A Few Days with Black Shark Cooling Case

A while back, right after I got my Pixel 6 Pro, I fired up Genshin Impact and watched this piece of junk stutter just fighting Dvalin. Then I thought about all the people hyping up the “Tensor Core” GPU as some beast…

So I figured, if this crappy SoC keeps throttling because it overheats…

Why not just slap a cooling fan on it?

When it comes to phone cooling clips, the first thing that comes to mind is the “Black Shark Cooling Case.” Yep, my thoughts still drift back to that virgin shark.

Since I’m way too broke, I went to Xiaomi’s official store and bought the cheapest “Black Shark version.” It arrived fast, and the moment I got ready to use it, a bunch of problems showed up:

• First, you can’t use this thing with a phone case on. It needs to sit tight against the back of the phone.
• You also need to plug in a Type-C power cable. The most convenient way is to run it straight out of the phone itself.
• But if you power the fan from the phone, then when you hold it sideways to play, your right hand keeps bumping into that cable. Really annoying.
• Sure, you could plug a Type-C cable in from somewhere else, but then playing a single game gets absurdly bulky.
• The “correct” way to game with this thing is to have a wall plug or power bank to feed the fan, plus take your phone case off every single time. Doing that before every session is just too much hassle.
• Most importantly, the fan does lower the phone’s temperature most of the time. Even so, performance doesn’t improve noticeably. The Pixel 6 Pro still can’t run Genshin well. Better than before, sure, but nowhere near Snapdragon 870 levels.

I don’t know if it’s the Tensor Core that’s garbage or the cooling fan. Either way, after just two uses, I left this cooler gathering dust. It hit me that this thing only really suits phones like the Black Shark or ROG ones, with those detachable fans designed by the manufacturer. They’re built for it, some even sell dedicated cases to make mounting the fan easy.

And the funny part is, I don’t even know which version I bought. Probably the original one? The latest “Black Shark Cooling Case” looks way flashier now, but I still don’t think it’s practical. Third-party phones don’t have any of those quick-attach designs, so if you’re hoping to use this thing for smooth gaming… I’d say forget it. Buying a new SoC beats going through all this trouble.

Looking at the “Black Shark” branding on this thing, all I can say is: “The shark scammed me out of my money.”