Peace Elite”. Simply put, it can make it easier to find hidden enemies on the game screen without affecting the gameplay by adjusting the contrast, saturation, and hue through the independent display chip of the fuselage. Li Xin also added that there is feedback from internal test users that with this mode, the probability of finding Voldemort in the final circle has increased by more than 50%.
We are all familiar with screen pressure sensing technology. This time, the Black Shark Gaming Phone 3S has upgraded it to “4.0”, which is a huge improvement. The first is the full pressure sensing of the left and right half of the screen. Li Xin admitted that Black Shark used to put the pressure sensing area on the relatively central edge, because it was afraid of making mistakes, so the pressure sensing function was not open. However, this generation of pressure sensing has made great improvements in technology, so it has comprehensive pressure sensing.
The benefits of this are obvious, that is, the tolerance and freedom of operation will be higher. Compared with Apple, Li Xin feels that in terms of experience and pressure sensitivity, the two are consistent in capabilities, but in terms of functions, they have surpassed Apple in all aspects. For players, full-screen pressure sensing undoubtedly provides support for the realization of “magic operations”. Moreover, this function also does not require special adaptation, and the rate of use and application are relatively high.
Smartphones are called smartphones because they can sense our behavior and make corresponding judgments. We are all familiar with gyroscopes. How to further develop its potential? Black Shark has brought the function of custom sensitivity adjustment this time. Black Shark Gaming Phone 3S has two main improvements for the gyroscope. The first is the improvement of sensitivity. Users can adjust this parameter according to different needs to achieve the most suitable feel.
The second is somatosensory control. In addition to finger and screen pressure, the gyroscope can also sense your operation and map it to the game operation, bringing a more comprehensive control experience. Li Xin believes that after the addition of the somatosensory control function, the user’s professional control has been greatly improved. “It is equivalent to adding another dimension. Users can use four fingers, six fingers, or eight fingers. At the same time, our multi-dimensional control system can also greatly enhance the player’s sense of immersion in the game,” Li Xin added.
This time, Black Shark has not only made a breakthrough in the integration of software and hardware, but is also actively looking for new linkages with game content providers. At the press conference, Black Shark officially announced that Black Shark 3S will become the first model in Tencent Games’ “100 million yuan subsidy plan” and will cooperate with the popular mobile game “Dungeon & Fighter” to provide players with 300 yuan cash subsidy benefits. I believe that many Black Shark fans who love games will feel the sincerity of Black Shark.
The combination of software and hardware is a point that Li Xin repeatedly mentioned during the interview. As a professional gaming phone, the improvement of Black Shark Gaming Phone 3S is far more than a simple “S”. Simply piling up hardware is meaningless. Only the combination of software and hardware can bring out the greatest advantages and provide users with the best experience.
