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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. In this image of a rainbow-tinted knife, the Pixel 4 left mutes the colors of both the floor and the blade, while the iPhone 11 center and Pixel 3 XL right handle them properly. But so did the Pixel 3. And so do the Galaxy S10 and the iPhone In some tests, the Pixel 4 XL bested its competition and in others, it performed on par.
In some, it missed the mark. Take the photo of the knife above. The Pixel 3 XL got the floor color right, while the iPhone excelled at capturing the rainbow pattern in the blade. The same is true of the skull below, though the Pixel 4 was the only one of the three to maintain the proper color of the wall. In other photos, the Pixel 4 was too aggressive with white balance. In the shot of the Halloween wreath below, only the iPhone was able to capture the true color of the wall without dulling the orange and gold balls.
Both the Pixel 3 and the Pixel 4 shifted the balance to purer white, with the Pixel 4 dulling the color and the sheen as a result. The Pixel 4 XL left shifted the white balance, which dulled the colors a bit, while the Pixel 3 XL right was a little closer but still too blue. The iPhone 11 center was the most accurate. If anything, the Pixel 3 does a slightly better job with handling skin tones and color. The both did an admirable job, but the iPhone was consistently just a little better, as you can plainly see in the photo below.
Both the Pixel 4 left and iPhone 11 right brightened this super-dark nighttime scene, but Apple retains the shadows and spookiness while Google blows out the ambiance a bit. And I have to assume that anyone who buys a Pixel 4 cares about such subtleties. The Face unlock and Google Assistant bugs are too glaring to overlook, and Motion Sense is in desperate need of new features. Even the Pixel launcher and the promise of three years of Android updates are less of a reason to buy, as Samsung ups its game with One UI.
Otherwise, you might want to wait a few updates—or for the Pixel 5. You can usually find him with his nose buried in a screen. The best way to yell at him is on Twitter. Android iPhone Phone Accessories.
At a Glance. Google Pixel 4 XL. Show More. Skip to the next or previous track. Snooze an alarm.
Dismiss a timer. The Pixel 4 XL has a display with a 90Hz refresh rate, which gives it a slight edge over the S10 Plus, with a ppi pixel density compared to the S10 at ppi and identical screen resolution at x Both the Pixel 4 and the S10 Plus use specialized machine learning chips and software to assist in image processing, such as for low light photography. The main difference between the Pixel 4 and its competitors is that Google's device utilizes a facial unlock system similar in functionality -- although not in technology implementation -- to the iPhone 11's Face ID. It does this by using a miniature radar array, called Project Soli , for motion sensing, combined with the face unlock dot projection and infrared sensors.
That means it eschews the under-screen fingerprint sensor of the S10 and other devices like the Huawei P30 and the OnePlus 7 entirely for facial recognition.
Instead, Google provides the end-user with unlimited cloud storage for Google Photos, at high quality. In previous years, Google offered this for Pixel devices at original uncompressed quality. The 64GB 5. This is before any applicable iPhone trade-in, which most iPhone buyers are going to do. Google is the underdog, with only a 2. It isn't. The Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL are just as expensive -- and, in their base configurations, arguably, less capable -- than the base level Samsung Galaxy S10 and S10 Plus, respectively.
Oh yeah, and the S10 shipped seven months ago in March The just-launched Pixel 4 is using technology that is already on its way out , as the Qualcomm Snapdragon was just announced and is expected to launch in November. Well, it's because Google has made a complete and utter mess of its OEM ecosystem. The toxic hellstew.
Seriously, what would be the point of Google releasing its own Android hardware if it could get its OEMs to update their devices on a timely basis? The Samsung S10 is only now entering beta for Android And that's the company's flagship if you don't count the Note 10, which only recently started shipping at the end of August. Never mind how long it is going to take to get to the S9, or even the S8, which is unlikely to get updates to the latest version. Sure, Google launched the Android One program -- which, if everyone were on board, would eliminate the need for a Pixel device. But nobody other than a few firms, like Nokia and Xiaomi, want to be a member of that club or launch their top-of-the-line hero devices in it.
You won't find the Galaxy S10 or Note10 on it. If you wanted to see innovation and value out of the Pixel 4 launch, forget it. What we got instead was overpriced, underpowered, and delivered too late. The company could do better, but clearly, it thinks its customers would rather pay a premium so that they can get software updates on time.
How freaking arrogant and stupid is that? I understand the need to build a reference platform.
Microsoft does this with its Surface hardware to inspire its OEM partners to innovate. However, Google doesn't seem to be able to do the same thing with Pixel -- its partners are doing whatever they damn well please and aren't even keeping pace with essential software updates. If anything, the Pixel is coming in at last place in the yearly Android device race. It's not "best of the breed," and it's not the device one would choose over any other OEM product based on specifications alone. The only thing it has going for it is that it always launches with the latest and greatest version of Android, and it stays patched and updated for three years.
Is that worth a premium?
I don't think so. Sign me up for a new Pixel 4 XL.
I'm not recommending this phone to anybody seriously considering an Android device. It's just not a good value. Is the Pixel 4 an overpriced disappointment when you compare it to its competition?