Heck, if Apple can get away with 4GB of RAM in its blazingly-fast iPhone 11 series, the Pixel 4 XL should be just fine.

Google opted to go with a 2x telephoto lens, which is the opposite of the trend of putting ultrawide lenses into phones. For instance, you can now safely keep Spotify, Maps, and the camera in the cache without any of them being force closed. The adaptive refresh rate is good, and felt responsive and fluid through our Google Pixel 4 XL review period. The graphics performance of the Pixel 4 XL is sufficient to display modern games smoothly even at higher setting levels. I replaced the battery myself which fixed the issue for a few months but it is now randomly turning off due to a faulty connector on the motherboard.

While it does very well in Octane v2 and WebXPRT 3, the values turn out more mediocre in the rest of the tests. standard for wired data transfer, and DRM Widevine L1 allows streaming of media content in Full HD resolution. Note: We’ve seen so much variance among various Google Pixel 4 XL review units that we’re going to re-run our battery tests again and update this review in a couple of days.

The simplest way to put it: the Pixel 4 feels like a phone designed for Google engineers rather than the average consumer. The other new feature made possible by Soli is Motion Sense, which enables you to control music and alarms by gesturing above the device. While the new Pixels may not need 8GB of RAM right now, given that Google guarantees updates for at least two more years, who knows where we’ll be then. So while it’s easy to say that the Google Pixel 4XL offers a more than satisfactory user experience, and comes with a bevy of new features, there are also some frustrating choices preventing it from achieving a higher score. Since we ran our detailed test of the Google Pixel 4, the rumors about an affordable Pixel 4a have been coming hard and fast, and there were also several feature drops, where Google improved its smartphones with some new functionalities.Even though the Pixel 4 shares the iPhone 11’s square camera bump, the overall design and aesthetic is unique and feels of a piece with the Pixel’s lineage. It’s much better than a gimmick in my experience, but it needs to work reliably for everyone before I give it the credit I think it’s due. In the benchmarks, the Pixel 4 XL convinces with a good system performance, overall placing in the middle of our test field. The Google Pixel 4 packs a Snapdragon 855 chipset, which isn’t quite as advanced as the mid-year upgrade Snapdragon 855 Plus, but that’s not a deal-breaker.

The Pixel 4 still tends towards more contrast and more blue tones — though it’s much less dramatic than the Pixel 3 was. It’s a hard phone to recommend, and to me at least, serves as a great advertisement for the Pixel 3.It’s notable that the Pixel 4 XL’s 1440 x 3040 resolution (537 pixels per inch) is greater and sharper than the standard Pixel 4’s 1080 x 2280 display (with 444 pixels per inch), but at these sizes you aren’t going to notice much of a difference, and Google isn’t pushing its VR platform anymore, so it’s not inches from your face. It still produces great photos in a variety of situations, although the lack of an ultra-wide lens means it’s somewhat less versatile than pretty much every other Android flagship released in 2019. In addition, the CalMAN analysis shows that the color portions are displayed relatively balanced on the screen. Google has also added an Astro Mode, which captures up to 16 images per burst and combines them, creating ultimate HDR images. Agree with that or not, the fact remains that the Pixel 4 camera system is not as versatile as many other phones out there that offer all three (Apple iPhone 11, Samsung Galaxy Note 10, etc.

It certainly isn’t speaking the same language as other Android phone makers and so can’t really be understood in those terms. Through their software Google is able to show what their phones can do, as Google is mainly a software company. Once I figured out that it requires a clean sweep across the entire top of the phone, though, I really liked using it. Given that original quality Google Photos uploads are no longer on offer and we’re never getting a microSD card on a Google phone, you have justifiable reasons to feel disgruntled. If you don’t mind carrying an external battery pack around with you, we encourage you to keep them turned on.It’s when comparisons come into play – not least when considering the emerging crop of mid-range challengers that offer a whole lot of bang for buck – that reviewing gets a little harder, and we have to be a bit more critical. The Pixel 4 series makes it pretty clear that Google doesn’t care as much about video as it does photography.