- Google Pixel 4 review—Overpriced, uncompetitive, and out of touch
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The Pixel 4 arrived on the market as one of the most leaked, most talked about smartphones of This year, Google seems like it is really trying to find something unique to offer, with new features like the Google-developed "Motion Sense" radar gesture system, face unlock, a 90Hz display, the next-gen Google Assistant, and a new astrophotography mode. At the prices Google is asking, though, the Pixel 4 is hard to recommend.
The company saddled the phone with an ultra-premium price tag, but the Pixel 4 can't compete with ultra-premium phones.
Google Pixel 4 review—Overpriced, uncompetitive, and out of touch
The phone falls down on a lot of the basics, like battery life, storage speed, design, and more. The new additions like face unlock and Motion Sense just don't work well. It seems like Google just cut too many corners this year. The strongest feature of the Pixel line—the camera—hasn't really gotten better, either. The camera sensor is the same as last year, and the big new software feature, astrophotography mode, is also available on older Pixel devices and the much cheaper Pixel 3a.
The Pixel 4 isn't bad in a vacuum, but the rest of Google's Android competition gets better every year, while Google stands still. Google just can't do premium right. So, when can we have the Nexus line back? We'll start with the best part of the Pixel 4: the back. The Pixel 4 is, as usual, a glass and aluminum sandwich, with a Gorilla Glass 5 front, an aluminum frame exposed along the sides, and a glass back. When we talk about the rear design of the Pixel 4, note that between the three available colors, there are two totally different finish options that greatly affect the feel of the device.
The black version has a standard glossy glass back that uses Gorilla Glass 5, and the black version feels like the usual slippery fingerprint magnet that all glass phones are. The white and orange colors use a different glass panel that isn't Gorilla Glass, though, and these get a special soft-touch treatment. While this soft-touch glass back might be reminiscent of the soft-touch back on the Pixel 3 last year, this year there have been a number of improvements.
Second, while the Pixel 3 coating tended to absorb and hold onto fingerprint grease, the Pixel 4 hides fingerprints very well. The soft-touch Pixel 4 back looks and feels clean all the time, and I'm not compelled to scrub it down with soap and water every five minutes like with the Pixel 3. I'd rather we just not make phones out of glass at all, but if we have to, the soft-touch coating on the white and orange Pixel 4 really is the best in the market.
The back provides an agreeable amount of grip that you don't get with regular glass.
It looks great, it stays clean, and it seems durable. The entire back of the Pixel 4 is great, actually.
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This year, Google jumped on the multi-camera bandwagon and added a 16MP telephoto lens. It's a similar solution to the iPhone 11, but I daresay Google's camera block looks better. In person the black interior does a good job of hiding the clutter of the camera hardware, which I think looks cleaner than the purposefully highlighted lenses of the iPhone People love to imagine shapes in these camera assemblies, so if the iPhone 11 Pro camera block looks like a stovetop or fidget spinner , the Pixel 4 looks like a shocked robot or Pikachu face.
Thanks to the black interior, though, the Pixel 4 is considerably more subtle about it. The black camera block provides a pleasing contrast to the white or orange backs, and the black ring around the perimeter of the phone ties it all together pleasantly.
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The back really is handsome. While the sides are eventually aluminum, you won't be touching any bare metal when you hold the Pixel 4. The sides have what Google calls a "matte finish hybrid coating," which just feels like a hard plastic shell. It doesn't seem any grippier than anodized aluminum, so I'm not sure why Google bothered. As usual, the front design for the Pixel line looks dated this year. The Pixel 4 has a sizable bezel only on the top of the device, which gives the phone a lopsided, top-heavy look. Most phones have aimed to reduce the bezels as much as possible, going for only a minimal camera blemish or, sometimes, no blemish at all.
But not Google.
The Pixel 4 design reminds me of the Galaxy S8, a phone that came out two years ago, and the stats back that up. The Pixel 4 has an There's also a Google-developed Soli radar sensor, which is used to detect air gestures above the phone as well as the user's presence. Faster refresh-rate displays are quickly becoming the new trend in smartphone design, with Razer, Asus, OnePlus, and a few other Chinese brands getting in on the action.
We loved the 90Hz displays on the OnePlus 7 Pro and 7T , where the higher refresh rate and FPS made scrolling, animations, and navigation feel buttery smooth. Well, not so much, as Google's 90Hz display doesn't run at 90Hz all the time.
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Like many new features on the Pixel 4, the 90Hz display sounds good on paper, but in reality, it comes with myriad gotchas. Not running in 90Hz all the time is justifiable in some cases. If you're running a full-screen video at 24fps, 30fps, or 60fps, a 90Hz refresh rate won't do anything other than burn battery.
Some games are not compatible with 90Hz, so limiting the display there is appropriate, too. WhatsApp was blacklisted by Google "due to poor performance under 90hz" according to an Android commit. Google Maps and Waze, Google's two mapping apps, don't really have an explanation attached as to why they are limited to 60fps on the Pixel 4. Main article: Pixel 2. Main article: Pixel 3. Main article: Pixel 3a. Main article: Pixel 4. Main article: Pixel C. Main article: Pixel Slate.
Main article: Chromebook Pixel. Main article: Google Pixelbook. Main article: Pixel Buds. Internet portal.
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The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved October 4, Retrieved February 21, October 4, Retrieved March 21, Retrieved October 6, XDA Developers. Retrieved October 17, Made by Google in German. Android developers blog. March 13, Retrieved March 14, Android Developers. Retrieved March 9, Latest Technology and gadgets News. Retrieved May 7, Retrieved September 24, November 22, Retrieved November 25, Vox Media, Inc. Retrieved September 2, Android Police. Retrieved January 7, Retrieved October 16, Ars Technica. Retrieved February 8, Google Store. Retrieved October 14, Retrieved January 4, Digital Trends.
Google Pixel. Chromebook Pixel and Pixelbook. Pixel C Pixel Slate. Pixel Buds. Android operating system.