Unihertz 8849 Shark 3 Review

Performance

8849 Shark 3 by Unihertz is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 8300 (MT6897) system-on-chip. Presented in late 2023, it introduces the Armv9 CPU architecture to premier 5G smartphones. Its generational improvements include over 20% faster CPU performance or 30% peak gains in power efficiency, while the GPU upgrade provides up to 60% greater performance or 55% greater power efficiency at peak. Moreover, the power efficiency has been further optimized by 11% in light use and by 25% in gaming, for example. This SoC is based on TSMC's 4nm production node and together with flagship‑grade memory and storage speeds, the Dimensity 8300 ensures excellent daily experience in games, apps, photography, video shooting, connectivity, and entertainment. The SoC includes an octa-core CPU comprising four Cortex-A715 cores clocked at 3.35GHz and four Cortex-A510 cores clocked at 2.2 GHz. The graphics department is managed by a Mali-G615 and MediaTek's next-generation AI processor - the MediaTek APU 780 - brings Generative AI into smartphones. The new MediaTek HyperEngine also brings MediaTek Adaptive Game Technology 2.0 for longer gaming sessions optimizing power efficiency and performance. There are 16GB of quad-channel LPDDR5X RAM clocked at 4266 MHz on board. It can be virtually expanded with up to 16GB from the Memory Extension option under Settings->Intelligent Assistance. The UFS 4.0 built-in storage measures 512GB and can be expanded with a memory card using the dedicated slot in the SIM tray. Of the total 512GB on board the device, 496GB are available to the user. Our review unit scored 1,370,280 points on AnTuTu 10 outperforming the Dimensity 8200 on the previous Unihertz 8849 smartphones by ~400K points as well as the Google Tensor G3 powering the Pixel 8 Pro. This result is only 21K points lower than that of the nubia Z60S Pro based on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. The single-core and multi-core Geekbench 6 results are only a tad lower than those of the Tewnsor G3. In gaming, photography, and everyday usage, the Shark 3 shows a solid performance.