GOOGLE PIXEL 4 XL REVIEW

Google Pixel 4 XLfull review

After one of the most leaky trips to the market in the history of smartphones, Google Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL are finally on store shelves so you can pick them up.

In true Pixel style, both phones offer clean designs, promise top-notch photographic intelligence and the purest version of Android that exists, with a polishing level unique to Google. At the same time, a myriad of decisions have been made that raise some eyebrows, both in the context of the phones themselves and in their positioning in the current telephone market.



As the name implies, the Pixel 4 XL shares the talents, styles and characteristics of its brothers, but pushes the experience through a larger footprint; which means that it has a larger screen, body and battery to work.

Price and availability: small savings

Despite the flood of leaks in advance, the keynote ‘Made by Google’ that took place in October 2019 served as the setting for the official debut Pixel 4. After launch, the phones were made available for pre-order and were ready to purchase as of October 24, in various markets, including the US UU. And the United Kingdom ..

At least in the UK, the Pixel 4 and 4 XL are actually a bit less expensive compared to last year's Pixel 3 series, which started at RS 85,000 and RS 95,000  for the base models, respectively. The Pixel 4 starts at RS 85,000 for the 64GB model and costs RS 95,000 for the 128GB version, while the 4 XL starts at RS 95,000 and also costs 15,000 when it doubles the storage.

For the first time, Pixel fans, Statside, can choose both phones of this generation in all major operators in the country: AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, Xfinity, Spectrum and Google Fi. In the United Kingdom, if you are not buying directly from Google, these devices are also available in our most important players: Vodafone, EE, O2, Three and Carphone Warehouse.

It is also worth noting that the “Oh So Orange” version of both sizes of Pixel 4 is considered a special edition and, as such, can only be had with 64 GB of internal storage.

Design and construction: reductive but still different

The pixel design language has always been clean, but the 4 and 4 XL bring such styles to their extremes.
While Google has included touches of color, there is no rainbow gradient like the one you will find in a modern Huawei phone, nor are there striking “diamond-reflective geometric mosaics,” as found on the back of the Honor 9X - these Phones are minimalist and unobtrusive by design.



Instead, you have the option of choosing between three flat colors with capricious names: only black, clearly white and oh so orange. The 'visor' that once defined the back of each Pixel phone is gone, replaced instead by a continuous glass slab that is only marked by the important camera module of the phone at the top and the 'G' Monochromatic Google logo near the bottom. It was a touch that made the Pixel line easily recognizable and we are sad to see it on this fourth generation phone.

The black model we tested is easily the least exciting of the three colors available and, therefore, the best option for those who plan to paste the phone into a case or skin from the first moment. The bright back of the phone is as prone to fingerprints as it seems, but at least it serves as a subtle contrast to the rounded matte black aluminum frame that extends around the edge of the phone (note: it is always black regardless of the Pixel color That you choose).

A characteristic feature of Pixel that it has is an accented power key, which is white in the black Pixel, orange in the white model and peach / pink in the orange variant, an element that adds a playful touch to the almost utilitarian aesthetic of the telephone.



For those who pick up the Clearly White or Oh So Orange pixels, Google has opted for the frosted glass on the back instead of the brightness, which changes the look and feel of the phone and highlights the similarity with its more similar rival, the iPhone 11 series. In addition, that large camera module in the upper left corner is also within the bounds of a black squirrel, again, just like this year's iPhones.

The rounded metal frame is broken only with that embedded physical power key, a volume control (which we were surprised to find feels a bit wobbly) and a USB-C port at the base of the phone. The headphone jack escaped from Pixel's recipe after the first generation, but this year Google hasn't even included USB-C headphones or a USB-C connector adapter to headphone jack in the box.



The company expects that most users already rely on Bluetooth headsets, like the new truly wireless Pixel Buds they are working on by spring 2020. However, if you want to connect, you can pay Google £ / $ 12 for Your official USB-C. to a jack connector or take your USB-C Pixel headphones for £ / $ 30.

If you like simplicity in the aesthetics of your smartphone, the Pixel 4 XL should be on your street. Its clean lines and contrasting textures are particularly nice to see in Clearly White and has the best build quality we've seen on Google so far.

Sense of movement and security: look but don't touch

For some reason, Google always struggles with the bezels around the screens of its smartphones. They have always been relatively large compared to what there is at the moment, since the original Pixel 2016 ..

The culmination of Google ATAP's efforts with Project Soli, the Pixel 4 XL comes with what Google has described as ‘Motion Sense’ and adds some unique features to the phone's skill set. Essentially a small radar chip programmed to recognize certain gestures, Motion Sense is the reason why the top edge of the Pixel 4 XL bezel is so noticeable.



Motion Sense creates a ‘bubble’ of proximity around the phone that detects several actions. When you are near the phone, activate the screen always on, which makes it easy to check the time and your notifications without the screen having to be really ‘always on’.

With a movement of the hand, you can skip tracks in the likes of Spotify and by holding or waving your hand when you are on the home screen, you can interact with the exclusive Pokémon 'Wave Hello' wallpaper of the phone, which features animated versions from Pikachu, Eevee and the three eighth generation initiators, all of which react to your actions.

This inclusion is a seemingly random association, but no less than Google's previous deals with the likes of the Star Wars and Childish Gambino franchise, within its Playground AR application, it seems.

As for the hardware itself, Motion Sense works best in general detection: actions such as lifting to wake up the face unlock seem almost perfect, while swiping or moving the screen to change the song you hear can be a bit more successful - and-miss.

There is a definite gift to decipher the consistent correct behavior of Motion Sense and even then, despite an intelligent implementation, it does not seem to be a technology that changes the game that Google might expect people to think it is. Perhaps, if there are more applications compatible with Motion Sense gestures and it becomes more frequent throughout the user experience, its value will become more evident, but that is a fairly large "yes."


There is also the issue of facial recognition of the phone, which is now the main means of biometric authentication in Pixel 4, used for everything from unlocking the phone to authenticating purchases. It is fast, as the face is unlocked, probably the fastest, although even slower than the Pixel Imprint fingerprint sensor found in previous pixels (mainly limited by the fact that the phone needs to see your face to start the unlock ).

The change also means that you can no longer swipe to verify your notification panel from anywhere within the user interface, but you can only remove the shortcut of the swipe down gesture when you are on the main home screen of the telephone.

Facial recognition technology works well in low light, thanks to the structured IR light system instead, but unlike Apple's Face ID, it is not necessary to have your eyes open to unlock your device, prompting concern about Pixel 4 security ..

Google says it is working to add open-eye authentication as a requirement, but the company says it will take months to put the function into operation. If you are concerned that someone enters your phone using your face while you sleep, you will have to settle for the most traditional PIN or pattern at the moment.

It is also worth noting that, in its current form, the Soli radar technology that drives Motion Sense prevents Google from selling the Pixel 4 series in India.

Screen: strong and soft

The 6.3-inch OLR HDR screen of the 4 XL is narrower than that of the similarly sized panel in its predecessor, as a result of a higher aspect ratio of 19: 9 (compared to 18: 9 above). The extended QHD + resolution also makes the XL the sharpest Pixel of this generation (the standard Pixel 4 uses a Full HD + resolution screen).



As expected, it is pleasantly sharp and, thanks to that OLED technology, it also offers intense colors. The viewing angles are promising, almost without distortion and with a minimum decrease in brightness, however, the overall brightness is not as strong as we would have liked; struggling to withstand bright lighting conditions to a greater extent than its more like competitors, especially when seen outdoors.

Google has also opted for particularly large radii in each of the rounded corners of the screen, which can actually affect the viewing experience, especially when looking at media with a 21: 9 aspect ratio or greater; trim the corners with disjointed rounding that leaves the content looking awkward.

The company has included smart screen technology in the Pixel 4 XL to sweeten the pot, such as Screen Attention, which keeps the screen on whenever the phone detects that you are looking at it, as well as Environmental Equalizer: Google-brand (also appears in Nest Company hubs) for Apple's TrueTone technology. It alters the white balance of the screen to counteract the changing conditions of external lighting, in order to offer a more consistent visual experience.



Digging, you will find some basic color gamut controls to adjust the images on the DCI-P3 certified panel of the phone even more if you choose, too.

However, the outstanding feature of the screen has to be the new Smooth Display capability, which is again the pixel language for a refresh rate of 90Hz. It is a feature that has already appeared on the most recent devices of Razer, Asus and OnePlus, but this is the first time that Google uses the technology in a phone.

It offers a super smooth movement on the screen that makes the Pixel 4 XL feel really fast to use; as if the hardware was never really sweating. Most likely, you will notice it when you swipe around the main user interface and the app drawer, but it will appear everywhere. By default, it is a dynamic function, with the phone changing to 60Hz when possible to save energy.

You can disable Smooth Display from the phone's configuration menu quite easily, but it is more difficult to force the phone to remain in 90Hz mode all the time. Some of the first Pixel 4 users have discovered that the phone is designed to change from 90Hz to 60Hz every time the brightness drops below 75%, since it is less likely to notice its absence in such circumstances. Probably in the pursuit of energy preservation, Google has hidden the ability to maintain the 90Hz mode all the time behind developer options.

If you feel lenient, the 90Hz screen is a good addition that helps reinforce the feeling of the Pixel user experience, since without effort, if you are more worried about longevity, however, it is recommended to turn it off.

Software and functions: at your entire disposal

Being the last flagship of Google, the Pixel 4 XL also includes the recently launched Android 10. The hardware has been specially designed to show the latest and best features of Google's mobile operating system and, for the most part, the Pixel reaches its objective in this regard.

A big change sees that much of the Google Assistant skill set moves on the device thanks to the inclusion of the new Pixel Neural Core. This makes it a safer, more impressive and faster Assistant experience.

With a refined gesture-based navigation on Android 10 that resembles the current iOS navigation settings, Google Assistant can now be invoked by swiping up at any of the bottom corners of the screen, as well as through «Hey , Google «Wake up word or squeeze active edges found in the previous two generations of Pixel.



In addition to the ongoing conversation, which allows you to add follow-up queries in relation to your initial question without the need to repeat the use of your activation word (s), there are a number of other new accessibility features that use AI and voice to speed up the interaction in the pixel.

The feature can be thrown by excessive background noise and, even if the option is enabled, blank obscenities sometimes reappear once the recordings last a long time.

There is also the option of live subtitles, which provide automatically generated on-screen text to any spoken word from any audio or video source on the device, even when headphones are used or when the volume is lowered. While they are not necessarily correct 100% of the time, they seem to offer greater accuracy than automatic YouTube subtitles, for example, not to mention the fact that they work throughout the system and are available instantly, everything is very impressive.



The caveat to such characteristics is that, beyond the journalistic community or in scenarios such as conferences, live transcription only offers an attractive niche. There is also quite a considerable warning that, at least at this time, you must ensure that your Pixel 4 is set to US English. UU. And don't have G Suite accounts (Google business accounts) on your device either. For some reason, if one of these criteria is not met, virtually all new functions other than Assistant and AI that we have just mentioned cannot be accessed.

Camera: new sensor, new experiences

The camera is possibly one of the greatest assets of the Pixel series. For the past two generations, Google has not really played with the 12MP main sensor running on its flagship phones, but rather has raised the hardware with amazing computational photography intelligence. In Pixel 4 and 4 XL, things are a bit different.



Computational photography is still the name of the game here, but, for the first time in a Pixel, there is also a secondary rear sensor sitting next to the 12MP main of the phone; A new 16MP telephoto camera to support the zoom and depth detection capabilities of the phone.

Before talking about image quality, the first question should be why Google opted for a telephoto module as a secondary sensor of the Pixel. For one of all the phones of the last 18 months, the Pixel 3 series possibly offered the best digital zoom (called "Super Res Zoom"), so adding a physical zoom lens seems relatively useless, especially when there is something The only thing that can be achieved with the software is the ability to capture a wide-angle perspective.

This is an enigma that Apple also addressed with the base of the iPhone 11, opting for a secondary wide-angle sensor, which we believe would also make more sense in the Pixel. There is also the issue of depth detection support that facilitates a second sensor.

Google has already been able to add background bokeh to portrait shots by reading the depth between two different pixels on the same sensor, now, with the secondary lens of 4 and 4 XL, you can do the same trick between the two sensors.

Beyond the odd choice of telephoto versus ultra-wide, Google has added some new camera features powered by software that really impress.



Night Sight surprised users last year, turning seemingly impossibly dark scenes into well-exposed and usable shots; Now, Google has taken the concepts that drive Night Sight and expanded them to give the 4 and 4 XL the ability to capture stars in the night sky and even the likes of the Milky Way, with a new astrophotography capture capability.

The mode is automatically available when shooting at night sky, while the phone is mounted perfectly stable, ideally (but not explicitly) on a tripod. Astrophotography takes several minutes (up to four) to capture and, although the duration of exposure may vary, the longer the better.

With the fundamental aspect of doing or undoing that affects the quality of the image and falls to the exposure time.

As impressive as astrophotography is on a phone, it is a feature that, in truth, offers a special appeal. Two more practices include Live HDR +, which offers a more accurate approximation of how HDR + shots will look after capture, directly from the viewfinder, and dual exposure controls, so you can adjust the upper and lower exposure values together to control reflections and darkness. areas of a scene before capture.

As with last year's phones, the real image quality is excellent, with a large dynamic range (which now has the ability to manipulate before capture), precise colors and capable noise suppression, even in low light. We were impressed by the samples captured under artificial light, which retain more color information and details that rival devices could process, without letting the images look excessively processed.

In typical Pixel fashion, the 4 XL shoots a little on the cool side, but that can be fixed in the post if you wish, and the colors 'highlight' maybe a little too much when using Night Sight at sunset or in scenarios where there are still numerous sources of artificial light at hand. The reworked 12MP F / The 1.7 main sensor also offers better color and contrast compared to the 16MP F / 2.4 telephoto lens.

Portrait shots offer a nice level of bokeh by default, which really has the ability to vary after the photo was taken, skin tones appear accurate, faces do not suffer a softness similar to a doll and the only complaint real is that the phone Depth mapping, especially around patterned fabrics and hair, can be confused too easily.



For selfie fans, Google really removed the wide-angle secondary camera that lived in the front of the Pixel 3 series, instead of extending the view of the single sensor located inside the thick top bezel of the Pixel 4 XL to about 90 degrees. Whenever you are well with the new broader perspective, the selfies have a decent amount of detail, usually they are well exposed and pleasant to see in general.

The color and contrast capture are weaker when taken with the front camera, but the fact that most of the main camera's functions, including night vision and dual exposure control, are still accessible, is quite impressive, allowing you to recover some points.

There is a video recording of up to 4K at 30 fps and it looks good, but ‘OK’ really isn't enough at this level. Rival devices offer 4K recording at up to 60 fps, better motion, color and contrast capture and, consequently, more pleasant images. Google has been credited with claiming that 4K / 60fps files would be too large, but instead of omitting the ability to shoot with such quality, when the hardware is sufficiently capable of accommodating it, it would have made sense to simply offer greater storage capacities.

Performance and battery: enough

Speaking of storage, as mentioned in the pricing section, both the 4 and the 4 XL come with 64 GB or 128 GB of storage, and since it is pixels, there is no microSD expansion capability to speak. With just over 12 GB of that space occupied by the operating system, it seems that living with a 64 GB Pixel above its average two-year plan could be a challenge for some, something that could be a serious concern for those who opt for the Oh Then, the orange version, which is only available with 64 GB of storage.



Google offers unlimited backups of photos and videos through Google Photos, but the promise of backups in original quality, free of charge, once a Pixel staple is no longer part of the equation with Pixel 4 and 4 XL As such, if you want to keep that benefit, you will have to pay more to get additional storage through Google Drive or Google One.

While the price of Pixels this year has dropped a bit, both are still priced as full-fledged flagships, but despite their position, Google has opted for the oldest and marginally less powerful Snapdragon 855 chipset. Qualcomm introduced a more powerful revision of the chip later in 2019 called 855+, which places a great emphasis on games and has become the chip of choice for almost all the flagship Android phones launched in the second half of the year, except the Pixel 4 and 4 XL.

The benchmarking highlights both the disparity between the two original 855 and the revised 855+, as well as the graphic success that the 4 XL supports compared to the 4 as a result of its higher resolution screen.

The effect comes from three main factors, backed by the nature of Google's clean Android 10 experience: the Pixel Neural Core, with its processing intelligence on the device, the increase from 4GB to 6GB of RAM between generations and the super screen soft 90Hz. The game also seems flawless, without a lost frame, even while playing more demanding titles.

The only concern is the phone's propensity to heat quickly to remarkable levels. Even a few minutes of play make the top left of the phone warm up reasonably, while charging has a similar effect. This is not something we found in previous Pixels and suggests that the company should have studied more robust cooling mechanisms before launch.

Even before Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL were released, concerns about the battery life of these phones arose and the reality of that concern has been met since then, especially with the smaller 2800 mAh battery of the Pixel 4. Without However, things are not so bleak for the XL model, since Google has fortunately used the extra space to give the phone a larger cell of 3700 mAh.

Despite the larger power pack, the XL battery is still relatively small in The flagship phone space. Consider the QHD + resolution of the phone and the addition of that 90Hz refresh rate and the energy demands on such a triggered battery.

While the artificial benchmark puts it in the same league as the battery giants, such as the Huawei Mate 30 Pro and the OnePlus 7T Pro, in real conditions, the phone's performance is much less impressive. Usually, it distributes a little more than five hours of screen time per charge and that charge will only be sufficient to last the use of a normal day.

While it is fair to say that people with battery anxiety may want to look elsewhere, there is little hope for the longevity of the Pixel. The phone comes with AI-powered adaptive battery technology that learns your habits and manages the phone's resources and power management more closely, the more you use it.

With the short time we have lived with the Pixel 4 XL, there is a possibility that energy management has not yet been optimized for our usage habits. As such, we will probably check the battery performance after about a month, to see if the image is brighter.

In terms of charging, the fast charging of 18 W endures from previous generations of Pixel, while the integrated Qi wireless charging has fortunately increased from 5 W to 11 W, whether you are using Google's own Pixel Stand or not .

Verdict



Does the Pixel 4 XL do what Google intended and shows the best of Android right now? Something like…

The new features of the built-in Phone Assistant, powered by that enhanced Pixel Neural Core and Motion Sense, are at a distance from what any other phone can offer right now, the Android 10 experience is wonderfully clean and responsive, thanks to party to that new 90Hz screen. and the camera has some impressive new features, most of which cannot be obtained anywhere else.

However, despite all the innovation that Google has poured into its latest Pixel, it seems that everything comes with a fairly significant warning.

The performance is excellent, but it lags behind the competition because Google opted for the old Snapdragon 855 processor, which will age faster. The battery will probably be too small for the needs and expectations of most users, just doing a day with considered use.

The 90Hz screen is excellent, but it is not as bright as its competitors and as a result it can be problematic for some users. Google opted for a telephoto sensor when its zoom capabilities were already so good that an ultra wide angle lens would have added greater versatility to the camera experience. Motion Sense is interesting, but it is far from being an essential feature that some users would have been happy to live without benefiting from the thinner bezels.

The Google Pixel 4 XL is a great device in an excellent market and, although it fulfills the promises made by its creators, it is likely that it does not meet the expectations of most users, stumbling upon the fundamentals rather than with the New experimental technologies. in offer.

Specs

Google Pixel 4 XL: specifications

• 5.7in + 90Hz Quad HD OLED soft screen (537ppi) with environmental EQ and Gorilla Glass 5
• Android 10
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 eight-core processor
• Adreno 640 GPU
• Pixel Neural Core
• 6 GB of RAM
• 64GB / 128GB storage, does not support microSD
• 12.2Mp rear camera (f / 1.7, 77 °) with dual pixel phase detection and optical image stabilization
• 16Mp telephoto camera (f / 2.4, 52 °) with phase detection and optical image stabilization 8Mp front camera (f / 2.0 90 °)
• Later video: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
• Front video: [email protected]
• Facial unlocking
• Active edge
• Sense of movement
• IP68 waterproofing
• Stereo speakers
• Nano SIM simple
• Bluetooth 5.0
• Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz + 5 GHz 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac 2x2MIMO
• NFC
• USB-C 3.1
• 2800mAh battery
• Fast charging by 18 W cable
• Qi wireless charging
• 75.1 × 160.4 × 8.2mm
• 193g
• Available in black, light white and light orange