Google Pixel 4/4 XL: The Review After The Review
Even though Google I/O 2020 is a dub, we’re still getting a sort of version of it w/ the upcoming Beta Launch Show for Android 11. The Pixel 4 had a lot of things people weren’t happy about at launch like the lack of an ultra-wide camera, Face Unlock working w/ your eyes closed, and the sub-par battery life. Now we’re around 6 months since its release and getting closer to the belated Pixel 4a launch, time to revisit the Pixel 4/4XL.
The matte finish hardware is minimal & feels good to hold in hand. Not too heavy and not too light. The dual stereo speakers on these guys are top-notch. Providing you w/ overall fuller & louder sound w/o hitting any distortion of sorts when cranking the volume up to the max. Its OLED display is good w/ its variable 90Hz refresh rate. It’s a nice sweet spot of handling colors & good enough for gaming. I still wish it was as bright as the competition. It’s not something I deal w/ it on the regular but when looking at it in the sun, it gets noticeable.
The performance is still good as the 6GB of RAM & the Snapdragon 855 CPU holds it down and keeps everything running smoothly. Can stream Twitch, IG Live Versuz battles, play Call of Duty: Mobile and more w/o breaking a sweat. I haven’t come across any issues of lag, hiccups, or pesky RAM management problems.
Equipped w/ overall smaller cells than previous Pixels, the 4 & 4XL can’t last a full day w/o needing a charger or battery pack nearby. The 4 gets me around 8-10 hours on average while the 4XL gets me a bit closer 13 hours on average. No amount of updates can improve the battery life on these.
When it comes to the Pixel, it's still all about the cameras & the software.
The photos on the Pixel 4/4 XL still reign supreme in my opinion while the iPhone can best it on some occasions. Of course, its all preference for a matter of taste. The f/1.7 12.2MP + f/2.4 16MP telephoto sensors give you great details, good colors, sharpness, & overall accuracy. Selfies are great too. The added White Balance & shadow adjustments work well. Google’s Night Mode is still the standard yet Apple is just as good in many situations. The Astrophotography mode is still great but never used it outside of the original review. On the video side, its 4K@30fps is just fine. Nothing amazing compared to just about every flagship competitor but its usable.
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Google’s 1st crack at a real facial recognition for unlocking your device was a really good one. Face Unlock has maintained its fast way to unlock my Pixel. Now it’s even more secure as Google added the eyes to be open to work now.
Project Soli is Google’s radar-based technology to track motion as gestures called Motion Sense. It is OK as I only really use to wave my hand to silence calls & alarms. It works fine but Google has yet to come up w/ real compelling use cases for it.
- Now Playing is still a must-have for music lovers.
- Call Screening/Rejecting Spam Calls is the best way to combat robocalls.
- Live Caption is pretty accurate and can be utilized system-wide (from YouTube, Facebook, & more).
- Feature drops added the ability to blur the background on any photo taken w/ the Pixel 4 line in the edits.
Google pulls you in w/ the camera & for some, the Google experience is an additional reason to stick around.
Being the phone that my actual SIM is in, I spent most of the time using it as my main. Save for until recently w/ other phones we reviewed. So this has been my day-in and day-out device. The battery life was the only real problem to deal with on a daily basis. Hopefully, this huge misstep can be rectified for Pixel 5.
We do have the Pixel 4a around the corner so that can be a saving grace of sorts for Google. Rumors stating that there won’t be a Pixel 4a XL this year, catching a great deal on the 4XL might be the way to go. At the time of writing this, you can pick one up starting at $622. So how has your Pixel 4 or 4 XL been treating you?
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