Basically, there are cameras and sensors on the front of the phone that can track hand movements and turn those into commands. You know, like swiping your hand to change tracks.
Currently, this is a gimmick with no real use. E ven though the face unlocking feature is good, I really miss the fingerprint scanner. That was so much quicker and more reliable than this face-scanning nonsense. So, in six months time, the already impressive results might be even better. Which is terrifyingly cool.
Y et, not everything is rosy. Which — and to put this lightly — is absolutely fucking insane. G enerally, the Pixel 4 feels like a premium phone. Still, Google deserves points for developing a system that actually works. Where Air Motion on the LG G8 is a finicky experience that requires more precision and patience than most people would be willing to extend, Motion Sense works the first time nearly every time.
Instead of a window that takes over part or all of your screen, Assistant occupies a tiny space at the bottom of the display that will only expand to show you what you need to see. Before that happens, however, a few things will need to be cleared up. For one, the new Assistant only works if you have gesture navigation enabled.
All in all, it still needs work. Dark mode, on the other hand, is far more refined, with nearly every Google app and system screen supporting it. But my favorite feature is Live Caption.
The same goes for the excellent new Recorder app, which will record and transcribe the words it hears. Strip away the new features, and the Pixel 4 XL trails its peer a bit on the spec sheet, with the RAM, storage, and battery all on the skimpy side:. Even Apple charges half that. Somewhat surprisingly, Google shines in its new display game. Pixel phones have had long-standing issues with their screens, from OLED burn-in to flat colors, but the Pixel 4 is the first to get it right. The blacks are deeper and the colors are more vibrant than the Pixel 3, and the oleophobic smudges that plagued earlier models are nowhere to be seen so far, anyway.
And I really liked the new Ambient EQ feature that adjusts the white balance based on the light in the room.
The Pixel 4 also introduces Smooth Display, which ups the refresh rate to 90Hz for smoother and speedier scrolling and swiping. Google says it will be updating Smooth Display "in the coming weeks," but for now it's just another feature that looks good on paper but not so much in practice. With all of the bells and whistles on, the Pixel 4 XL has extremely average battery life for a phone in this price range.
While Google basically forced you to buy a Pixel Stand to get fast wireless charging on the Pixel 3, the Pixel 4 delivers 11W charging with any compatible charger. Google built the Pixel name on the strength of its camera, and the fourth version only drives that point home.
After telling us for years that a single camera was all you needed, Google has added a second camera to the rear of the phone, marrying a 16MP telephoto lens with the And perhaps Google was right all along. Since previous Pixels have been able to achieve such incredible results with just one lens, the addition of a second lens brings expected rather than exceptional results. Not only was I able to take pictures of everything on the ground, but as you can see from some examples below, I was able to take pictures of things in the sky.
All you have to do is point and shoot, and more times than not, you have really good photos that are worthy of sharing with friends and family. Thank you for all of your software optimization and continued efforts, Google.
I have been using the Google Pixel 4 as a daily smartphone for more than days. Here's my long-term review of Google's flagship smartphone. over at the phone to see what track is playing when I hear something I like. Posted: Nov 21,
One of the big hype features on the Pixel 4 lineup is the inclusion of the Soli radar chip, allowing for physical gestures in front of the phone to be turned into actions on the device. For example, when Motion Sense is enabled, you can swipe your hand in front of phone while music is playing to skip tracks. Unlike the Pixel 4, which has battery life that we label as not good at all , my Pixel 4 XL has treated me just fine over the past 3 months.
Do we wish the battery was just a bit larger?