Blackview Shark 9 Price, Specs, Features and Best Deals

The Blackview Shark 9 is an affordable Android phone that succeeds the Shark 8 with impressive upgrades. It comes with a slimmer design, a 6.67-inch display with a 90Hz refresh rate, and a triple rear camera led by a 50 MP wide camera. This affordable smartphone is powered by a Unisoc T820 chipset, with a solid 5000 mAh battery and the latest DokeOS 4.0 based on Android 14.

Design

The Blackview Shark 9 features a design that, while not groundbreaking, stands out for its simplicity and practicality, making it a solid option in the budget category. Measuring 164.8 x 75.6 x 8.7 mm and weighing 200g, it offers a slim and lightweight feel, despite being built with durability in mind.

The polycarbonate plastic body is robust enough for everyday use, reflecting Blackview’s expertise in rugged smartphones. It comes in two attractive color options, Starry Rock Black and Azure Wave Blue, catering to different style preferences.

The front features a 6.67-inch IPS LCD display with a 720 x 1604 resolution and a 90Hz refresh rate, ensuring a smooth touch experience. The slim bezels and punch-hole design for the front camera add to the modern look, though the slightly thicker bottom bezel stands out. The display offers an 86.1% screen-to-body ratio, providing a decent viewing area.

On the rear, the square camera module is positioned on the left and houses three cameras, with an LED flash for extra lighting. The module’s metal finish and glossy design contrast with the otherwise matte back, giving the Blackview phone a touch of elegance.

Additionally, the phone’s power button, which doubles as the fingerprint sensor, sits conveniently on the right alongside the volume button, while the SIM/MicroSD slot sits on the left side. The 3.5mm headphone jack and USB Type-C port are located at the bottom, ensuring compatibility with various accessories.

Display

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The Blackview Shark 9 comes with a 6.67-inch IPS LCD display, which is a solid choice for a budget smartphone. While it doesn’t push high-end specifications, the display still offers a decent viewing experience.

Additionally, the display sports a 720 x 1604 resolution with a 20:9 aspect ratio, which results in 264 ppi density, offering a decent display for everyday tasks.

The 720 x 1604 resolution provides clear visuals, though it won’t deliver the sharpness of higher-resolution screens, especially for more detailed content like HD videos or intricate images. However, for everyday tasks like browsing, social media, and watching standard content, the resolution is more than sufficient.

One of the standout features of the display is the 90Hz refresh rate. This makes interactions, scrolling, and gaming feel smoother compared to standard 60Hz displays.

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Whether you’re flicking through apps or navigating the interface, the increased refresh rate helps reduce motion blur and provides a more responsive experience. It’s a nice touch in the budget segment, where displays with higher refresh rates are usually found only in pricier devices.

The slim bezels around the screen contribute to a modern, edge-to-edge look, but the slightly thicker bottom bezel might be noticeable if you’re used to more premium designs. The punch-hole camera cutout at the top is centered and doesn’t distract much from the content, maintaining a clean, uninterrupted display area. With an 86.1% screen-to-body ratio, the Shark 9 provides a good balance of screen size without making the phone feel too large or unwieldy.

While it’s not a display designed for vibrant, high-contrast color accuracy like OLED screens, the IPS LCD panel still offers decent color reproduction and viewing angles. It holds up well in everyday lighting conditions, though under direct sunlight, the brightness might struggle a bit, and reflections could affect visibility.

Camera

The Blackview Shark 9 features a well-rounded camera system designed to handle various shooting scenarios.

The 50 MP wide camera is the standout of the setup, delivering high-resolution photos with sharp details and vibrant colors, making it great for everyday shots and landscapes.  The camera uses 4-in-1 pixel binning technology to combine four adjacent pixels into one larger pixel, resulting in a final image with a 12.5-megapixel resolution. This technique can help to reduce image noise and improve image quality, particularly in low-light conditions.

The camera also incorporates PDAF (Phase Detection Autofocus), which helps with fast and accurate focusing, particularly in dynamic environments or when capturing moving subjects.

For close-up photography, the 2 MP macro lens allows you to capture intricate details from a short distance, while the 2 MP depth sensor helps capture portrait shots with bokeh effects, where the subject is in focus and the background is blurred. This can create a professional-looking effect that can make portraits more visually appealing.

The rear camera system is further enhanced by useful features such as LED flash for low-light conditions, HDR to improve dynamic range and highlight detail in high-contrast scenes, and the panorama mode, which is perfect for capturing wide landscapes or large groups with smooth stitching.

When it comes to video, the rear camera offers 4K recording at 30fps, delivering crisp and detailed footage, though the 1080p at 30fps option is also available for a smoother recording experience, particularly when more stability is needed.

For selfies, the 8 MP front camera offers decent quality for capturing clear self-portraits or video calls. The wide lens ensures that more people can fit into the frame, making group selfies easier.

The selfie camera supports 1080p video recording at 30fps, ensuring that video calls and recorded content are smooth and sharp, but it may struggle a little in low light. Overall, the camera system on the Blackview Shark 9 offers solid performance for its price range, providing versatility for both photography and video recording.

Hardware and Software

The Unisoc T820 chipset powering the Blackview Shark 9 is a mid-range processor that strikes a balance between performance and energy efficiency, making it a solid choice for budget smartphones.

Built on a 12nm process, the T820 features an octa-core CPU, which is divided into two high-performance Cortex-A76 cores running at 2.0 GHz and six Cortex-A55 cores clocked at 1.8 GHz for power efficiency. This configuration allows the device to handle basic tasks like browsing, social media, and video streaming smoothly.

In terms of GPU performance, the Unisoc T820 is equipped with the Mali-G57 GPU, which is designed to provide decent graphics performance for budget devices. While it may not rival higher-end GPUs found in premium phones, it’s still capable of handling games at lower to medium settings without significant lag, making it suitable for casual gaming or apps that require moderate graphical processing power.

The chipset also features AI capabilities, enabling some basic AI-powered enhancements, such as scene detection and smart battery management, which can help optimize the phone’s performance and efficiency.

The 5G phone comes with 256GB of internal storage and 8GB of RAM, ensuring smooth performance and ample space for apps, media, and files. The UFS 2.2 storage technology provides faster read/write speeds, enhancing app launch times and file transfers.

For additional storage, the microSDXC slot allows you to expand the storage further, though it uses a shared SIM slot, meaning you’ll have to choose between a second SIM card or additional storage.

The Blackview Shark 9 runs on Android 14, enhanced by the Doke OS 4.0 user interface, which brings a clean and intuitive design to the device. Doke OS 4.0 provides a range of customization options, allowing users to tailor the look and feel of the phone to their preferences.

The OS offers smooth navigation with features such as dark mode, a streamlined notification center, and smart gestures, making it easy to access apps and functions quickly.

Additionally, the interface is optimized for a more seamless and efficient user experience, with tools like the Smart Assistant and Game Mode for enhanced gaming performance, providing a more immersive experience during gameplay.

The Shark 9 also offers a 5000 mAh battery solid battery life, which is enough to last throughout the day with moderate use. It supports 18W wired charging, which helps recharge the battery at a reasonable speed, ensuring you spend less time plugged in and more time using the phone. While not the fastest charging on the market, it is sufficient for the phone’s capabilities.

This budget smartphone also sports a USB Type-C Port (USB 2.0) for fast charging, Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi 6, as well as NFC for wireless connectivity. The Blackview Shark 9 also supports 5G connectivity for fast downloads, uploads, and streaming.

Blackview Shark 9 Price and Availability

Blackview Shark 9 prices start at around $139.99 at leading retailers. It retails at $139 on AliExpress. In the United States, Amazon offers the smartphone for $219.99. The Shark 9 starts at 59,000 LKR in Sri Lanka, 7,599 PHP in the Philippines, and 819 MYR in Malaysia.