Lifelong iPhone User Spends 1 Week with Pixel 4 XL | Pixel 4 Review By Brandon Butch

What's up guys, my name is Brandon, and I've been using the Google Pixel for Excel for the past week, straight after switching from the iPhone 11 Pro Max and I have some thoughts starting off with the body and the design of the pixel for in pixel for Excel. It feels pretty good in the hand it doesn't feel quite as premium as something like the iPhone, 11 Pro or love and Pro max, and that's mainly because the iPhone 11 Pro has the stainless steel border, which is just unmatched, stainless steel. It's always going to feel better in the hand and more premium, but it's also a little lighter than the iPhone 11, and also the note and the S 10 as well. So it doesn't feel quite as premium as some of the previous flagships that we've seen in 2019, but it still feels good in the hand, but as far as the actual design of the phone, not just the feel in the hand, it looks terrific. This may be my favorite design of 2019, maybe just right behind the iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro max I. Think the three tone looks perfect here with this white color.

We have the black edges, and then we have the orange button for a really nice accent. Now, speaking of the side buttons, it did take me a little of getting used to having both the power and the volume buttons on the same side since I've been using the iPhone with the power button on the right and the volume on the left, and then before that I got used to the note tin, which had both the power and the volume buttons on the right side, but the volume was above the power button. So it's really confusing going back and forth between these three phones, because they're, both, or they're, all three really completely opposites from one another. So it does take a little of getting used to with the buttons on the side, but again nothing, that's really going to be a big deal and something you'll get used to, after just using it for a little while now on the front, of course, we do have the big forehead up top, which is basically the equivalent of the notch. On the iPhone and I personally, don't see either one of these as a big deal same with the hole.

Punch, I never really cared about that little part of the screen because you kind of just see past it after using the phone for like a week now, of course, one of the first things you do when you get a new phone is transferred data over from your old device to your new device and that's what I did with the pixel 4 X out here actually showed this in my boxing video, but I transferred all of my date, or I should say most of my data over from my Pixel 3a to my pixel 4xl, using the included USB c2, USB connector and overall, it was a pretty seamless experience, but I do still prefer the setup process of the iPhone, especially on iOS 13, because you don't even have to enter the Wi-Fi or anything like that. It just picks up that. You have a new iPhone there, and it transfers over all of your data wirelessly, and it doesn't rely on a service like iCloud. You don't have to do I cloud backups anymore or anything like that, so there's a lot more seamless on iOS. That was one of the first things.

I noticed transferring data over and being used to iOS. Now, since the camera isn't as big of a selling point this year with the pixel phone, one weight is going to differentiate, is through motion sense and the superfast face, unlock and honestly before getting the pixel four-in-hand. After just seeing the leaks and all the videos- and you know they announcement up it- and everything like that, I was a little. Skeptical I didn't think that anything could touch face ID. You know it couldn't be as fast as face ID, especially on the new iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro, but I was wrong.

Using my face to unlock the pixel, for is a joy. It's fast, it's accurate, and it makes me glad we don't have a fingerprint sensor this year. However, there are some concerns, the first of which, being that you can currently unlock the phone with your eyes closed. Yes, they even mentioned this as a feature in the phone itself. You can unlock it with your eyes closed, however, they did put out a press release, basically saying that a fix for this is coming and the coming months, so not sure why they're going to fix something that was advertised as a feature, but it's probably because of all the backlash from tech reviewers and people like that, because it is kind of a security concern, I mean it could be a sleet or somebody could just you know, put your phone up to your face without you knowing and unlock your phone now, the face unlock in the pixel 4 isn't only fast because of the facial recognition sensor itself, but Google was also clever enough to introduce a new radar chip in the forehead of the phone which allows for a feature.

They call motion sense, and what actually happens is that once you start to reach for your phone, your hand gets picked up by the radar sensor and the phone prepares the face unlock sensor for your face to be placed in front of it and to unlock it very quickly. And, of course, this leads to even faster unlock times and beats the accelerometer based method like the iPhone, 11 and 11 Pro have no motion, since is it only good for unlocking your phone faster? It also allows you to interact with software and control certain parts of your phone. So, for instance, you can actually skip songs by simply waving your hand over the phone kind of just giving a gesture left or right, and while I did find that it takes some practice getting right, I actually love this feature. It's super convenient to not have to press a button on your screen constantly and the great about this also is that it's gonna only get better with time and more accurate with time and the software updates. And then the final thing I wanted to mention motion sense is how it controls the always-on display.

Basically, the radar forms a bubble around the phone, and, if you move outside it, the always-on display turns off, because the pixel knows you're not near your phone. So that's pretty awesome. That's pretty next-level and Google actually introduced some really cool things into the forehead of the pixel for and pixel for, excel and just as a side note because I say it every year. Apple, please add it. Always-On display to the iPhone I feel like a broken record, saying this, but I definitely want and always on display on the iPhone.

We got it on the Apple Watch Series five. So now it's time for the next iPhone and speaking of the display, it's time to talk about the display on the pixel for Excel and how it stacks up to its competitors. More specifically the iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro max. So the pixel for Excel has a six point. Three inch OLED display with a resolution of 1440 by 30 40 at around 537 PPI, and that's compared to the iPhone 11 Pro max, which has a 6.5 inch OLED display with a resolution of 12 42 by 26 88 and a 458 PPI. So the pixel clearly has the better display on paper, but in real world testing that just isn't the case.

Sure the colors are vibrant. The blacks are deep and watching movies and videos is pretty immersive on this phone, but the colors on the iPhone are just a bit better and that's thanks to true tone and HDR 10 compared to standard HDR and the pixel and there's also another caveat with the display and that's the brightness level. So the pixel 4 has a max brightness of 444 nits in comparison, the iPhone 11 Pro and pro max can get up to 800 nits. So that's nearly double the brightness of the pixel and also to compare the note.10 gets up to 1300 nits, so that's more than three times brighter than the pixel four can get and that's a pretty massive difference. So if you live anywhere where the Sun comes out like at all, you should definitely take this into account because it's definitely noticeable when you use the phone outside.

But aside from the disappointing brightness cap, the display is actually perfect on the pixel 4, and I really enjoy using it to watch videos and things like that. I actually find myself watching videos on the pixel more often than I do on the iPhone 11 Pro Max. Just because it's a better experience. The smooth display is also something that makes the pixel 4 and so force thin out, and that's what allows us to go back and forth between 60 and 90 Hertz refresh rate interchangeably throughout the OS compared to just 60 Hertz, like we have on the iPhone, 11, Pro and 11 pro max. However, during my testing, I and other people on Reddit found that the pixel form will drop to that 60 Hertz refresh rate once the brightness gets below 75%, which is pretty annoying and really a great way to drain battery life, and it's annoying not only because of the battery drain it'll cause, but also because other phones like the OnePlus 70, keep that 90 Hertz refresh rate all the time, not just contingent on brightness level, or you know the type of content being shown now with that being said, Google did rectify this with a statement, and they said we have previously planned updates that will roll out in the coming weeks that include enabling 90, Hertz and more brightness conditions.

So that's at least pretty good at here, and I can't wait for that update to be pushed out to the pixel, but compared to the iPhone that smooth display on the pixel for Excel it's just night and day better I mean it's so much smoother on the pixel, then on the iPhone playing games watching videos scrolling through the home screen literally anything you do just feels. Buttery, smooth on the pixel phone and I definitely prefer that over the iPhone, so I really hope. The next iPhone has a 90 Hertz refresh rate. Otherwise, it's going to be way, way behind the competition. So now, let's discuss the big one, the cameras, so the pixel 4, of course, has a dual camera setup on the back.

It has a 12 point: two megapixel F 1.7 wide-angle lens and a 16 megapixel F 2.4 telephoto lens. Now, of course, the lack of that third ultra-wide camera lens on the pixel 4 is a pretty big disappointment to most people, especially since most of the competitors have 3 cameras. Nowadays, I mean the S 10, the note 10, the iPhone 11 Pro and Pro max, especially when you take into account that all those phones are within the same price range. It's a little disappointing to see just two cameras on the pixel. However, Google does make up for this by having some pretty solid cameras in here.

Both these cameras are really, really solid. So, let's just take a look and compare some of these photos and videos since they're going to tell a better story than just talking about the specs. So taking a look at the first picture here, take a look at the iPhone on the right-hand side and take a look at that sky. How much more blue and realistic it looks, and also the shadow it's a much deeper black, much more reminiscent of a real shadow. So some reason the pixel kind of blew out the sky a little and the shadows not as dark as it was in real life.

So this still the iPhone definitely one here. The next picture here is of my car and again take a look at the sky. The sky looks more realistic. More blue, more saturated on the iPhone, which again is usually the opposite. Usually the pixel phone and the Samsung phones have a more saturated, look and less natural, but in this case the iPhone again is a lot more realistic in terms of the sky.

But when it comes to my car, my car actually looks better I think on the pixel, whereas the iPhone, you can see the Sun kind of shining against it a little more and the wheels in the ground are a little brighter than it actually was in that scenario. So the pixel looks a little more realistic when it comes to my car and flipping the camera around to the front here for a portrait, selfie I. Definitely like the look of the pixel when it comes to portrait selfies. The background is a little less blurred than it is on the iPhone. But you can see my hair on the iPhone, for whatever reason it's not very great as far as edge detection on the pixel seems to be better than the iPhone, at least for the front-facing camera here and flipping the camera around.

To the rear facing portrait mode, I took a little picture here of this sign and the sign is a lot brighter than it was in real life on the iPhone, so it lights up the keep off motes, there's a little more. So the pics a lot like better, it's more natural, also the background, there's more blur just more both. The edge detection is a little better on the pixel as well. When it comes to front and rear-facing portrait photos, here's another portrait shot where the edge detection is pretty good on both phones as well looks about even to me. Let me know which one you think shot this better down in the comments below, and then I wanted to test out the zoom on both this camera.

So this is zooming in at 8, X, so 8 times, zoom right here we have 2 pixels on the left. Of course, the iPhone on the right I think they both look pretty good I think the pixel looks a little more natural than the iPhone, and you can see the birds a little better in my opinion. But let me know what you think down in the comments, and then we have a night mode shot. So this one was fascinating to me because there's a pretty big difference between the two and the iPhone, the sky looks a lot brighter than it actually is, and the pixel actually looks like a night sky and the stars actually looked a lot more realistic. So fascinating here, I think may, like the pixel better in this photo right here and here's another shot of just the night sky, and again I like the pixel better here when it's just in the sky.

However, in other scenarios, I, definitely like the iPhone better in terms of reducing noise and getting that color back. Take a look at this picture here in my kitchen, iPhone on the right pixel on the left night and day difference. There's a ton of noise on the pixel and the iPhone. Just captured it really, really well- and this is the case more often than not when I compared the iPhone to the pixel in terms of night mode. The only time I like the pixel better is when it's of the actual night sky and the stars and in terms of video I, don't really need to show you guys a lot.

You guys probably already know by now that the iPhone is just far superior to the pixel and pretty much every other phone when it comes to camera quality. But here is a video shot at 4k 30. Of course the pixel can only shoot in 4k 30, whereas the iPhone can shoot in 4k 60, but the overall colors just look so much better on the iPhone. A lot more realistic, a lot more refined and also the stabilization is far better on the iPhone. You don't see as much shaking at all, no matter what frame rate or what quality you're shooting in it just looks really excellent, really smooth as well.

You could just see the colors popping, and can see side-by-side the lack of any kind of movement on the iPhone. Just perfect stabilization overall and then finally, I did a quick little video here, testing out the front-facing camera, and again it looks much better on the iPhone. So if you take a lot of video on your smartphone, the iPhone is the clear winner. You should definitely get the iPhone. If you're somebody who takes a lot of videos again, you could shoot in 4k, 60 and just overall, even 1080p.

Video just looks better. The stability is better. Everything is better in terms of video on the iPhone on the flip side. If you take a lot of portraits, photos, whether that be portrait, selfies or portraits of just like objects or animals, or anything like that, I actually like the pixel better for portrait photos and when it comes to the night mode and shooting pictures when it's fully dark out. I like the iPhones results better, but in terms of just normal pictures like normal pictures, you take every day inside your cat, or you know whatever you're taking pictures of I actually prefer the iPhone slightly over the pixel.

That's the first time I've ever like the iPhone in terms of still photos better than the Samsung phones and the pixel phone first time ever. So that really tells a lot about what Apple is done, especially with deep fusion, the new feature that just came out in 13.2. That makes a big difference with their standard pictures. Your standards still pictures on the iPhone I think that the iPhone is just killing it with both camera and video stills and video this year, and hopefully that continues next year and another surprising thing is that inside of the iPhones camera application, you actually get more options than you do and the pixel like more things that change effects to add and things like that which is pretty rare because usually the iPhone and the past did not have any options in the camera application, but again Apple has definitely stepped it up with iOS 13 and the iPhone 11. Now in terms of performance, we do have this snapdragon 855 processors, with 6 gigabytes of RAM, and then we do also have the Arena 640 GPU and of course we are running stock.

Android 10 here on the pixel four and pixel for Excel and the pixel 4 is the first Android device that I've used, maybe ever where it reminds me of iOS, and it doesn't feel foreign to me like going from iPhone to Android, usually feels a little.4 and I have to learn a bunch of new things, but with a pixel it feels a lot like iOS and the iPhone. Just the overall gestures, the software optimization the smoothness of everything. It feels really, really good and really polished, and I have to say I'm, definitely enjoying my pixel 4xl here more than I enjoyed the Samsung Galaxy S 10 or the note 10, and compared to the iPhone 11 Pro. There's hardly any difference day today, I mean when you just do normal tasks like opening up social media apps, and things like that. You're not really going to be able to tell a huge difference going from iPhone to pixel or vice versa.

The only time you'll be able to tell a difference is if you are playing games. I've definitely noticed that games play much better on the iPhone, then on the pixel for I've noticed some lag and games on the pixel, whereas I've never had lag at all when I'm playing on my iPhone 11 Pro Max, and I've also noticed that the RAM management is even better on the iPhone, even though we have two fewer gigabytes of RAM. So that's pretty interesting as well. Kind of just speaks to iOS and how well they optimize their software now in terms of voice assistance on both of these phones, I do prefer Google Assistant over Siri I've kind of made this known for years. Now, it's just a lot more accurate picks up your voice better.

It doesn't get confused as easily and I. Also like the, can just squeeze on the pixel to activate and invoke the Google Assistant, which you can't do that on the iPhone. You have to press the button to invoke Siri or say those magic works, so I like the ability to be able to squeeze if it's very, very convenient. Now. Perhaps the biggest letdown of the pixel for in pixel for Excel is the battery life, the pixel for packs, a 3700 William hour battery, and it just flat-out gets decent at best battery life, but most of the time, it's really just terrible I mean I struggle to get 5 to 6 hours of usage before needing to charge my phone again and this bad battery life is especially noticeable when you come from a phone like the iPhone 11 Pro Max, which has the best battery life of any phone in 2019.

So I don't struggle to get like 10 to 12 hours, I usually get like 10 hours at least AB usage on my iPhone 11 Pro max on a single charge usually lasts me all day. No problem and yes, I've tried all the battery saving techniques. I've tried dark mode. I've tried. Turning off the 90 Hertz refresh rate I've tried all those things, but still the battery life is just not good on the pixel 4 and being an 800 to a thousand dollar phone.

That's just a huge BEST for Apple, especially when other phones in the exact same price range. Can double the battery life of the pixel for Pixel 4 XL? Now, with that being said, the pixel 4 does charge up faster than the iPhones, but still most people just care about how long that battery will last not how long it's going to charge up most people don't want to be tethered to a charger all the time. Battery life isn't the only thing I missed from my iPhone, though I did also miss CarPlay I mean sure I have Android auto as well, but CarPlay is just so much better, especially in iOS 13. It's come a long way. I used to actually think Android.

Auto is better than CarPlay but CarPlay. Nowadays, it's just awesome. CarPlay just looks better. It performs better, it's just a lot less clunky than Android auto, and just my preference for in-car entertainment and in-car navigation and things like that, but at the end of the day, both still produce the same result. So I think that the big reason I missed CarPlay, which is because I've been so used to it lately.

I also missed the seamless connection to my ear pods, which of course, I do use every single day. I was still able to connect them to my pixel, but it just took much longer because they don't auto connect when I put them in my ears, like they do with my iPhone, just open up the case. They're auto connected right away, you're good to go, but with a pixel you have to sit there and connect to them, and everything like that. It's a little of a hassle, favor I'm used to that's another thing. I missed coming from the iPhone, oh and a big thing.

I missed right away as well. Coming from the iPhone was airdrop, and this is something I noticed when I transferred over all those pictures and videos. I showed you earlier. The comparisons I had to transfer all those to my computer. Now I was able to do that from my iPhone to my Mac super easy I, just pressed them press airdrop.

It was sent over in like less than two minutes, like 1.5 gigabytes of files sent over in less than 2 minutes, but with the pixel. If I wanted to wirelessly transfer, all those photos and videos over to my computer I literally had to upload them to Google Drive and then download them on my computer, and then you know save them to my computer, so that took about like 15 minutes compared to like 2 minutes on the iPhone, so I definitely missed something like airdrop and, of course, I can't make an Android versus iOS video without mentioning iMessage, of course, I severely missed iMessage on the iPhone. You don't have anything like that. No other texting platform comes close to iMessage on the Android, so I didn't miss that, but again not a huge deal. I just personally would not be able to live without iMessage permanently.

Oh, and I did also miss not having to worry about storage, because with the pixel 4 it only comes in 64 and 128 gigabyte variants, with no expandable storage with the iPhone. It goes from 64 to 512 gigabytes. So overall, the pixel for Excel is a great phone. It's just kind of overshadowed by its competitors. I feel like it's released at a very weird time.

It's released after the Samsung phones. After the note, after the iPhone after the OnePlus- and they come back with just two cameras and kind of lacking in a lot of areas like battery life as well, so it's really confusing as to why Google releases this phone at the time they do with the features they use and especially that snapdragon 855 instead of the 855 plus a little confusing and a little behind the competitors. So it's definitely not going to be the best value, but if you're, a big fan of the pixel phones and especially the camera, and maybe some of that new radar technology, the emotion, scents and things like that. Those could be reasons to pick up. The pixel for Excel I would prefer the Excel just because of the bigger screen.

But that's up to you. But again the display is awesome. ?, the lack of brightness, it's a great display, also unlocking the phone with your face, is superfast and convenient again. Motion sense could be a game changer with some software updates and the software experience overall is terrific and very reminiscent of iOS. Like the whole software experience with the pixel for Excel and when I say that they pixel 4, isn't the best value.

I say that because they pick so for Excel starts at $8.99 for a 64 gigabyte model and $9.99 for a 128 gigabyte model, and with that price in mind, you can get an iPhone 11 Pro max for just $200 more with that additional $200 you're going to get better battery life, better video recording, double the brightness, better, build quality and additional ultra-wide lens and better OS optimization in terms of like iOS updates compared to Android updates. So when you factor in the price and makes the pixel for a pretty tough Buy and 2090, especially at the end of 2019, I, think that if they practiced it a couple of hundred bucks cheaper, it would definitely be a great Buy. But at this price tag it's just kind of iffy. But that's just my opinion. Let me know what you guys think about the price point everything about the biggest of 4 down in the comment section below.

Of course, I am very curious to see what you guys have to say about this phone I love responding to you guys down there as well. So let me know all of your thoughts compared to the competitors like the iPhone, the note 10, the s10 one plus 70. Let me know everything you're thinking down there and if you guys enjoyed this video I would appreciate it if you gave it a thumbs up and, of course make sure you do subscribe. So you don't miss any of my future pixel videos, iPhone videos, comparisons, all that fun stuff coming to the channel for the foreseeable future, but anyways guys thanks you for watching, and I'll see you soon.

Source : Brandon Butch