Xiaomi Black Shark Helo announced with new design and 10GB of RAM

The Xiaomi Black Shark Helo is the newest gaming smartphone from the company, and the successor to the Xiami Black Shark which was released just six months ago. Fortunately, the new smartphone brings some important new features worthy of an upgrade.

Design

The uneven design of the original device has been replaced with a more sleeker look, which fits more comfortably in the hand. You still have an aluminum frame, but the back of the device is now made out of a patterned glass.

On the front Black Shark Helo features a 6-inch AMOLED display with a 2160 x 1080 pixel resolution. On either side of the display you have front facing speakers with a 20MP camera on top for selfies and video calls. The physical button on the bottom has been removed this time around.

The fingerprint scanner has been relocated to the back of the device and sits below the dual-LED flash and dual (12MP+20MP) rear camera setup. You also have the Black Shark brand logo on the center on the rear with LED lighting beneath it.

The manufacturer has also included two more LED strips along the smartphone’s frame.

Hardware

The Black Shark Helo still packs the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset, like most other 2018 flagships. Customers will now have three device configurations they can choose from:

• 6GB of RAM with 128GB of storage
• 8GB of RAM with 128GB of storage
• 10GB of RAM with 256GB of storage

The latter is known as the Black Shark Helo - Sports Edition, and is the world's first smartphone to feature 10GB of RAM.

The handset comes with a dual pipe liquid-cooling system that should keep your device running smoothly on the most graphics intensive mobile games. You also get a slider that activates 'Shark Space' game mode.

Other hardware features include a 4000mAh battery with fast charging support, 4G LTE connectivity and Bluetooth 5.0

Software

This Android powered smartphone runs MIUI 10 on the software side, with a special 'Shark Space' game mode we mentioned before. When Shark Space is activated, the game silences incoming notifications and reduces background tasks so that the game you are playing gets all the power it needs.

Release and Availability

Like its predecessor, the Black Shark Helo is only available to consumers in China. However, the global website is teasing the availability of the handset indicating that we may see a global release in the near future.

• 6GB of RAM with 128GB of storage - ¥ 3199 [around $461]
• 8GB of RAM with 128GB of storage - ¥ 3499 [around $504]
• 10GB of RAM with 256GB of storage - ¥ 4199 [around $605]

You can pre-order the 6GB and 8GB variants right now, while the 10GB model isn't expected to arrive until December 12.