Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro

What Are the Pros and Cons of the Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro?

Pros

• Gaming-focused: physical pop-up gaming triggers, and an OLED display, 6.67 inches, with a 144Hz refresh rate, HDR10+ support, and 1080 x 2400 resolution at 395 ppi density.
• Flagship performance for its time: the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (4 nm) chipset with up to 16GB of RAM, with very fast storage: UFS 3.1/NVMe SSD.
• Very fast charging: a 4650mAh battery with 120W charging. And a triple camera system: a 108MP main camera with an f/1.8 aperture, a 13MP ultrawide, and a 5MP telephoto macro.
• Strong audio: stereo speakers with 24-bit/192kHz Hi-Res audio and Snapdragon Sound support, plus NFC, a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, and video output over USB.

Cons

• There is no optical image stabilization: the main camera relies on PDAF and EIS only, with no OIS, and the secondary macro camera is more decorative than functional.
• It is heavy and thick: 220g and 9.5mm, expected for a gaming phone but less comfortable for daily use. There is also no memory card slot, no 3.5mm headphone jack, and no FM radio.
• The USB port is a dated version: USB Type-C 2.0. And the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 was known for heat and power-efficiency issues in 2022. The software is also relatively old: it runs Android 12 with the Joy UI 13 interface, and Black Shark did not promise a long update policy.