Pixel 4 Review: Android Deserves Better By Jon Rettinger

It's called Android this one with the same software experience that we ship on our Nexus devices Google's journey into phones is interesting and fascinating, dating all the way. Back to the very first Android phone that we saw, the HTC dream there had been rumors of the mythical Google phone coming, and we finally had it, and we saw what Google's version or operating system could be and should be, but that was on somebody else's hardware and that theme continued. The Nexus line of phones, but ultimately relying on another manufacturer to give your vision isn't always the best way to go, so Google got into the game themselves, with the very first pixel and from the get-go. We saw that that phone was going to be about software updates, Android experience and camera. So now, as we enter the fourth generation her, does that pixel promise still hold true? Do you get what Google's told you're going to get where's it a bait-and-switch? When you pick up the pixel for the pixel for Excel, most people seem to fall in one of two camps: either. It is an antiquated old design that continues an ugly legacy of pixel phones or its industrial.

It's useful its function over form and there's beauty in that and I. Think I'm more in the latter camp, and I've been tough on pixels designs in the passing they've been uninspired and rather ugly I'm, starting to really dig the way. The pixel four looks the way the pixel four feels. If you go back and look at the legacy of pixel phones, there's been certainly strong points in the camera side, but the screens have always been a weak point, an Achilles heel on what the phone was capable of, and you're dealing with a device where you have to use the screen to do everything. The screens have to be good and appears that google has heard those complaints and has really stepped up their screen game.

Here with the four and the four XL I love a 90 Hertz display it's by no means necessary at all. It's the whipped cream on top of a sundae. You don't need it, but you're really happy that it's there. It generally makes things scroll, smoother, look better I. Just generally like the way the screen looks, and I commend Google for not just putting in a better screen but for putting in one of the best screens on phones.

But there are some caveats: does not get that bright and if you're indoors, not an issue at all. If you use the phone outdoors, a lot say at your kids' soccer game and trying to get some pictures, you're gonna notice, the screen does not get that bright might be an issue for some might not be but bear in mind and depending on how you want to use your phone, so I'm going to tell you guys a secret here. I, never liked fingerprints unlock on any phone by any manufacturer. If my fingers were wet or dirty, they never worked that. Well, maybe I don't have deep fingerprints.

They never worked that well. For me, so I was happy to see Google start introducing now face unlock and that's really nice to happen. I am for redundancy I think it would've been a nice addition to have a fingerprint lock in addition to the face and the pin the passcode that you get with Android phones, but face unlock is here, and it works really fast, like insanely fast. If you've used face ID on an iPhone, that's quick! This isn't the next level fast, but again, good and bad and a lot with your eyes closed. That doesn't particularly bother me, but I can see that could be a security concern for others, and maybe I, don't like the fact that someone could hold my phone up while I'm sleeping get access to all of my information.

There's a lot of new stuff that are got introduced with the pixel for line of phones, motion, sense, formerly, project Sully was one of those potentially huge deals. It's using a radar, which is a wild thing to have in a phone, essentially know what you're doing with your hand as it exists right now, an essential launch window, the usefulness could be debated, you could swipe songs, left and right, and I'll know when you're picking up your phone- and you know tell you if you haven't lifted for an alarm and make the sounds quieter, that's really it what's exciting about. It is the future what it can be with software and how that can improve and give you more utility with your phone or somebody with disabilities. This could be a really nice thing to have, but as it stands again now it's more of a novelty than actually utility, so internals on the phone you have a snapdragon 55 and six gigs of ram, which is nice.855 is a very capable processor. I would have liked to have seen the best version of the processor that was out on shipping and that's not what we have with the 855.

Now that put aside on the good, it's still very capable anything I want to do on the phone was quick. It was buttery, smooth, I had no issue with the RAM management or things slowing down, but if you keep the phone for one two years after that, one year, the 18-month period, that's when you're gonna, like the extra Headroom that you would get from a 55 plus, but unlike the processor, which is still probably gonna, be good for years to come, I can't wrap my head around the storage options.64 gig standard and I have lambasted Apple for doing the same thing on their iPhone line. That makes it very little sad on any device. Now, maybe you're, not the kind of person. It uses a lot of internal storage, you back stuff up in the cloud a lot.

That's fine I get that. But at this price point where Google is playing the expectation for more should be there. They have the option for a hundred bucks to go to 128. But that's it. You are capped out at how ten twenty-eight gigs of storage no expandability options here.

That is the most you are ever going to have in your phone. So if you're shooting a lot of video you're downloading a lot of songs, you want to have a lot of movies for flight. You are perpetually going to be limited with how much you can put on your device. So on the software side, of course, it's Android ten and part of that pixel promise is. You will always have the latest version of Android, at least for a few years, and the pixel brings some new stuff to table that I've, never seen before the real-time transcription seems like magic.

It's not perfect! You must people talking. It's not going to work that great, but a one-on-one conversation. It's super accurate in the fact that it's happening on device is even more amazing and also on device is Google Assistant, which is already amazing. Furthermore, it is now even more so because it happens faster I, like the new UI and I will a hundred out of a hundred times prefer to talk to Google's assistant, then any other assistants out there. The rest of Android 10 is Android 10, it's quick! It's fast! It's really elegant and it works well.

I, like the gestures like how they handle multitasking, we've seen it before, but it is probably the best version of Android 10, because you know it's made by Google. I got a real hard time with the pixel for finding anything positive to say when it comes to battery life. If you saw our versus video I thought my pixel for the smaller version was broken during my first week of testing. I could not get through a full day and I haven't had that experience with any device. That I can at least remember I.

Think a 90 Hertz screen is amazing. It makes the phone better, but it's harder on battery life and to make the William hours on the pixel for battery smaller than the three is a head-scratching decision. Now, maybe there will be software updates, Fix, optimization issues, maybe they'll fix management or processes, something going on inside that device to make battery life better and I. Imagine that they probably will but right now it is the worst battery life tested phone. That I can ever remember testing.

Now it does get better on the Big Brother, the Excel, which I had to switch to kind of midway. Through my testing process, you can get through a full day with the Excel, if you're debating a pixel for, and you're, not sure which one to get go to the big one. I promise you, you will not regret it and be able to last a full day without having a chargeable. So you can't talk about a pixel without focusing on the camera and for past generations of pixel phones. The camera systems has been so much better than pretty much anything else out there.

You could overlook some shortcomings. Those phones had well, the other manufacturers have stepped up their game, and competition has gotten really fierce with this generation of phones and, that's not to say, the camera other pixel for are bad because they are certainly not the stills that come out of the camera are still amongst the best in the industry. The new HDR plus is working overtime. It does an amazing job, coupled with the new white balance, to make pictures really pop and see detail and things. Ordinarily, you wouldn't see the detail in you've: got do old control dials, where, if you want to get into it, you can control the shadows and the highlights sort of give you almost a silhouette, and it's not to say that any of this is night and day difference than the pixel three.

But a lot of that is due to software. What Google does on the software side to make those images look amazing, but there's new hardware here over the pixel 3 we've got to tell a photo camera now, and I know a lot of folks maybe fall in the ultra-wide camp. They would have preferred it maybe I'm in the minority, but I really like having the telephoto option them. But what's weird is there's no button that lets me automatically? Do the zoom after you either double tap or do a pinch to zoom to try to get to that two times. It's a weird omission.

Hopefully again, software fix that weird shortcoming. Portrait mode on the pixel four is like next-level, amazing and again improving from your already amazing pixel. Three think it does a really solid job of cutting out hair of people of animals of sweaters. The portrait modes really look good. The pixel four does a really admirable job with their night mode.

Now it's a separate toggle. You switch two pictures, look perfect in situations where you could not take any pictures, a lot of shots. You can make them look like you almost took them in daylight. Now there is still some noise that you'd expect from kind of the magic that's going on the software side, but it can take an almost dark shot and make it look like something you can use and want to look at, so I've been talking about the macrophotography mode, which does stuff that I have never seen a smartphone do and just goes to show what Google can do its kind of their ultimate flex for how their software and hardware and come together to give something unique in the industry. So all of those things some version of either good or amazing, video on the pixel- has definitely been an Achilles heel and that continues with the pixel.

For now, the video that you do get with the maxima solution of 4k 30, look good. This able is a skin is pretty solid. The HDR effect is pretty decent. It's not a bad video. It just doesn't match the amazing quality you get from the still side.

But what is super weird is Google, saying we're going to max out what you can shoot at we're going to tell you the resolutions, you don't have the option to go to 4k 24, 4k, 60p built, saying people don't shoot at those anyway. It takes up too much space on your phone just use this. Instead, that sounds more like an Apple way of doing things. Saying here's what you're going to use like it or go somewhere else. Google's been all about choice.

Let the consumer choose what they want. It's a head scratcher why they would do that with the phone when the hardware is very clearly capable of doing 4k at variable frame rates, so I can't say unequivocally. The pixel for camera system is the best in industry. Now it's not a knock on the pixel things who are a compliment to how good the competition has gotten, but the camera system that you have is amongst the best and every still you take will be some version of perfect. If you use video passing there You've on video that'll work well enough or for Instagram or Facebook, the video side is going to be fine.

If you want the best video out there, pixel is not going to be for you, but if you want the best still photography out there, I would still look the pixels away pixel for is kind of a strange device. It does something so amazingly well and some things I cannot understand. So I got eight hundred dollars and then have a phone. That's not gonna. Last me a whole day, or I have to change how I use it.

It's a hard one to recommend that if you want to step up and go to the Excel you're, paying even more money, if you want even more storage you're, adding a hundred dollars on top of that, what you have with the pixel is a really cool idea and I love. When software manufacturers make their own hardware, you've got the surface laptop the iPhone and now the pixel, the makers of that software, giving you what should be the best version of their software hardware. They have control over and that's sort of the pixel promise. This is what Android could be and should be as Google sees it, and perhaps the beauty of Android is that not everybody sees the operands in the same way. Samsung's got one vision will always get another LG another but Google the maker of Android.

This is how they envision Android to be so. You pick up this phone, or you blindly walk at the store and want to buy it. You should be getting the best Android experience going and that's just not always the case. You.

Source : Jon Rettinger