Xiaomi Black Shark 2 might go global

Sharks are coming, the black kind even. And they’re coming to take a bite out of the rather small pie known as the gaming smartphone market. Xiaomi-backed Black Shark launched a gaming smartphone not so long ago but was easily upstaged by the ASUS ROG Phone and even the older Razer Phone. Part of that may have been its limited availability. That might change soon if this new global landing page means that the Black Shark phone, or even the Black Shark 2, will be available worldwide soon.

The Black Shark is one of those phones that may have been better in leaks than in reality. Following closely after the Razer Phone’s mild success, there were rumors that the Xiaomi-funded brand would do a Nintendo and give the smartphone detachable Bluetooth controllers.

It was only half true in that it did get just a “Joy-con” but only one of them, which you attached to the top of the Black Shark phone. Why it decided on that unbalanced design, it didn’t say. And it never mattered to the rest of the world since the phone was available only in China anyway.

But now there’s a global placeholder website for Black Shark and an offer to be updated when the phone becomes available globally. Given the launch of the Razer Phone 2 and the coming availability of the ASUS ROG Phone, that might seem almost doomed to be forgotten.

But the even bigger question is which Black Shark will launch worldwide. There are already rumors of a Black Shark 2 follow-up that makes a few minor tweaks to the design, like moving the fingerprint scanner to the back to make room for more screen. If that’s all that Xiaomi will have to offer, it might be game over even before it started.