Xiaomi-Backed Black Shark Gaming Phone Set to Be Launched on April 13

Xiaomi-backed Black Shark is all set to debut a gaming smartphone next week. An official invite has confirmed that the gaming smartphone, which is rumoured to take on Razer Phone, is launching in Beijing, China, on April 13. The invite sports a Mi logo to confirm that Black Shark is supported by Xiaomi. It is still expected that handset will not come with Xiaomi's branding as it will target at developed markets where it isn't easy to pronounce and spell the word "Xiaomi".

The invite that has surfaced on Weibo doesn't show the design of the Black Shark phone. However, it highlights the name of the Black Shark brand alongside confirming the launch schedule. The invite also features Xiaomi's Mi logo. Notably, the Beijing-based company reportedly made an undisclosed investment in Black Shark to start bringing new gaming devices. This has been confirmed by the presence of Mi logo on the Black Shark launch invite.

Photo Credit: Black Shark/ Weibo

Last week, an official Black Shark account on Weibo posted a teaser that points to the availability of a Snapdragon 845 SoC on the upcoming smartphone. An AnTuTu listing confirmed that the Black Shark phone will come with a full-HD+ (1080x2160 pixels) display with an 18:9 aspect ratio and 32GB of onboard storage. Similarly, a listing on Geekbench highlighted that the new handset will run Android 8.0 Oreo and include 8GB of RAM. All these specifications make the Black Shark a close competitor against the Razer Phone, though it is not likely to be as expensive as the Razer Phone as Xiaomi has so far maintained a record of launching low-margin devices.