Google Pixel 4 XL Review - The Phone That Isn't a Phone By Automate Your Life

The experiences you're going to get with the pixel for make it almost unlike a phone hello Automaton thanks for tuning in again I'm Brian from automate your life, and today I'm, going to take the frustration out of automation by helping you pick that smartphone that pairs, also importantly with your smart home now today, I'm going to review the pixel 4, but we're also going to focus on the experiences and how this phone ends up being quite a bit different within your life and your smart home as well. So really briefly, let's talk about the specifications on the pixel 4. There are some differentiators at this point when you go, and you compare it to an iPhone 11 Pro or Galaxy S 20 in terms of the ultra version. So when you're, comparing apples to apples in terms of direct specifications, well, the pixel 4 doesn't always stand up in terms of its hardware. It's very good in terms of its processing power. It has pretty good RAM, not the top of the line by any means, but has pretty good RAM and then the storage space.

Furthermore, it kind of falls off a little. There definitely a lot less storage space. The camera megapixels are definitely not keeping up with the new s20, especially not that ultra version of it, but what I'll tell you are- and this will come up a few times- is that the experience is that Google is trying to create, are being basically backfilled. Those specifications are being backfilled by the software capability of google and their horsepower they're. On the software side, the battery is probably the biggest issue with this phone.

To be honest, and this is one of the experiences that you won't love with it, but again this won't be here tomorrow. This feature I'm about to tell you about, but Google is working on an ultra low power mode for their Android phones, and this is really important for this device. It is doing so much at this point that it is being drained quite often, and I'm having to at least charge it once per day from you know, like a 40% perspective halfway through the day, so it can really be drained if you were doing a lot on that phone. So from that physical specification side of things, it's not the best device, it has a great display. It does all the things that you want a phone to do but specification wise.

It's a little off now price, wise, it's a little off as well, it's a little down from those other flagships, so direct comparisons aren't necessarily fair. But when we're talking about people like I know, you guys are that want the top of tech. In a lot of cases, you want to know what you're getting your bang, what you're getting bang for your buck wise. So when I talk about the pixel, for what I'm actually going to talk to you more about is those experiences, and this is the software side, and the first thing to talk about in that regard is photography and the macrophotography capability and the experience that I had with Castro photography is hard to explain. Actually, I can't really tell you guys when I went out, I went a few miles out of our city here or my hometown and I took my phone and that's all I took my car and my phone and I went out, and I started, taking Castro photography.

Pictures now I was able to literally set it on my hood of my car or set it on the windshield, depending on which angle I kind of wanted to take of the night sky, and I was able to capture unbelievable photographs of just the night sky and the stars, and all the things there, and I could see all kinds of additional stars that I couldn't see no matter how far I went out. I went out further to test this out, but you couldn't get anything better, and you're. Seeing some of those amazing pictures right now that I was able to take, and the experience here not only did I have to sit there for four minutes every time it went through this incredible software process that it was doing, but you can share this with a friend. You can share this with a romantic partner and I think this is an amazing experience that Google is giving everyone who has this phone access to and from that photography perspective. I still see tons of YouTubers and tons of reviewers going out, and they're, comparing the pixel 4 with its camera that everyone that lots of people don't like the look of in terms of how it physically looks lots of people don't like that.

But what is showing up consistently for me is that the colors are the best on this phone and when I take it into portrait mode. This is the experience for every parent and grandparent out there. You take a picture of your child or your grandchild or someone who is near and dear to you in that portrait mode, and they use the software to blur out the background. It pulls forward the person you want to see the most in that picture. It takes incredible pictures in not great lighting, and it does amazing things with the colors in general, and it's still to me, with all of those cameras, looks the best in portrait mode, which is the most important experience, I think for most people when taking photographs and by the way, just on the side, because I know lots of you are video creators, or you just want to take lots of video I'm at this point.

Shooting video with the pixel 4xl that I have sitting here, and they look great those videos. Look great I really have zero complaints about it. The processing speed that they increase from the three a that I had before on the channel. To this, it's totally smooth out that process, slow motion, videos are incredible: I can take them for minutes at a time. There's some incredible stuff I can do with the camera the video camera on this phone.

Now, the Google Assistant. We can talk about from a smart home perspective. It's totally changed how I run my smart home, and it's changed. How I turn on lighting in my smart home. So it's pretty simple I.

Just face unlocked turn on the accent lights, so there you go now. It turned on that light, and I was able to do that with a squeeze to talk, and it's very good for your smart home. That way. But the experience that you are going to start to get is a little different number one. It faces unlocked there, but I can also set the pixel for to be unlocked whenever it is in my home.

So that means I'm not having to face unlock I, can simply tap on the screen and everything's ready to go. But the other thing that the Google Assistant is doing for me is it's allowing me to open up applications I'm not having to search through my phone, and this is one of the things that people are doing, so often you're sitting there you're searching for applications, you're searching for where something is on your phone. Just ask the Google Assistant to open the application, and it does it instantly and oftentimes. It is a lot faster than you and I can go and find that application and I don't have to remember where it is, so I'm. Not sitting here playing with the interface to figure everything out my voice is now the controller for a lot of things on my smartphone.

That includes things like searching for details on when something is open till or what the number is to get to something. I can make phone calls with it, and often do is squeeze the talk. Call. My friend, the all of these things that are going on is no longer me sitting there staring at a phone like so many people are doing right now, squeeze or use the wake word and move forward with whatever I want to do instantly now, in terms of getting other information, I mean I've shown you guys on the channel going ahead and searching for flight tickets and all those kinds of things and movie tickets, and getting all that information and being able to one or two clicks through, and this is very powerful stuff, but the Google discovery feed is excellent. A quick swipe from left to right with this device gets me everywhere.

I want to go, and then the Google Assistant interface now, and this will become more important as ambient motors rolled out to the pixel devices. But that shows me the weather. It shows me my day. Calendar entries are showing me reminders and stocks and news that I want to get on a daily basis. It shows me quick ways to turn on and off things in my smart home, and it's becoming a really powerful interface.

So with that and the Google Assistant in general I'm getting all of these ways of controlling and understanding. What's going on in my life, without having to spend any real time with my smartphone as I transition from an older iPhone to the Pixel 3a and now on to the pixel for each time, I had a bit of a different login interface. So initially on my iPhone I had a thumbprint scanner on the front, or I had a code I could type in and before that it was kind of the code you always had to type. In now, as I moved to the pixel, 3a I had the fingerprint scanner on the back and at first I really didn't love. That and- and you know initially I thought it was awkward and felt funny.

But then, as I begin to use, if I've really started to love it, and it became my preferred method of unlocking my phone, because my fingers already always back there I could add multiple. It was great so, as I got, the pixel four I went okay I'm a little worried about face unlock. It needs to be really accurate, really fast, really responsive and the pixel four is not perfect it. Furthermore, it is absolutely not perfect. With face unlock, sometimes I'm looking at it, it doesn't respond, so it once in a while takes a few seconds, or I have to tap on the screen, but in general, and I would say this is 95 percent.

Accurate I can get it to unlock, even in my car, if it's sitting on the dash in front of me, or it's sitting down below I can get it to unlock, even in dark environments, I'm getting it to unlock. Just by looking at the device, and again I told you about in your home, you can leave it basically unlocked. So it's a simple tap or a simple request to get the device open, so I'm not having to pick it up all the time and again that's the commonality of people who own smartphones is they're sitting there staring at it. I don't have to do that with this I can look at it. Get the information I want use the wake word to open it up if I want and get what I want done immediately and that's solely technology that was reviewed really harshly early on.

It is not perfect, don't get me wrong. It's not even close to perfect and I think it was probably too early to release I think they needed some of this testing data to be honest, but it works as a pretty good little party trick. Furthermore, it's kind of fun, and I'm glad Google is pushing the boundary in terms of interfaces that we can use to control these smartphones. We don't necessarily need to touch the phone every three seconds. That's the other part of the experience here.

Guys and probably the most important component of all of this is when I leave the house with this phone. I no longer feel like I could be missing something we rely on our smartphone. So much at this point and when you truly buy into the Google ecosystem, you have the smart home products, you use their calendar you're using their lists or features they're with Google keep you're using Google Assistant regularly. You feel like when you leave with this phone. You have everything you could need, and I don't need to think any more about whether I have everything I can ask where my keys are with the Google Assistant and tile I can go ahead and search for any information.

I need, including my own personal information with the Google Assistant I, have access to my entire smart home remotely through the Google Assistant. Again, I have my calendars and all those notes and all those different pieces of information all contained within here. So I literally just pick this up and go the other thing. I'm able to do is as I move around in the world. I have the Google home location-based routines.

Furthermore, I have routines that run when my alarm clock goes off with the clock application. That's all Google Assistant ran, so I turn on things like my coffee pot as soon as I've snooze that alarm, my coffee pot is on, and I'm ready to go, and so I go to a grocery store and I can get reminders of. What's in my shopping list, or I can get reminders of what I need to do in certain parts of the city. I squeeze to tell my Google Assistant to remind me in a certain location on something and that's what I can do, so it's creating this automation. That is helping me manage my life without having to remember everything.

I, remember something in a moment, I asked for a reminder, or I put it into some kind of routine or automation, and it can all happen very quickly on here. Another experience that I'm using a lot is the messages google. com system where I can go ahead and message. Everybody in text message: I'm not having to pick up the phone and I mean if you haven't heard that six or seven times in this video, then you haven't been listening. That's the point.

You don't have to live with a phone stare at a phone all the time that is the point of the pixel for and where Google is moving with their platform. It's not intended to be a phone as much as it is to be processing power for the great software they have. So it does those phone things. Great I could still make great phone calls and video calls and all kinds of emails and text messages that I want to make, and it's great at all the basic things of a phone. But what it is not a phone, so there you have it guys.

That's my review of the pixel four, and I have the Excel version. I love the screen, size, I love the extra battery here and I. Just I love the device in general, so you can find links down below. Otherwise, you can have a look at our other reviews here on automate your life, where we review the best tech for your smart home and your smart life in general. Thanks for watching everyone and, of course, don't hate automate.

Source : Automate Your Life