Xiaomi's new Black Shark 4 Pro is a gaming powerhouse with a 144Hz screen, 120W charging

What you need to know

• Xiaomi's Black Shark sub-brand has announced two new flagship gaming phones.
• The new Black Shark 4 and Black Shark 4 Pro phones feature 144Hz AMOLED displays and a 4,500mAh battery with 120W fast charging.
• While the Black Shark 4 is powered by a Snapdragon 870 chipset, the Pro model features the more powerful Snapdragon 888.

Xiaomi's gaming arm Black Shark today unveiled the Black Shark 4 and Black Shark 4 Pro gaming phones at a virtual launch event. Both new phones promise a fantastic gaming experience, thanks to high-refresh-rate screens and a ton of gamer-focused features.

The Black Shark 4 Pro is the brand's answer to the ASUS ROG Phone 5 and the Nubia RedMagic 6 Pro, which are two of the best Android phones for gamers right now. It comes equipped with the Snapdragon 888 chipset and a two-layer liquid cooling system that Black Shark claims can lower the CPU temperature by up to 18°C (64.4°F). Around the back of the phone is a triple-camera setup with a 64MP main camera, an 8MP ultra-wide lens, and a 5MP sensor.

The vanilla Black Shark 4 runs on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 870 chipset and has a 48MP main camera on the back. Both phones sport a 6.67-inch Samsung E4 AMOLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate and an impressive 720Hz touch sampling rate. Keeping the lights on is a 4,500mAh battery with 120W charging. Black Shark says it takes less than 15 minutes for the phones to be fully charged.

They also include pressure-sensitive shoulder keys that pop in and out of the body, a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, and a 20MP selfie camera. On the software side of things, the Black Shark 4 Pro series runs JOYUI 12.5 based on Android 11.

Black Shark's latest gaming phones are now available to pre-order in China, but there's no word on global availability yet. The standard Black Shark 4 starts at 2,499 yuan ($385) for the 6GB/128GB version and goes up to 2,999 yuan ($460) for the 12GB/128GB version. Black Shark 4 Pro, on the other hand, is priced at 3,999 yuan ($615) for the 8GB/256GB version and 4,499 yuan ($690) for the 12GB/256GB version.