Google Pixel 4 and 4 XL review: The biggest upgrade Google has delivered so far

Note: This review was first published on 22 October 2019.

Wait, that kind of looks like an iPhone

The Pixel 4 and 4 XL contain some of the biggest upgrades that Google has made in a single year to its smartphones. And while the crowning glory of the Pixel series has always been its camera, the Pixel 4 serves up a platter of new features that don't have anything to do with taking pictures, including radar-based gesture sensing and Face ID-style Face Unlock.

The phone's design has also undergone quite an overhaul. One thing I keep hearing from people I've shown the phone to is how much the Pixel 4 resembles the iPhone 11. Google has ditched its signature two-tone back in favour of solid colours, and it also now has a square camera bump located in the top left corner, which – you guessed it – is exactly how this year's iPhone does it. The Clearly White and Oh So Orange models also have a matte glass finish, similar to the bottom half of the Pixel 3. 

And as it has done in past years, Google isn't saving any extra features for the bigger XL model. Both the 5.7-inch Pixel 4 and 6.3-inch 4 XL have exactly the same features and camera setup, with the sole differences being screen size, resolution, and battery capacity. For simplicity's sake, I'll be referring to both phones collectively as the Pixel 4 in this review, but most of what I say will apply to the 4 XL as well.

Design

The Pixel 4 does not look like the Pixel 3. In a time where we've gotten used to small, iterative updates to flagship phones, that statement is actually quite a surprising one to be able to make. The huge divisive notch from the Pixel 3 XL is gone now, replaced by good old bezels at the top and bottom. The top bezel is also a lot thicker – almost disproportionately so in fact – because it has to house all the fancy radar tech and sensors need to make Motion Sense and Face Unlock work (more on these two later in the review).

The distinctive two-tone design is gone too, replaced with solid black, white, or orange. The contrasting power buttons are staying though, and you get a white button on the Just Black model, a light orange on the Oh So Orange colour, and what actually looks like the same Oh So Orange shade on the Clearly White phone. 

When I look at the Pixel 4, I see a device that places function over form. The Pixel 4 is not a stunner. No design accolades are going to come its way, and it doesn't offer some gorgeous iridescent colour like the Samsung Galaxy Note10. And because of the thick top bezel, the display doesn't feel as immersive as the edge-to-edge display on the Galaxy Note10 or even the OnePlus 7 Pro. There's also none of that fancy curved glass or "waterfall screen" that Oppo has been talking about – the Pixel 4's display is simple, utilitarian, and, well, flat. 

I'm not complaining though. Curved edges may look nice, but they don't really serve any real purpose, and they make shopping for a good screen protector a real chore.

The phone is also sandwiched by Gorilla Glass 5 on the front and back. As I mentioned earlier, the Clearly White and Oh So Orange models have a matte finish, which actually feels quite nice in hand. More importantly, they're better at staying clean for longer, unlike the unfortunate Just Black colour, which, for some reason, has a glossy back. You'll be perpetually wiping fingerprints and grease stains off that one, unless you decide to slap a case on it.

That said, there may still be reason to opt for the glossy finish. One downside of the matte surface is that it's pretty slippery, so your Pixel 4 is a lot more likely to fly out of your hand. If you plan on using your phone naked, you might want to think twice about getting one of the matte colours if you're generally careless. In comparison, the glossy back offers much better grip.

The Pixel 4's frame is a matte black aluminum for all three colours. This goes quite well with Google's choice of colours this time around, and it provides a nice contrast with the brighter Clearly White and Oh So Orange models. The Just Black model is, well, just black all around, which you can't really go wrong with.

Having said all that, the Pixel 4 is not without its own charm. It may not have a cutting-edge pinhole camera or anything like that, but something about them just feels fun. The combination of the square camera module and the Oh So Orange (and possibly even Clear White) colour also gives the phone a pretty distinctive look, and I don't think it'd be mistaken for anything else.

Speaking of the camera module – or bump, really – I expect that it'll be a rather polarising aspect of the design. However, it's slightly less conspicuous than that on the iPhone 11 Pro, which shows off its trio of lenses very clearly (and is also the butt of a ton of memes). The lenses on the Pixel 4 show up more as tiny pinpricks, and the most obvious feature about the camera bump is probably the flash at the bottom. Nevertheless, I don't mind the bump at all, and I actually think it gives the phone more character.

Having said that, the way the camera bump rises sharply out of the back of the phone can be a cause for concern as it looks like it might snag onto things easily – like tables – if you are not careful. But seeing that the majority of people do get cases to protect their phones, I don't think it's that big of a problem.

When it comes to build quality, these feel like the best-made Pixels Google has put out so far. You no longer have to agonise over how the glass cutout at the back doesn't perfectly align with the fingerprint sensor. They're ever so slightly thicker and heavier than their predecessors, although that difference isn't really noticeable in hand. Being the smaller phone, the Pixel 4 also lends itself much more readily to one-handed use.

In addition, they are equipped with IP68 water- and dust-resistance and can stay submerged up to 2 metres under water for up to 30 minutes.

Button placement is the same on both the Pixel 4 and 4 XL. You get the power button and volume rocker on the right, nano SIM slot on the left, and the USB-C port at the bottom. And despite the Pixel 4's relatively meagre storage offering – it only offers up to 128GB of storage space where its rivals go up to 512GB – there is no option for expandable storage, and of course, no headphone jack.

At the time of writing, the 128GB Pixel 4 XL in Oh So Orange and Clearly White is already listed as out of stock on the local Google store, so there's clearly more demand for higher storage capacities. If Google wants to position the Pixel 4 as a flagship device in the running for 2019's best smartphone, it should really have offered bigger storage options or, at the very least, the option to increase storage via microSD cards.

To add insult to injury, the Pixel 4 isn't even coming with the usual free unlimited online storage for photos and videos at original quality. With the exception of the Pixel 3a, the ability to backup as many pictures as you want to Google Photos without having to compress them to FHD has always been a big perk of the Pixel line, but that's changing with the Pixel 4. So not only is the storage topping out at 128GB, but Google is also taking away your ability to store your pictures at original quality in the cloud for free, which means you'll have to think twice about deleting your pictures after backing them up if you want to preserve the original resolution.

That seems like a user-hostile move to me, and Google is unabashedly trying to push Pixel owners to pay for Google One, its new cloud storage service. The Pixel 4 will come with a free three-month trial for Google One, after which it'll cost S$2.79/month for 100GB of storage, a monthly fee that goes up to S$419.99/month for 30TB. To be fair, the starting tiers are pretty affordable, so most people who need full resolution cloud storage will probably be happy to pay. However, that doesn't change the fact that this used to be free for Pixel owners, and it's bound to leave a sour taste in the mouth for many.

A word about the accessories...

Normally, this wouldn't be worth mentioning, but the Pixel 4's included accessories, or lack thereof, needs some talking about. Here's what's not in the box – USB-C earphones and a USB-C to 3.5mm adaptor. What do you get? Well, just a USB-A to USB-C adaptor, the 18W charging brick, and a 1 metre USB-C to USB-C cable.

Some territories mandate that earphones be shipped with phones though, so the Pixel USB-C earbuds will be included with Pixel 4s sold in France and Australia. Everyone else is out of luck, however.

Clearly, Google is saying you should go wireless or go home. What's funny is that its new Pixel Buds don't even release till 2020, so Google is offering every other brand that makes wireless headphones a chance to cash in. Personally, I could do without the bundled earbuds since I use my own, and plenty of other people probably do as well. But the absence of the USB-C to 3.5mm adaptor is puzzling and makes it even more troublesome if you're upgrading from a phone that has a 3.5mm jack.

Luckily, Google isn't leaving customers completely out in the cold. It's offering S$200 in online store credits if you pre-order a Pixel 4 or 4 XL on the Google Store by 24 October, so you can easily pick up the necessary adaptor and a pair of earbuds from the Google Store.

Display

The Pixel 4 has gotten quite a nice upgrade on the display front, and Google has certainly come a long way from the blue shift issues that dogged the Pixel 2 XL. For starters, the Pixel 4 XL nabs DisplayMate's Best Smartphone Display Award, sharing the spotlight with the iPhone 11 Pro Max. DisplayMate also gave the Pixel 4 XL's display an A+ rating, the same as the OnePlus 7 Pro and Galaxy S10.

According to DisplayMate, the Pixel 4 XL's screen is also 10 per cent brighter than the Pixel 3 XL and has a much higher absolute colour accuracy and better power efficiency. These numbers aside, I can say that the display on both the Pixel 4 and 4 XL look very, very good. They're plenty bright, when you're indoors that is, and I seldom use them at maximum brightness. Things like text appear sharp and crisp, and colours are nice and vivid. Direct sunlight is another matter though, and it can still become a little difficult to view the display. 

Like the Pixel 3, the Pixel 4 also has an Adaptive brightness toggle that can learn your preferences over time and adjust the screen brightness to fit the light around you. So if you tend to manually adjust the brightness to a certain level when you're at home, the phone will learn what you prefer and apply that in similar lighting conditions.

The Pixel 4 has three different colour profiles, including Natural, Boosted, and Adaptive. It ships in Adaptive mode by default, and I think this is the setting that most people will find the most pleasing. It's got the most vibrant colours compared to the other two, and I was happy to stick with the default setting. 

The display is also one of the main differentiating factors between the Pixel 4 and its bigger sibling. Here's an overview of how they compare:

• Pixel 4: 5.7-inches, 2,280 x 1,080 pixels, 444ppi
• Pixel 4 XL: 6.3-inches, 3,040 x 1,440 pixels, 537ppi

Both phones are equipped with P-OLED panels, and the resolution has gone up slightly compared to the Pixel 3 devices. However, the most significant changes come in the form of the higher 90Hz refresh rate and Ambient EQ, which is Google's version of Apple's True Tone display.

The higher refresh rate consumes more battery, but it also makes scrolling through apps and articles on Chrome feel extra smooth. Furthermore, text remains slightly sharper while scrolling. Personally, I didn't think that the difference is super big coming from a 60Hz display, but some of my colleagues disagree. That said, it's definitely noticeable if you care to look for it, especially if you set the Pixel 4 down beside a phone with a lower refresh rate screen. Other than gaming-oriented phones like the ASUS ROG Phone II and Razer Phone 2, there still aren't many phones with 90Hz refresh rates or higher. Right now, your choices are mostly limited to the OnePlus 7 series phones and Oppo Reno Ace, in addition to other lesser known models. 

Then there's Ambient EQ, which is supposed to dynamically change the screen colour temperature to match your surroundings. Google first introduced this feature on its Nest Hub, and it's now bringing it to its Pixel phones. In the few days that I've spent with the phone, it seems like the colour shift isn't as drastic as I've noticed on the iPhone's True Tone display, but it may be that I simply haven't had the chance to use the phone under the right lighting conditions. Still, colours are visibly warmer than what I was used to on the Pixel 3 XL, which appears cool in comparison.

Elsewhere, the Pixel 4 comes with HDR support and is UHDA-certified. However, while Google didn't specify HDR10 support, the Pixel 3 and 3 XL are listed on Netflix's website as supporting HDR10 playback. It stands to reason that the Pixel 4 and 4 XL would eventually be added to the list as well. In fact, they did make an appearance in September prior to being launched, although they ended up being removed later. 

Finally, I also must mention the bezels, which are making a return this year with a vengeance. The bottom bezel is relatively slim, but the Pixel 4 has a significantly thicker "forehead". It's really not unlike that on the Pixel 2 XL, which came out in 2017. You'd be forgiven for thinking that the Pixel 4 looks a little dated when viewed from the front, especially considering that many of its rivals have long ditched bezels in favour of edge-to-edge screens punctuated by relatively slim notches, including some in the shape of a teardrop. And there's also the hole-punch camera, which makes for a really immersive user experience.

I can hardly say that I'm surprised by Google's approach though. The company has never been on the cutting-edge of design, often preferring to go for a functional look that simply works. At the very least, the top bezel isn't as gratuitous as the notch on the Pixel 3 XL. The latter didn't serve any real purpose, and the Pixel 3 had exactly the same front camera and sensor setup without the notch. But this time around, the bezel houses some serious hardware, including sensors and cameras for the radar-based Motion Sense feature and Face Unlock.

The picture below shows the camera and sensor layout, which clearly take up quite a bit of space. It probably wasn't possible to cram all that into a shorter notch, so Google's decision to go with a top bezel makes some sense. 

So while the top bezel may not look the best, I can live with it since it serves a purpose. I'll also say that it wasn't as much of an eyesore as I was expecting it to be, and it certainly helps that everything else about the Pixel 4's display is pretty great. With the notch and its chunky status bar gone, the Pixel 4 can also display more of a certain web page than the Pixel 3 XL, and that's something I can definitely get behind.

Audio

The Pixel 4 comes with stereo speakers, comprising one at the top and a bottom-firing unit. There are two grilles on either side of the USB-C port, but the one on the left is just there for symmetry and doesn't actually put out any sound.

The speakers get plenty loud and you'll be able to fill a small room with them. However, there's noticeable sibilance and harshness at maximum volume, and I thought the sound tended to lack body. In other words, it's perfectly serviceable but if you care about audio fidelity, you'll want to invest in some wireless speakers.

Software

One of the best things about the Pixel phones has always been the software. They ship with stock Android 10, which is Android as Google intended it to be, and also the latest and best version of Google's mobile OS. Pixel phones are the first in line to get the latest software updates and security patches, so that's one big advantage over other manufacturers who normally have to wait months for major OS updates. 

Android 10 comes with several new features, most notably new navigation gestures, a native dark mode (or theme, as Google calls it), and more robust privacy protections.

The biggest user-facing change is probably the new gestures. It's the first thing you'll notice when firing up the phone, mostly because the usual buttons at the bottom are now gone, replaced by a simple white bar. That's similar to what you get on the iPhone, and many of Google's gestures remind me of how you navigate in iOS.

Here's a quick rundown of what you can do now:

• Swipe up from the bottom bar to go to the home screen
• Swipe in from either the left or right edge to go back
• Swipe up and hold down to go to the overview screen and see a horizontal pane of your recent apps
• Swipe toward the right on the white bar to switch to a recent app, and then to the left to go to older apps
• Swipe up from anywhere on the home screen to go to the app drawer
• Swipe up, or diagonally, from the bottom corners to access Google Assistant

The ability to swipe across the bottom bar to switch apps is particularly useful if you need to copy and paste text quickly between apps, among other things. The new gestures to go back are also good for one-handed use, and I was able to get used to it pretty quickly despite having used the back button for the longest time. Furthermore, the fact that it'll work from either side of the screen is great news for left-handers. However, this does introduce one problem with apps that have a side menu that you would normally swipe out from the left to access. This is the case with apps like Gmail, Google Maps, and even Discord. To get around this, you can of course just tap the hamburger menu, but you can also swipe up diagonally from the left to pull it out. A two-finger swipe out from the left works too, but I found this gesture unreliable and really hard to get right.

Overall, I like the new gestures and how the absence of the bottom navigation bar frees up more screen real estate. They were a breeze to adapt to, and I'm someone who tells iOS users that the worst thing about it is that it doesn't have a dedicated back button. Well, I stand corrected. If you get the Pixel 4, I'd definitely recommend giving the gesture navigation system a spin. But if you decide it's not for you, there's still the option to switch back to the old 3-button navigation system in the Settings menus.

The system-wide Dark Theme switches over the UI and select apps to Dark mode, but support at the moment is spotty at best. Apps like Google Drive, Files, Gmail, Calendar, Instagram, and the Play Store switch over to Dark Theme, but there are also glaring exceptions like Facebook and Maps. For some reason, I also had to manually enable Dark mode in the Messages app, despite having already enabled Dark Theme at the system level.

Elsewhere, Android 10 adds new limits on what apps have permission to do. The most visible change is a new option that pops up when you install and launch an app for the first time. Android 10 now prompts you to choose whether you want the app to be able to access your location at all times, or only when the app is in use, a similar approach to the iPhone. Before this, it was only a choice between giving location permissions or disallowing it entirely.

The last couple of features I want to talk about are Live Caption and the bundled Recorder app. These are part of Google's touted accessibility features, where Live Caption automatically creates captions for any audio or video playing on your phone. It'll work with the volume set to zero too, and could prove really useful for users who are hard of hearing. That said, I tried it out with a handful of YouTube videos, and while it was reasonably fast and accurate, YouTube's own closed captioning feature was faster and worked better. But that aside, Live Caption could still come in handy for videos that don't have their own subtitles. It's also easily accessible from the volume rocker, no fuss needed at all.

Finally, the Recorder app lets you record and transcribe speech in real time, even when there's no internet connectivity. It's a competitor to something like Otter, which I've relied on in the past. All the recording functionality happens on the phone itself, so you don't have to worry about sensitive conversations being sent to Google. It doesn't transcribe everything perfectly, but it was still spot on most of the time, and I can see this replacing Otter for me the next time I need to record an interview. In addition, you can easily export your transcriptions to Google Drive or search the text for key words.

Next-gen Assistant

Google's next-generation Assistant, which it first unveiled at its I/O developer conference earlier this year, is also coming to the Pixel 4. According to Google, the new Assistant is based on "completely new speech recognition and language understanding models", which enabled the company to reduce around 100GB worth of models in the cloud to less than half a gigabyte. Assistant now has a small enough footprint to run locally on your phone, which means it doesn't have to talk to the cloud to translate what you say to it. All speech-to-text processing happens on the Pixel 4, so you get much quicker responses, no internet connection required.

Part of this is thanks to the new coprocessor called the Pixel Neural Core, which also plays a role in Google's new Recorder app.

On top of that, this next-gen Assistant has a better understanding of context, which should make it easier and more natural to issue commands to it. For example, if you ask to see pictures of New York, and then narrow the search down to Central Park, Assistant will understand that you're referring to pictures taken in Central Park in New York City, and not some other patch of greenery. And if your friend asks you what time your flight gets in, you can tell Assistant to look up your flight info and text it back to your friend. 

Another new feature is Continued Conversations, which lets you have a conversation with Assistant without saying "Hey Google" before each question. It allows for much more natural interactions, and the microphone stays open for around 8 seconds after each question to check if you have anything more to add. A colourful, flowing bar at the bottom of the screen indicates that Assistant is still listening, but you can end the conversation sooner by tapping the bottom bar or saying "Thank you".

Play

However, Singapore customers may have to jump through a few hoops to access this newer version of the Assistant. At the time of writing, you'll need to meet the following conditions on the Pixel 4:

• The Google app, version 10.73 and up
• Google Play services
• A Google Account that’s not through your work or school.
• The Assistant language set to "English - United States."
• Navigation mode set to Gesture navigation

The key point to note is the fourth one, which specifies that you need to set your Assistant language to US English. If you buy your Pixel 4 through local channels, it'll probably be set to "English - Singapore" by default, as it was on my review unit, so be sure to change that in the settings. This means you'll lose certain benefits of the localised Assistant, but if this XDA Developers article is anything to go by, the next-gen Assistant should be coming to Singapore eventually.

The new Assistant also has a couple of other quirky limitations. For some reason, it'll only work with the new Gesture navigation system, so you're out of luck if you want to go back to the old three-button layout. What's more, it doesn't work with G Suite accounts, a requirement which had me scratching my head for a while. I was wondering why I couldn't seem to get Continued Conversations working, but the second I removed my work account, I was prompted to download an update for Assistant the next time I launched it. Only then was I able to properly use the next-gen Assistant and take advantage of its speed improvements.

Motion Sense: Gimmick, or not?

The Pixel 4 comes with a tiny radar chip in its top bezel, a piece of hardware derived from Google's Project Soli, which dates all the way back to 2015. This marks the first time the technology is being implemented in a consumer device, and Google is calling the feature Motion Sense. It lets you interact with the phone without ever touching it, and is capable of detecting both gestures and presence. Unfortunately, while Motion Sense sounds really cool, it's still dangerously close to veering into gimmick territory.

That's a pity, since there's a lot of potential behind the tech. While Samsung and LG have implemented air gestures before, they didn't do so using radar. The Pixel 4 is the first phone to do this, but there still remains quite a large gap between what radar can do on a phone, and what it actually does now. At launch, Motion Sense detects three key types of interactions, comprising gestures, presence, and reach.  

I say gestures, but there are really only two, and they're both pretty basic. If you're playing a song on Spotify, you can wave your hand toward the left or right to navigate your playlist. Furthermore, it'll work even when you're not actively using the phone, so you can easily switch tracks when you're at the always-on display. 

However, for Motion Sense to work well, it also needs to know when to ignore unimportant gestures, such as when you pass a cup or some other object over your phone. It seems to do that by detecting the acceleration of your gestures, and I was only able to swipe to the next track if I performed a fast, deliberate action instead of a slow, half-hearted wave. On top of that, it doesn't seem to work too well if you start your wave in the middle of the screen. Instead, it looks like you'll need to execute the gesture a ways off from either edge of the phone. That may also be part of how the Pixel 4 avoids picking up superfluous gestures, and it needs to detect your hand moving across the entire width of the phone.

In the Settings menu, you'll be able to choose if you want to skip to the next track by using a left-to-right or right-to-left movement, so you can pick whichever feels more natural to you. In addition, there's a bright flowing line at the top of the screen that serves as a helpful visual indicator for when your gestures are detected. 

The most pressing question for me is whether I could actually see myself swiping at the phone instead of manually switching tracks. If I'm on a plane and listening to Spotify, which is easier to do? Fortunately, Motion Sense doesn't require some exaggerated, dramatic hand wave to work, and I was able to switch tracks by waving at the phone discreetly. Still, it's not like powering up your phone to switch tracks is a huge chore, so while Motion Sense may be cool and a tad bit more convenient, I wouldn't call it a game-changer. What's more, it's not 100 per cent reliable yet, so it's still more of a party trick in my books. 

The other gesture Motion Sense supports is a wave to snooze alarms or dismiss calls. When it comes to silencing your alarm, the phone will start to quiet down as your hand approaches it – Google says this is more "polite" – before you muffle the alarm for good with a swipe. The latter sounds rather convenient, but what happens if Motion Sense picks this moment to not work? I'm not sure you want to spend your waking moments frantically trying to air swipe your alarm to shut it up.

Gestures aside, the other capabilities of Motion Sense are a little more useful. My favourite is its presence-sensing abilities, where the phone can supposedly sense you up to roughly 0.6m away. It'll keep the always-on display on if you're around, or turn it off when you move away, a nifty feature. 

Then there's the third type of interaction, which is reach. This means it can sense when you're reaching for your phone and get the Face Unlock sensors ready to scan your face. This makes unlocking your phone quicker, and unlike on the iPhone, it sends you straight to your home screen without having to swipe up again.

There's a small treat for Pokémon fans too. You can download Pokémon Sidekick from within the Styles & Wallpapers settings, which will let you set one of five Pokémon as your wallpaper. This includes Pikachu and Eevee, in addition to Grookey, Scorbunny, and Sobble, the new starter Pokémon from Pokémon Sword and Shield. You can double-tap on the Pokémon to switch to the next one and interact with them with Motion Sense gestures. They'll wake as you approach, wave back when you wave at them, and express joy when you waggle your fingers above the screen to tickle them. And when it's night, they'll curl up for a snooze. 

Like the rest of Motion Sense's feature set, the Pokémon are fun to play with, but what you can do with them is still rather limited. Motion Sense could become a lot more useful if Google opens it up to third-party developers, but until that happens, I don't see it being the main reason for people buying the Pixel 4. 

Face Unlock

The Pixel 4 is also the first Android smartphone to offer a Face Unlock solution that is secure enough to be used for payments. It's a Face ID-style unlock, although whether it's as secure is now questionable, seeing as it can still work when your eyes are closed. In comparison, Apple requires the user to be alert and looking at the phone. I've tried this out for myself, and sure enough, the Pixel 4 unlocked for me even when I had my eyes closed. 

That raises obvious security issues, since someone could simply unlock your phone when you're sleeping by holding it up to your face. If you're really worried about this, it looks like you'll have to stick with a PIN unlock or enable Android's lockdown function, which disables biometric authentication and only unlocks the phone when a PIN is entered. The lockdown option can be added to the power menu, so you can quickly enable it when you need to.

Fortunately, Google has confirmed it is working on an update that will require your eyes to be open, so you won't have to put up with that forever.

That aside, face data never leaves your phone, and it's stored on the Pixel 4's Titan M security chip.

The Pixel 4 relies on an NIR flood emitter, an NIR dot projector, and two NIR cameras for Face Unlock, and it works by capturing a depth map of your face, similar to the iPhone. In practice, Motion Sense and Face Unlock worked quite well together, and I found the phone ready for me whenever I picked it up. The phone recognised me when I was wearing a cap and sunglasses too, and it didn't falter when I tried to unlock it in a dark room. Overall, I'd say it's pretty quick and reliable, and I never missed having the fingerprint sensor.

The Pixel 4 gets a second camera

I'll remember 2019 as the year Google decided to add a second telephoto lens to its Pixel phone, after years of insisting that it didn't need one. After all, the company has long said that it can accomplish with just one camera what others need two or three to do, thanks to its expertise in computational photography.

"Some subjects are farther away than you'd like, so it does help telephoto shots to have a telephoto lens," said Google Research's Marc Levoy at the launch of the Pixel 4. That's a rather obvious statement to make, but it's significant because Google is effectively admitting that you can't do everything with just software.

That said, the Pixel 4 and 4 XL have the same camera setup. Here's what it looks like:

Rear camera

• 12.2MP, f/1.7, 28mm (wide), 77° field of view, 1/2.55", 1.4µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS + EIS
• 16 MP, f/2.4, 45mm (telephoto), 52° field of view, 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS + EIS, 2x optical zoom

Front camera

• 8 MP, f/2.0, 22mm (wide), 90° field of view, 1.22µm, fixed focus

Google's choice to go for a second telephoto lens over a wide-angle one is also an odd one. “While wide-angle can be fun, we think telephoto is more important,” said Levoy on stage. Maybe, but Google already had a pretty decent solution for capturing far-away subjects on the Pixel 3 in the form of Super Res Zoom. That's getting beefed-up with the telephoto lens on the Pixel 4, but wide-angle is the one thing you can't even attempt to approximate using software. Google has already proven that it's great at software, so a wide-angle lens seems like it would be an obvious complement to it's already formidable capabilities.

Sure, the Pixel 4's Portrait Mode can also take advantage of the telephoto lens, but a wide-angle lens would be great for taking dramatic landscape shots. Why didn't Google just add a third wide-angle lens while it was at it? I really can't say, especially since most other flagship devices already have at least three cameras, including this year's iPhone 11 Pro. 

That aside, the camera app is also getting something called Live HDR+, which lets you see in real time what your picture will look like after all that HDR processing. Normally, you'd have to open up the picture in Google Photos to see what it looks like after Google is done working its software magic. The difference was obvious when I was out shooting with both the Pixel 4 and Pixel 3 XL, and the colours were far more vibrant through the viewfinder on the Pixel 4.

Live HDR+ also pairs well with the Pixel 4's dual-exposure controls, which gives you separate sliders for manipulating highlights and shadows. You just tap on the viewfinder to bring up the sliders, and you can also tap the lock icon for AF/AE lock. The extra controls are good for challenging lighting situations, such as when you want to photograph someone silhouetted against a bright sky.

In addition, the Pixel 4 is better at adjusting for colour casts, such as the yellow from the glow of a candle. Its white balance adjustments are now based on machine learning, so you should get more natural skin tones even in less than ideal lighting conditions. This was the approach Google took with Night Sight on the Pixel 3, but it's now applying it to regular photos as well.

Another feature I really like is Social Share, which lets you quickly share to third-party sites directly from the camera app. After taking a photo, you'll see an arrow icon pop up from the image thumbnail at the bottom right. Slide it out, and you can quickly share to Instagram Stories or your messaging app of choice. It's really convenient, and most of the major social platforms are supported, including Discord, Messages, Instagram, Telegram, Snapchat, and Facebook. 

It's also easier to access Google Lens on the Pixel 4 – just tap and hold on the object in question in the viewfinder. Lens doesn't get stuff right all the time, but it's pretty impressive when it works. For example, it was able to correctly identify my PC case, which I found to be quite cool. 

Sample images

Unless otherwise stated, the pictures below are taken in auto mode with no adjustments made to the dual-exposure sliders. You can click on them to view the full-resolution images. These shots were taken on the Pixel 4 XL, but since the Pixel 4 has the same camera, you'll get the same results on the smaller phone too. 

Google has tweaked its HDR aesthetic slightly with the Pixel 4, and it now favours more natural colours and lighter shadows. That's telling in the daytime shots below, where the Pixel 4 did a pretty good job of presenting true-to-life and accurate colours. It didn't dial them up by much, and because there weren't many hours of daylight left when I started shooting, many of the photos also appear slightly muted.

There's also not much of that oversharpening effect you tend to get on Samsung and Huawei devices, so you'll be quite happy with the Pixel 4 if you prefer your photos to look more natural. Overall, the Pixel 4 produces bright and clean photos, and it's remarkably good at handling edges and preserving detail, even for the complex facades on shophouses. 

But while Google is pretty conservative in daylight, the reverse happens at night. The Pixel 4 isn't shy about pumping up the colour saturation, and a light blue sky immediately takes on a deep blue hue. The same goes for things like neon lights, and the Pixel 4 is capable of some stunning nighttime shots. 

It does a reasonably good job of handling the lights in the restaurants below, and you can still make out details like people at the tables. Some areas are still blown out however, and darker portions of the picture, like the area surrounding the boat, are a bit noisy. That said, Night Sight would probably have come in handy here. 

The Pixel 4 is pretty adept at close-up shots too, capturing the intricate detail on the keycap with no issues. 

Super Res Zoom

The pictures below are taken with the maximum 8x zoom. I've also included the original shot below each magnified shot so you get an idea of the distance from which it was taken. 

One problem with zooming in is that even the slightest wobble can result in a blurry photo. Super Res Zoom gets around that by taking advantage of these inevitable movements and using them to collect even more detail about the scene. This means higher quality magnification, and up to 8x digital zoom. 

From what I can see, the results are pretty impressive. It's able to capture good detail on even the farthest signs, and the lettering is even sharper than if you cropped a similar section of the original photo. And considering how crowded the section I zoomed in on was, Google did a really good job of filling in all that detail. The same goes for the second set of pictures, where the camera was able to pick out individual air-conditioning units and lines on the building. Whatever you may think of Google's decision to go with a telephoto lens over a wide-angle one, it sure has done wonders for its magnification capabilities.

Night Sight

Google was the one that got the ball rolling with Night Sight, and it's on most other flagship phones now, including the iPhone 11. Night Sight on the Pixel 4 continues to work wonders in near pitch-black conditions, and it was able to pick out surprising detail and colour in an otherwise dark room. You can even make out the Omega lettering on the Secretlab chair, and the colour of the trash in the dustbin. Both are nearly entirely obfuscated when Night Sight is off. 

Of course, Night Sight isn't magic, and the picture is still really noisy. But all the items in the room are clearly visible, and it's still pretty amazing what fusing together multiple images with longer exposure times can do. 

There's also a dedicated astrophotography mode for capturing the stars on a clear night, but I didn't bother with that given the amount of light pollution we get in Singapore. 

This is a less drastic example, but Night Sight also visibly improves detail in the darker areas around the swimming pool. For instance, you can now make out something approaching individual leave blades in the foliage on the left. 

Portrait Mode

Thanks to the telephoto lens, the Pixel 4 is also able to capture 3D scene data in the form of a depth map, which opens up more editing possibilities in Adobe Lightroom. This is already possible on the iPhone, so Google is sort of playing catch-up here. 

The Pixel 4 derives spatial data from two sources – the distance between one side of the telephoto lens to the other, and the distance between the two cameras. This helps it better judge distance for both close and distant objects, and because these two gaps are oriented at right angles to each other, they can work together to judge distance along both the x- and y-axis. 

The picture of the chicken looks pretty good if you don't scrutinise it too closely, and the camera does a decent job of keeping the animal and the foreground area in focus while blurring out the background. However, the transition between the foreground and background isn't that smooth, and you can still make out the abrupt edges around the grass where the camera decided it would start to begin blurring out the background. 

That aside, Portrait Mode on the Pixel 4 produces some delicious bokeh effects, and points of light in the background blur smoothly into creamy, even discs. Google actually put special emphasis on improving bokeh on the Pixel 4 to better simulate real lens bokeh. Normally, these simulations take an average of nearby pixels, but this tends to turn white things grey. To better preserve the white, Google moved Portrait rendering from an 8-bit pipeline to a 14-bit one, which can better capture the brightest whites, such as sunlight glinting off water. 

Benchmark performance

The Pixel 4's specs are pretty much par for the course for a flagship phone in 2019, although they can hardly be described as class-leading. For one, there are already phones with the newer Snapdragon 855+ processor, such as the OnePlus 7T, but the Pixel 4 is still using the Snapdragon 855, which was announced in late 2018.

Compared to the Snapdragon 845, the Snapdragon 855 is supposed to deliver a 45 per cent improvement in CPU performance and a 20 per cent boost to GPU speeds with the Adreno 640. It's built on the TSMC's 7nm process and features a total of eight cores in the following arrangement:

• Performance cluster: 3 Kryo 485 cores (Cortex A76-based) up to 2.42GHz
• Low-power cluster: 4 Kryo 385 cores (Cortex A55-based) up to 1.8GHz
• "Prime" cluster: 1 Kryo 485 core (Cortex A76-based) up to 2.84GHz

This configuration is based on ARM's DynamIQ cluster technology, and it's slightly different from the older big.LITTLE design, allowing for individual cores to be better tailored to more specific performance requirements. 

There's 6GB of LPDDR4X RAM, but the Samsung Galaxy Note10 and Huawei Mate 30 Pro both come with 8GB. Meanwhile, the Galaxy Note10+ and select models of the OnePlus 7 Pro have 12GB. The point is that the Pixel 4 looks like it's lagging behind on paper, even if day-to-day operation still feels buttery smooth. On top of that, there's the problem of storage, and the phone comes in only 64GB and 128GB flavours.

JetStream 2.0

JetStream 2 is a combination of a variety of JavaScript and Web Assembly benchmarks, including benchmarks that came before like SunSpider and Octane. It primarily tests for a system’s and browser’s ability in delivering a good web experience. It runs a total of 64 subtests, each weighted equally, with multiple iterations, and takes the geometric mean to compute the overall score.

The Pixel 4 and 4 XL did reasonably well here, beating out most of the tested Android devices, including heavyweights like the Galaxy Note10+. The one exception is the OnePlus 7 Pro, but even that was way behind the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro, and even last year's iPhone XS Max.

AnTuTu

AnTuTu is an all-in-one benchmark that tests CPU, GPU, memory, and storage. The CPU benchmark evaluates both integer and floating-point performance, the GPU tests assess 2D and 3D performance, the memory test measures available memory bandwidth and latency, and the storage tests gauge the read and write speeds of a device's flash memory.

The Pixel 4 also has a good showing here, coming the closest to challenging the iPhone 11 and 11 Pro. In fact, the iPhone 11 Pro was just 7 per cent faster than the Pixel 4 XL. The latter was in turn 14 per cent quicker than the OnePlus 7 Pro, which was the top-performing Android phone in this benchmark previously.

Geekbench 5

Geekbench CPU is a cross-platform processor benchmark that tests both single-core and multi-core performance with workloads that simulate real-world usage. Geekbench 5 scores are calibrated against a baseline score of 1000, which is the score of an Intel Core i3-8100. As a result, Geekbench 5 scores are not comparable against those of Geekbench 4, whose baseline score is derived from an Intel Core i7-6600 processor.

Oddly-enough, the Pixel 4 XL lags slightly behind the Pixel 4 in the single-core benchmark, but it exceeds it in the multi-core score. Overall, both phones manage to stand their ground compared to the Samsung flagships, and the Pixel 4 XL is roughly 18 per cent quicker than the Galaxy Note10+. That said, Apple's iPhones still have the undisputed lead, and the Pixel 4 was nowhere close to challenging them. 

3DMark Sling Shot

3DMark Sling Shot is an advanced 3D graphics benchmark that tests the full range of OpenGL ES 3.1 and ES 3.0 API features including multiple render targets, instanced rendering, uniform buffers and transform feedback. The test also includes impressive volumetric lighting and post-processing effects. We're running this benchmark in Unlimited mode, which ignores screen resolutions.

The Pixel 4 and 4 XL are again among the top-performing Android devices here, losing out only to the OnePlus 7 Pro. The iPhones are still way ahead though (including last year's iPhone XS Max and XR), and the iPhone 11 Pro was a whopping 63 per cent faster than the Pixel 4 XL.

Battery Life & Charging

Our standard battery test for mobile phones has the following parameters:

• Looping a 720p video with screen brightness and volume at 100%
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity turned on
• Constant data streaming through email and Twitter

Battery life is where the Pixel 4 doesn't fare so well. Oddly enough, battery capacity on the Pixel 4 has taken a slight dip coming from the Pixel 3, but it has increased on the Pixel 4 XL. The Pixel 4 now has a 2,800mAh battery (2,915mAh on the Pixel 3) while the 4 XL has a 3,700mAh unit (3,430mAh on the Pixel 3 XL).

However, even despite the increase in battery capacity on the Pixel 4 XL, it's still clear that it's still significantly smaller than on the other Android flagships. As a result, battery life results lag behind many of its rivals, with the Pixel 4 XL lasting a good 95 minutes less than the Galaxy Note10+. Conversely, the OnePlus 7 Pro, which also has a 90Hz display, lasted 189 minutes longer, so you can't entirely blame the Pixel 4 XL's shorter battery life on the higher refresh rate screen.

When it came to charging, the 18W USB-C charger took the Pixel 4 up to 46 per cent in 30 minutes, and the 4 XL up to 45 per cent. A full charge took a 105 minutes for the Pixel 4 and 103 minutes for the 4 XL.

To get the Pixel 4, or not? 

I have mixed feelings about the Pixel 4. On the one hand, I think it's a really good phone with an excellent camera. I like the new design, the 90Hz screen is slick, and the phone does quite well in benchmarks relative to other Android devices. The stock Android experience is intuitive and easy to use as well, and I think the new Android 10 gestures are pretty awesome. Gesture navigation support is also coming to third-party launchers like Nova Launcher on the Pixel 4, which is one of the best pieces of news I've heard in a while.

I also love the Google Assistant integration and AI smarts on the Pixel 4. It ultimately comes down to small details, like the Now Playing feature that automatically displays song titles on your lockscreen. Google Assistant also reminds me about upcoming flights and events, and the Continued Conversations feature is a really nice upgrade. Of course, the Pixel 4 will also be first in line for any Android updates or security patches, which is a really huge draw for me. 

Having said that, the Pixel 4 is also a showcase for a bunch of questionable decisions on the part of Google. It's 2019, why do we still have a flagship phone that starts at 64GB and tops out at 128GB? On top of that, there's no expandable storage, and Google is also taking away free unlimited Google Photos storage. Among other things that Google is taking away, add to the list the 3.5mm-to-USB-C adaptor in the box and earphones.

And then there's Google's decision to add a second telephoto lens. To be fair, Super Res Zoom on the Pixel 4 is excellent, and the phone also shoots some really nice portraits. But why did Google just stop at two? It'd have been really nice to have a third wide-angle lens here, especially since so many of its competitors already have one. The Pixel phones may not be a leader in terms of design or specifications, but they've always excelled when it comes to the camera. It's a little puzzling why Google isn't going all out to establish it's lead in this area – both in terms of camera software and hardware. Furthermore, a wide-angle camera is the one thing that Google can't approximate with software. 

Motion Sense and Face Unlock are nice-to-have additions, but I'm still leaning toward Motion Sense being more of a party trick in its current form. The proximity sensing is really useful though, and I enjoy having the always-on display turn off when I'm not around. And while Face Unlock works well, it also unlocks your phone when you have your eyes closed. Personally, that's not much of an issue for me since someone who can hold my phone up to my face while I'm sleeping is probably a trusted confidante, but you may very well feel differently.

Finally, here's an overview of how much the phones cost:

The good news is that they're cheaper than the Pixel 3, which start at S$1,249 for the Pixel 3 and S$1,399 for the Pixel 3 XL. However, these are still relatively expensive devices, especially when you consider the fact that rivals like the 256GB variants of the Galaxy Note10 and OnePlus 7 Pro cost around S$1,399.

If it comes down to picking between the Pixel 4 and 4 XL, I'd definitely go for the larger model, mostly because of the battery. And once you get used to a bigger screen, it's really hard to go back to a smaller model.

Ultimately, the Pixel 4 represents one of the biggest strides Google has made in a single generation. I'm also glad that Google is looking beyond software and making attempts at meaningful hardware upgrades in the form of the radar chip, higher refresh rate screen, and Face Unlock. It's also the most polished Pixel yet, and despite all its flaws, I really like it. It's a solid phone with new radar tech that no one has, and it's less iterative than some other phones we've seen this year. The way I see it, the Pixel 4 exemplifies the potential the Pixel line holds, and I'm already looking forward to what Google does with the Pixel 5.

Is it worth the upgrade over the Pixel 3? I think that depends on what you want from your phone. The Pixel 3 is getting new features like the new astrophotography mode, and it also runs Android 10. It's basically the same core Google experience as the Pixel 4. But the Pixel 4 is also faster, has a much better screen, and a more capable camera. If you want the best possible experience from Google, upgrading is a no-brainer. But the Pixel 3 still takes very good photos, and if it's still serving you well, you can probably get by with the same monthly software updates.

	Click to see the score breakdown
	Click to see the score breakdown