Some of the worst issues have been fixed with updates, but many remain—or crop up again after a few days. And Google continues to be non-committal about when fixes might arrive, only saying an update will arrive "in the coming weeks" or "soon. Google promises three years of security updates and two years of Android version updates, and most of the time the Pixel truly felt like the iPhone of Android when OTA updates would arrive as soon as they were available. Thus far, there have been two monthly updates November and December , and neither arrived on the first day.
Or the tenth day. I got the November update nearly three weeks after Google released it and the December update on Dec. Updates to the other three Pixel phones all arrived early in the month, but the phone that needs it the most also waits the longest.
Or the simple fact that only a very small number of apps support facial recognition for authentication. Outside of password managers, very few developers have signed on to support Face unlock, leaving the Pixel 4 without a biometric authentication method and thus, less secure than other phones. Otherwise, return it and buy something else. Anything else.
The Pixel 4 only lasts just over 14 hours between charges. Remove it from the charger at 7am and it will be dead by 9pm. Turning off the bells and whistles such as the ambient display only added about 40 minutes to the battery life. That was while using it as my primary device, with or so emails, messages and push notifications, two hours of browsing in Chrome, four hours of Spotify via Bluetooth headphones, 40 minutes of Into the Badlands from Amazon Prime Video, and three photos.
For comparison, similarly sized iPhone 11 Pro lasts 32 hours and the Pixel 4 XL lasts 26 hours under similar conditions, while the majority of smartphones in can last at least 24 hours with heavy usage. The Pixel 4 is one of the first smartphones to ship with the latest version of Android 10, complete with system-wide dark mode, full theming support for changing colours, icon shapes, typefaces and more, and vastly improved gesture navigation.
The Pixel 4 also has the same new on-device natural language processing that was so impressive on the larger Pixel 4 XL.
New Google Pixel 4 with Dual Camera, Night Sight Mode & Motion Sense
Google Assistant is much faster and works without an internet connection for many tasks. Motion Sense uses radar to track motions around the phone. The technology is more impressive than the functionality currently. To use Face Unlock developers need to update their apps to support the new unified biometric system built into Android, with only a small handful having done so currently.
Given Monzo is saying it will take a while to implement, you can probably forget your traditional banking apps working soon. Google has made a name for itself with some of the best smartphone cameras on the market, and the new dual-camera system on the back of the Pixel 4 is no different.
That is to say it has fantastic still image quality, even in very difficult lighting conditions. Google is still the market leader with its Night Sight ultra-low light mode, but others have caught up considerably. You might never get the chance to use it, but there's real power here - and at lot of that comes back to Google's computational photography. In regular shooting, Google continues the stellar performance we're used to: it will give a great photo in pretty much all conditions. The saturation of the display adds real pop to them - more akin to Samsung's devices - and it's still a great phone for portraits, both on the front and rear cameras.
One advantage Google has over other devices is that it uses the main camera for portraits, whereas some rivals use the telephoto lens, resulting in lower quality pictures. But there's one new area that's really interesting and something we've not seen on other phones. Google calls it dual exposure, but don't confuse that with dual exposure of a manual film camera.
What it does is take the idea of HDR and ramp it up, allowing you to independently set the foreground levels and background levels. That means you can lighten a foreground against a bright sky, or change levels to make a silhouette - or just tweak the image at the point of capture rather than afterwards in editing software. It's a powerful tool, but you need to be in the right situation to use it, and in all honesty, since review testing we've barely touched it.
For all the goodness - and there's so much here that's fantastic - with a third wide-angle camera becoming the norm, that's what photo fans will miss. It's offered by a number of rivals. Yes, you can use Google's existing Photo Sphere function to take those pictures, but it's not as swift, fast or natural as a dedicated lens. The Pixel 4 XL runs a pure version of Android 10 , with a few additions to stand it apart from some of the other leading Android smartphones. There's a voice recorder app that will live transcribe your notes and turn them into text.
That text is also searchable, meaning it's great for students or journalists. It works well, but does make some mistakes in transcription - but you can easily listen to the recording and change those words as necessary. All the processing happens on the device, so it's not data hungry, and it's exclusive to the Pixel. For how long remains to be seen, but it's another good example of Google's leaning towards a smarter device experience. We've long been fans of the Pixel's position with Android. Being at the front of the queue for updates remains a real advantage for those keen to have the latest Google functions, but it's not quite the advantage that it once was.
Other manufacturers are getting better at updating - and some are better at optimising the software experience too.
Key Features
OnePlus has been fast to update to Android 10 and its phones generally run a little smoother than Google's too. Still, we love the software and the overall experience of uncluttered Android - and this might be one of the core reasons for buying this phone. With a lack of flagship-grade pure Android handsets, the Pixel almost becomes the default choice.
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Once again it's the camera that sings in the Pixel 4 XL. It's a pleasure to use and now paired up with a great display, it's a really compelling experience when it comes to capturing photos and video on your phone. While there's no wide-angle lens, the performance across the normal, portrait, zoom and low-light photography makes this a top phone for those who want to take photos. While the design is interesting and there's plenty of power, there's a couple of areas where the Pixel 4 XL doesn't quite topple its rivals. The battery life is far from class leading - although some may be perfectly happy to accept that - and Soli and Motion Sense gestures don't really add much to the experience.
Google Pixel 4 XL review: Look mum, no hands
Those Soli functions may change over time, but we're accustomed to using a phone in the hand - as that's what it's designed for. But rivals have closed the gap in camera performance, offer more power, more compact design and better battery life. While it's attractive now, we suspect that in four months time this phone will feel old. The Huawei P30 Pro has an edgy excitement about it. Yes, there may be a bit of a question mark over the future relationship with Google, but it offers great power, great performance and great battery life - and it's still ruling the camera experience on smartphones.