Black Shark 5 vs ROG Phone 5 line-up

Last March 31, Xiaomi launched the new generation of Black Shark gaming phones . The lineup comes with three handsets: Black Shark 5, Black Shark 5 RS and Black Shark 5 Pro. The highlight is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 platform and the storage split between UFS 3.1 and NVMe SSD.

Another fierce competitor in the gaming smartphone market is ASUS, which has the ROG Phone line. In the first quarter of 2021, the new generation was released internationally, jumping from number three to five.

The ROG Phone 5 series was made official with three handsets: ROG Phone 5, ROG Phone 5 Pro and ROG Phone 5 Ultimate. Later, the line gained two handsets: the ROG Phone 5s and ROG Phone 5s Pro.

All of these models became available in the country.

In this comparison, we will analyze the new Black Shark line with the ROG Phone 5, ROG Phone 5s and ROG Phone 5s Pro models, listing the main points of each one. We will be using the ROG Phone 5s and ROG Phone 5s Pro instead of their predecessors to see the improvements, while comparing to the Black Shark series.

Design

On screen, almost all devices have an AMOLED panel, with the exception of the Black Shark 5 Pro which has an OLED display, but this does not produce a relevant difference, ensuring good color fidelity and excellent image quality. In addition, they all have a refresh rate of 144 Hz, something indispensable in a gaming smartphone.

However, the ROG Phone 5 line has a 6.78-inch screen, while the Black Shark 5 has a 6.77-inch panel, making the ASUS series take a slight advantage in size.

This difference is also reflected in the dimensions of the ROG Phone 5, making the phone more robust and with a weight difference of only 20 grams.

Hardware

This is where things start to heat up. Before starting to cite processors, it is necessary to remember that the ROG Phone 5 came out in the first quarter of 2021, while the Black Shark 5 came out a year later.

We have two devices with the Snapdragon 888: the ROG Phone 5 and the Black Shark 5 RS, while the ROG Phone 5s and 5s Pro use the Snapdragon 888 Plus. In the standard version, Xiaomi opted to use the Snapdragon 870, which may disappoint some, but it made up for it by putting Qualcomm’s latest platform, the 8 Gen 1, in the Black Shark 5 Pro.

What stands out in the Black Shark 5 line is the division of the traditional UFS 3.1 storage with NVMe SSD, present in the Pro and RS versions, promising greater speed in games and tasks. In RAM, we have ROG Phone 5s Pro with 18GB, more than double that of any standard variant of the Black Shark 5.

On battery, ASUS didn’t skimp and put a 6,000 mAh battery unit, while Xiaomi was more economical and opted for a 4,650 mAh module in the standard and Pro version, while the RS comes with an even smaller 4,500 mAh.

The Chinese manufacturer tries to compensate for this by putting support for 120W fast charging and promises that the Black Shark 5 goes from 0 to 100% in just 15 minutes.

Cameras

In cameras, all models have triple modules on the back. While almost all ROG Phone 5 and Black Shark phones have a 64 MP main sensor, the Pro version of Xiaomi’s gamer line has a 108 MP sensor, being the highlight.

However, ROG Phone 5 has a front module with more pixels, in all its versions. In video recording, it supports 8K and 30 fps, while Black Shark 5 uses 4K resolution and 60 fps.

Conclusion

The Black Shark 5 line stands out for having storage divided between UFS 3.1 and NVMe SSD, which will bring greater speed and better performance for games, but slips in saving on battery. In addition, the decision to use the Snapdragon 870 in the standard version may disappoint some, but the Chinese manufacturer tries to make up for the loss by using the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in the most powerful version.

ROG Phone 5 series has bigger screen, better front camera, excellent chipset in all versions and variants with higher RAM memory. In storage, it has robust options, but only with UFS 3.1.

Black Shark 5 vs ROG Phone 5 specs:

Black Shark 5 RS vs ROG Phone 5s specs:

Black Shark 5 Pro vs ROG Phone 5s Pro specs: