Pixel 4 XL: I'm Switching Back! By Sam Beckman

So over the last year, I've been lucky enough to have had the opportunity to switch between different smartphone devices. I've used the OnePlus 8 Pro, the Galaxy S 20, plus the Xiaomi mean on TV LG, V, 50 and yet for every single device after I finished reviewing them. I've always found myself nearly immediately. Switching my sim back to the pixel for Excel, you see at launch. The pixel for Excel was undoubtedly a polarizing device, and it was often in the headlines for all the things that have got wrong rather than the things that it got right and yet, after all this time there are just so many things about this device that keeps me coming back to it, and so I wanted to dedicate an entire video to exploring all of these features, to figure out and identify why I find it so hard to move to any other device permanently. So, let's dive in so, let's start with the design, love it or hate it.

One thing is for sure: it's one of the most recognizable on the market over the past year or two we've seen so many smartphone devices that have been released that just have such similar design languages, glossy backs vivid, bright color ways, metal rails and, whilst they're all definitely high-end in premium. No doubt to be, quite frankly, they've become a little boring and so with the pixel 4xl. Having this matte finish for the glass on the back and the rails on the sides, as well as that colored accented power button and the bold color contrast between the camera unit and the rails on the sides compared to the color of the back of the phone I. Don't know it just. It feels different and that's become quite enticing to come back to after using all these other phones that just feel very much the same, and I'll top of that just feels way more secure in the hands, particularly compared to all of these glass and metal phones that I've been using on and off and so from the design to the display and whilst pixel phones have never been known for having the brightest panels on the market, there are two things that make them really nice to use.

The first is their flat. None of these curved edges. So for that, thank you. Google and the second are they're calibrated really nicely so many manufacturers, in fact pretty much all manufacturers bar Apple and Google, tend to calibrate their displays so that they are super punchy and vibrant. Whilst on the surface it may seem like this is the right thing to do.

It ends up just making them feel a little. Cartoon, there's actually quite a noticeable difference compared to the way that Google calibrates their displays and, to be honest, I prefer the way that Google does it in terms of cameras I'm not going to spend too long on this one, because, whilst the competition has made some significant improvements over the past two years to tighten the gap in between themselves and Google in regard to image quality, no one and I mean no one does post-process like Google does primarily for pictures I'm, honestly, just so much more confident with having a pixel phone in my pocket to take images than I. Am any other device look back when we were doing the whole gathering with other people thing. If anyone wanted to take a group picture, I was always so happy to hand over my pixel for Excel to be the device that was used to take the image, because I was so confident. Everyone else would be really happy with the end result when I'm using other phones, I'm genuinely not as confident, and sometimes I'm, even reluctant to hand over the phone.

So that's the cameras, but perhaps the biggest reason that I keep feeling the drawback to people devices, and you know what I'm going to say: don't you yeah it's the software I've never really sat down to figure out what it is exactly about the pixels' software that keeps me coming back, but I think in preparation for this video I've finally figured it out, and it comes down to four main aspects. The always-on display implementation, the animations on show throughout the integration between the software experience and the haptic motor and the super regular and reliable software updates that genuinely improve the experience of using the phone. That's it just four aspects that, for me, Google does way better than the competition and some have gotten close, like Samsung's always-on display and one plus's use of the haptic motor, but even when they've gotten close I still prefer Google's way of doing it. There's one final aspect of the pixel for Excel. That has really won me over and that's face unlock, but more specifically face unlock with motion sense.

Therefore, all the gimmicky aspects of motion sense like switching back and forth between tracks, which I switched off pretty quickly after I first started using the phone, the best and most underrated part of it is how seamless it makes using face unlock, and this was made all the more evident when I was recently using the OnePlus 8 pro. So OnePlus have a really, really fast, albeit much less secure, face unlock that feels just about as fast, probably even faster in some cases than what Google's faced on lock ears, but to get it to activate I have to lift the phone tap the display, then it will start registering my face, and then I can swipe to unlock with the pixel, for all I do is lift the phone and the screen becomes activated and is ready to go and because it's face unlock is also really fast by the time I swipe to the lock screen. It's already scanned my face, and I'm in and using my phone, it's one of those things once you start using it. You just get used to how seamless it makes the experience of using your phone and then, when you stop using it, you really miss it, and so I'm hoping Google can figure out a way to maintain the fearlessness if they do get rid of the solid radar, as some rumors have suggested in the pixel 5 lineups later this year. So there it is seemingly just a few small aspects on the surface.

But ultimately these are the features that Google have done so well. That they've made it really hard for me to use any other device.

Source : Sam Beckman