CHRIS: It feels like a really cheap version of the Joy-Con. I also had difficulty attaching the controller to the case. I needed to use force to slide the controller in or out. I don’t understand why it’s so tough here! Also, I’m really disappointed with the build quality of the controller. The buttons are not as tactile as the Joy-Con, and the joystick feels a little bit loose. The controller has an angular design that doesn’t feel comfortable in my hands. And you need to purchase the right-hand controller separately, and I can’t see any obvious way to attach it. Oh, one more thing: Not all games are supported with the controller, and that’s really a bummer.

RAVI: It didn’t feel very good, did it? Only having one controller made it feel unbalanced in the hand. I mean, the whole point of this thing is to make games easier to control, and to make them feel good. And I hate playing with touchscreen controls, so I really wanted to like this. But after playing with it, it just felt… cheap. And that’s when it worked at all -- you had plenty of trouble setting it up, right?

CHRIS: Yes, absolutely. The software on this phone is simply bad. It comes with a heavily customized Android skin that is really unstable. It’s not responsive, and the phone would frequently hang. It took almost a minute to close the game and get back to the home screen! The UI also has these black and green icons that really strain my eyes… kinda the opposite of what you expect from a dark mode. I’m really worried about whether Black Shark will release software updates for the phone to correct bugs and issues. The only thing I like about it is that the controller connects to the phone flawlessly by Bluetooth. And buttons are mappable too, which gives you more flexibility in various games.

RAVI: It might be unfair to compare it to a Nintendo Switch, because that’s a dedicated gaming device and this is a smartphone that also happens to do some gaming. On the other hand, the Nintendo Switch comparison is absolutely what they’re going for. And I guess they can try to argue that in some ways, on paper, the Black Shark Helo is better. It’s got beefier specs and a far better screen than the Switch. But the irony is, it ends up feeling like a cheap and inferior version of the Nintendo Switch… even though it costs more!

CHRIS: I was so hyped about the Black Shark Helo at first. The controller looked really awesome, making the phone look like a mini Nintendo Switch. But I knew something was wrong when I need to use so much force to attach the controller to the phone. The whole thing feels like an unfinished product. I also tried other gaming smartphones like the Asus ROG Phone and the Razer Phone 2, and they both felt much better than the Black Shark, in terms of build quality and the built-in software. Considering the phone is Black Shark’s second generation product, they did improve the hardware, but I think they need to put much more work into the software. An unresponsive UI is just not acceptable, and what’s the point of having a dedicated controller if few games actually support it?