Black Shark 2 Pro is here with Snapdragon 855+ and 12GB RAM

Apart from a few minor upgrades, the new Black Shark 2 Pro is very similar to its predecessor.

What you need to know

• Black Shark 2 Pro is a minor upgrade over the Black Shark 2 launch earlier this year.
• The smartphone runs on the latest Snapdragon 855 Plus and upgraded UFS 3.0 storage for improved performance.
• It will go on sale in China on August 2 for a starting price of $435.

Xiaomi had launched the Black Shark 2 gaming smartphone in March this year, powered by a Snapdragon 855 chipset and an impressive pressure-sensitive AMOLED display. The company today announced the Black Shark 2 Pro, a beefed-up version of the Black Shark 2 with Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 855 Plus chipset inside.

Black Shark 2 Pro is only the second Android smartphone to have a Snapdragon 855 Plus running under its hood. The world's first smartphone with a Snapdragon 855 Plus chipset was announced last week, the ASUS ROG Phone 2. In addition to the faster processor, the new Black Shark 2 Pro has UFS 3.0 storage as well, which should translate to faster load times. It also comes standard with 12GB of RAM.

When it comes to design, Black Shark claims to have improved the grip and added two more RGB LED lights to the back of the phone. The Black Shark 2 Pro has a similar 6.39-inch AMOLED display as the Black Shark 2 but offers lower 34.7ms touch latency. In the camera department, the gaming smartphone has an upgraded 48MP + 13MP dual camera setup on the back. On paper, the latest Black Shark smartphone is certainly very impressive and could prove to be a formidable rival to the ROG Phone 2. We expect to get our hands on one very soon, so you will not have to wait very long for the full review.

The Black Shark 2 Pro will be available in China starting August 2 in 128GB and 256GB storage variants. Consumers in the country will have to shell out 2,999 yuan ($435) for the 128GB variant and 3,999 yuan ($581) for thee 256GB variant. Since the Black Shark 2 made its way to the Indian market a few weeks after its debut in China, we can expect the new Black Shark 2 Pro to launch in India sometime before the end of the third quarter.