Google Pixel 4 XL In 2021! (Still Worth It?) (Review) By Simple Alpaca

So continuing on with all of these Google Pixel reviews that I'm doing in 2021 the next one that we're going to be talking about is kind of. I guess the last flagship Google Pixel that google has made- and this was the Google Pixel 4 XL. Now, when you look at this device, a lot of you may remember this phone as being a very complex phone, and I think that's probably the best way to you know kind of sum it up. It was a complicated device. It wasn't amazing, it wasn't horrible it just kind of flopped in some areas that this phone developer, that this phone lineup was kind of known for and when you have a device, that's solely predicated on two major things: the software and the camera, and it flops in one of those things well, 50 of the people are not going to be happy about it or the other 50 of the people may get. You know persuaded from the other 50 that kind of hit on the phone to that's just kind of how it goes and with the Pixel 4 XL.

I think cool could have probably done a way better job had they kind of marketed it as a cheaper device kind of like how they did with the pixel 5, especially with the Pixel 4a. The 4a is not a know, an amazing phone, but it's a really, really good phone for the price tag. It is kind of like an amazing phone for being a sub 400 devices. What this phone was going for at that time. I think it was around a thousand dollars.

It was probably like 8.99 something like that and when you look at that price tag, and you look at what this phone specifically brought, it really did kind of change, at least in my mind, of what google was trying to do. You know, and with this panel on the front the 6.3 inch panel. First, the price tag right now is degraded a lot. So if you want to pick one of these things, up, links will be down in the description I'll, find the cheapest one, but also leave a couple. Other phones that I would, you know, probably recommend this here too, those will be linked down below you can get them from there and help support the channel.

At the same time, as I was saying, the panel the 6.3 inch panel was OLED. You know 1440p, it was actually one of the better aspects of the Pixel 4 XL. I stayed up before when you have a device like this with the panel that it had, especially from the pixel 3 XL. That panel was horrible. That was the dumbest thing they ever did.

This one definitely was a huge improvement from that one and with this 90hz refresh rate as well, that really added a lot more character to this device and going from the standard 60 hertz to this one you're definitely going to be getting a lot more capability from this type of device than really a lot of other devices too. So, at the end of the day, that in and of itself really helped improve, I guess the quality of this device. There was still a little of bezel on the top and bottom, but other than that. It really just kind of per sit just really added in the whole entire. You know quality of this device.

Now you did have USB type c on the bottom, which was great, no headphone jack, no micro SD card slot. Nothing like that. So nothing super crazy. Now, on the back, you did have it wasn't like a glass back, I'm not really to sure what they were doing. It was kind of like a plastic, but not really.

It actually felt really great. Furthermore, it was like kind of like a matte texture and I did like it. You know, for it not being glass, it still had a perfect feeling in the hand, and I actually knew a lot of people who didn't like it. I personally did like it a lot, and you know, even though it wasn't glass, it wasn't plastic. It was like a matte texture and I thought it felt pretty good now for the price tag, I would have probably preferred frosted glass, but I think this one actually felt pretty good.

Surprisingly, now the outside, if you can tell there, isn't anything, that's like super type of like a flagship type of feature. I think the 90 hertz kind of put it over the edge of my opinion to kind of it matching like a flagship type of you know, kind of spec sheet. But again we had phones like the iPhone 11 Pro the Samsung Galaxy s10, the Samsung Galaxy note 10, plus we had a lot of devices that were kind of pushing in that upper tier, especially the OnePlus of that year, the 7 and the 70 pro crazy good devices. But with that camera, like I stated before, the pixel lineup was known for two major things: software and camera, and with this specific camera setup, we had a 12.2, megapixel wide angle lens. Then a 16 megapixel telephoto lens.

Now I love google. I love their. You know, lineup. They actually sent me the Pixel 4 XL at that time, which is pretty funny because I bashed it. But again maybe they respect people's opinions.

I don't know, and they sent me pixels ever since then, so I guess they love me or something, but with this camera it just really wasn't an insane. You know upgrade of what we were expecting. They did bring that additional lens, which was great because the original pixels, the pixel 3 and 3xl only had single lenses on the back. They had dual one of the pixel 3xl had the dual camera set up on the front, but during the run-up of this device in their keynote, they actually said that you know there's no point for an ultrawide sensor. Furthermore, they kind of bashed ultrawide sensors.

Furthermore, they said the telephoto lens was more important, and it shouldn't be like this or that it should be both, especially as a phone manufacturer. The 11 pro had a triple camera setup. The Galaxy S10 had a triple camera setup. The note 10 plus had a triple camera setup. This phone should have had a triple camera setup at that time.

Unfortunately it didn't and that did kind of flop. But the thing that I was kind of most mad about was the fact that this phone at that price tag- that was kind of you know hailed as the best phone of the camera of that lineup. It didn't have 4k at 60, and that made this phone really slip up to a lot of people.4K at 60 is something that's kind of like a baseline feature in this day and age, even especially now in 2021, but in 2020. Every single phone for the most part that came out that was kind of like a flagship phone had 4k 60, the 4a, the pixel 48 did not because it didn't need it, because it was like kind of like a know, budget phone. This phone should have had that capability.

Unfortunately, it didn't the software I think was okay, but you know the camera quality could have been better for sure. I don't even think it was that bad, but when you have the lack of sensors, when you have the lack of 4k 60, it already diminishes what this phone quality could have been. The front camera was weird because it was a single 8 megapixel sensor, so they went from that dual camera sub to now a single camera setup on the front, so it made it look even worse than the predecessor and there was no 4k on the front. There was only 1080p, so when you look at the price tag of this phone as well as kind of like what the stereotype was of the pixel lineup such high expectations for that camera- and it really did flop this phone, I think the OnePlus 7t pro kind of had a better camera than this one. To be honest, you know because it had multiple more sensors than this, but the quality of the photos and videos were great it just because we had the lack of features overall, just really didn't diminish the quality of this photo and video quality from the Pixel 4 XL.

So, in terms of the camera, I spent a long time talking about it, but that really pretty much covers it up, but the best thing about the Pixel 4 XL, and this could go both ways, but I think one of the best things about the pixel forks overall was the software and a little of the battery life. So when you have a phone like the Google Pixel of any genre, the Pixel 4a, the pixel 5, the pixel one, you are guaranteed one thing more than anything, and that is a very long supported phone. So with the Pixel 4 XL it originally. When it first came out, it did get android 10. Right now we are on android 11 android 12 should be coming up, probably in like the next couple of months.

You know in terms of the beta form, and what I can tell you about the software is: is that no matter what pixel you have, whether even if you have a nexus you're going to be supported for quite a bit of time, you're going to be. You know first in line for updates, and I love the fact that if any you know google puts out a software update or whatever I can pretty much just go to my computer and install it, or I can even install it from my device. Furthermore, you know I don't have to wait multiple months. If that's one of the reasons why I hate Samsung, and I hate OnePlus, even because they take a little more time now. I love those devices more than this one, but I just wish the software life cycle was a little better on those devices even iPhones the same day, the iPhone 12 Pro max gets an update.

Pretty much for now is the same day. My iPhone 6s that came on 2015 gets the update and the Google Pixel lineup is the closest thing we have to it, which I love it, so that in and of itself is another huge aspect of you know the Pixel 4 XL, because it's going to be supported for quite a bit of time. You know it's not going to be outdated tomorrow or next year. It's going to be supported for a while and even in the stock and even in custom ROM support it's going to be supported for a while too now the battery was a 3700 million power battery. It definitely isn't a bad battery size, but I you know it could have been better overall, and I stated you know the software is stock, so you don't have a lot of random things going on in the background, but, as I always stated- and I stated this before- it's perfect that we had a longer software supported device on this type of phone.

So again, I think that in and of itself really did add a lot more character to this specific device. So I think for sure, at the end of the day, this is probably one of the better aspects of the Pixel 4 XL for sure, especially now in 2021. Now the performance is also something that's pretty good about this phone, and I think you know if you're wanting to pick up the Pixel 4 XL. This is another area that could probably be you know a strong suit for you. It had the Qualcomm snapdragon 855, which was probably the best one at that time, an arena, 640 GPU, and it had six gigs of ram on both models.

Now there was only two storage models of this phone: a 64 gig model and 128 gig model. There was no expandable storage, so you could only be tapped out at 128, which that is also another weird aspect of this phone, but we're in the performance segments- I'm not going to hit on it, but I think the overall performance of this phone is still pretty good for the most part. If you're wanting to go and use this phone as a main device, it's still going to be more than capable. If you want a game on this thing, if you want to do anything crazy, this phone is more than capable. Now some people may be kind of you know persuaded against because of the six gags of ram, especially now that we have like eight gigs of ram has like a minimum on a lot of devices, but I think that's still more than a lot for a lot of people, whether you have you know the craziest flagship or you know a small device or whatever your basic needs are probably going to be met with this type of device and then some you're going to be able to do a lot of different things from this device for sure at the end of the day.

So when it comes down to the performance, it gets a thumbs up for me for sure whether you're somebody like I said before, who expects a little from this device or you expect a lot from this device. You are definitely going to be able, to, you know, be content with the performance for sure at the end of the day, so in terms of the performance gets a thumbs up for me, like I stated, and to kind of sum up this video and say into the question: should you go and pick up a cool pixel, 4 XL in 2021? Well, this is what I'll tell you- and I said this before, and I'll say it again. I think the Pixel 4 XL is a great phone, but it could have been a better phone. Had Google marketed it better, first, but also had they just decreased the price tag from the start. This phone is not a thousand dollar phone.

This phone wasn't even a thousand dollar phone. When it first came out, the Samsung Galaxy s10 was a thousand dollar phone. The iPhone 11 Pro is a thousand dollar phone. This phone screams to me that it's a six hundred dollar phone there was no, you know, glass on the back and I think for a lot of people they didn't like it me personally. I was perfectly okay with this type of back there.

The camera of this thing wasn't amazing and that's kind of what we are expecting for the Pixel 4 XL, to bring an amazing camera sensor. This one didn't have it. The display was an improvement from the predecessor and I did appreciate the 90 hertz and stuff, but I think the OnePlus 7t pro had a better display than this thing, and that thing was cheaper. I think at the time, but all is not bad on this device. You know you have a beautiful, long-lasting, supported device.

You know if you're getting the pixel, you know one thing for sure more than the camera, even it's the software. This thing is going to be getting software support for a much longer time than a lot of people may even realize. So that is great. The custom ROM support on this device was cool too. I just love the custom run community and this phone still has that capability, which is great, you have you, know, a pretty good size battery.

You have pretty good performance, though, and it's just kind of things that are underwhelming. There's really nothing! That's awful about this phone. It's just some very average things, but in those average things it makes. You think. Why would I even pick up a pixel? Why wouldn't I just go for the Galaxy S10 or why? Wouldn't I just go for something like the OnePlus of that time? Why do I have to go for the pixel and I think now google has kind of learned from this type of device, and they now have switched over to you know the cheaper budget phones in a way the pixel 5 isn't really a budget phone? It's a cheaper.

You know phone for sure, but, as stated before, that's kind of what I would say, and I think at the end of the day that pretty much covers up what I would think about these specific devices in 2021, but, like I said, I will also leave not only the Pixel 4 XL, but some other phones that I would recommend throughout this year in the description below you can get them from there and help support the channel at the same time. That really pretty much covers it up. If you guys have any other questions or anything like that, let me know in the comment section below hit the like button about me so much, but definitely hit that subscribe button, every single subscriber that we get really discount. So me so much if you guys can hit that also check out the other links down in the description as well. My Twitter, my Instagram, my other channels.

More importantly, everything also every single one of you guys, hopefully I'll catch you guys in the next video peace out till then you.

Source : Simple Alpaca