The Google Pixel 4 XL Review: Stuck In The Past In 2019
by Andrei Frumusanu on November 8, 2019 11:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Mobile
- Smartphones
- Pixel 4
- Pixel 4 XL
Video Recording
Video recording on the Pixel 4 is a relatively simple topic as Google hasn’t changed much to the formula other than the inclusion of the new telephoto module. Even this one addition isn’t quite fully supported by the cameras as Google’s 60fps recording mode is only available for the main camera sensor. Another omission, is the lack of a 4K60 recording mode. It’s quite unfortunately that Google still hasn’t been able to expand the recording features over the past few years.
In terms of video quality, it’s relatively ok. Stabilisation and bit-rates are competitive. I would strongly recommend to switch over to HEVC recording in order to save storage space. Dynamic range of the capture on the other hand isn’t really up to par with what we see from the competition, and the Pixel 4 largely falls behind in this aspect.
What’s really unfortunate is the audio recording quality. Unfortunately, the phone doesn’t seem to have any good wind noise cancellation. It wasn’t particularly windy when I was recording the samples, yet the wind noise is particularly distinct in the recordings.
Speaker Evaluation
The speaker setup on the Pixel 4 has changed substantially compared to the Pixel 3. Google is no longer using two front-facing speakers, opting for a more traditional earpiece + bottom firing speaker setup.
This does cause some problems and represents a downgrade for the new Pixel. While last year the Pixel 3’s stereo bias was actually biased towards the earpiece speaker as the stronger and louder unit, this year it’s very much extremely biased in favour of the bottom firing speaker. Volume isn’t an issue as the phone gets plenty loud.
The audio quality of the phone isn’t bad, however there’s a notable lack of mid-range and especially lack of lower mid-range which unfortunately leads to a less “full” audio playback and the phone doesn’t really compete with either Samsung or Apple’s devices in terms of audio playback ability.
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brucethemoose - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
The cost difference between 64GB and 128GB of smartphone flash has to be trivial these days. Its hard to believe anyone is still doing it, much less that Google and Apple are doing it in $800 flagships.crimson117 - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
It's because the 64GB is priced lower to get you in the door, so they can upsell the 128GB to you for ~$50 more of mostly profit.Jcaro14 - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Yeah this phone is not for you, if you are looking for the latest hardware design you should stick with Samsung, Huawei, or Xiaomi. The Pixel is design for the best Android Software experience. I'm if you had one you would understand but since you just go by what the tech snobs say, sadly you won't be able to experience this awesome software experience that the Pixel provides.Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
The Pixels are not the best "Android" experience, they're outright a Google experience.Most of the Pixel only features are geographically or language limited. If you're not using any of those features then the Pixel lineup is no any better at Android than say a Samsung device.
Pooppoot - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
I disagree as someone who has used both and most Android devices! To me the Pixel line offers the "best" Android experience! It's a subjective matter though.Quantumz0d - Monday, November 11, 2019 - link
Wrong. I've also used Pixel 3a and it's nothing vs a custom skin or even a barebone Lineage OS.AOSP is being degraded with every Pixel revision. Pixel uses proprietary System UI and they offloaded a lot of Android's AOSP apps to their own - Messaging, Phone, Browser all are EOLed in AOSP. Pixel System UI has the worst customization features ever. And even their latest Recorder app is using Scoped Storage, thus once you record you do not see it in your Filemanager/filesystem which is BULLSHIT and can be shared from app (WTF?) plus no icon pack support too or the garbage launcher. Nova decimates that to oblivion.
Best is subjective, I like LG because of no bloat (Smartworld and one more app that's all) vs others like Samsung because it has all the things you need from time location, notification dots numbering on status bar customization to even notification transparency on lockscreen, Plus AOD watch faces and all. OnePlus offers faster Android UX. Mind you all these are proprietary and beat Pixel user experience a.k.a Google Experience ( dumbed down experience )
So yeah there's no Best, old times Nexus used to have the best Android experience with it's pure Stock AOSP skin. Then there was Cyanogen Mod with insane customizations and free themes, halcyon days of Android. Lineage OS and it's derivatives like Resurrection Remix have tons of features in built and there are lot of ROMs which massively improve on UX and speed / customization like Potato ROM.
s.yu - Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - link
I had to work with an S4 Lite 4 years ago for a few months because my phone at the time got stolen, and it lagged to the point of being unusable so I said what the hell and flashed Cyanogen, however it continued to lag without notable improvement.generalako - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
.generalako - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
I'm not a tech snob, but a long-time Pixel user. Hardware DOES MATTER when I pay $800.Quality control DOES MATTER.I RMAed two different Pixel 2's and thre different 2 XL's. I RMAed three different Pixel 3's and two different 3 XL's. That's unacceptable for a flagship phones. The number of widespread QC issues in this series of phone is unprecedented -- as someone who buys and tests flagships, and also sell them, I have never seen anything like it.
Battery DOES MATTER. Medicore battery size for the size and thickness, and battery life for battery size being mediocre as well, leading to bad battery life, generation after generation, is unacceptable.
Display DOES MATTER. Going with a mix of Samsung OLED and shitty and cheap LG OLED, treating their calibrations differently, is unacceptable. As is bad calibraiton (especially gamma -- how can you provide black crush like this, year after year!?). As using LG OLED full of grain and color uniformity issues. It's like they're ordering the cheapest units they can get their hands on, from both LG and Samsung.
RAM DOES MATTER. When they can't prove themselves by good RAM management, but instead bad, then 4GB is not enough and impedes on actual user experience. 6GB as well over time.
Storage DOES MATTER. Spotify downloads alone take up 32GB. And when they decide to completely abandon the customers with free original backup on photos, this becomes even more important.
And on and on it goes. I used Pixels for years because, as you point out, software smoothness and consistency is important for user experience. But none of it excuses all the other range of issues they have, nor does it justify the price tag they have. Pixel 3a gives me Pixel UI smoothness as well, for example, and it costs $400
I actually jumped to the 3a from the 3, due to all the issues I had, and consider it an overall superior unit. Even Pixel 2 was a superior unit, as the Pixel 3 regressed in display quality, battery life and even smoothness (for some reason).
Don't forget that Google was doing the superior software schtick with Nexuses as well: Nexus 5 is one of the best phones every made, Nexus 7 v2 the best tablet ever made, precisely for this reason. But they were cheap units. Likewise, Pixel 3a is Google's best Pixel ever, and Chromecast, Home Mini, etc. are their best products. Problem is that Google wants to make "flagship" units where it provides mostly same low-quality, but for 2-3x the price. That's unacceptable. You know that.
Pixel 4 isn't a $800 device just as the Pixel Slate wasn't a $1000 device.
I can't believe I waited so long for this device and was naive enough to think that maybe Google would learn. But they never do.
s.yu - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
In their argument, the BOE panels are probably cheaper?