I dunno if they're smurfing to not upset their partners or genuinely just don't give enough time and thought to hardware development, but Google perpetually seems stuck in the mode of "maybe next year, they'll get really serious about hardware". I'm starting to believe it'll never happen, apart from the Pixel 2 camera catching everyone by surprise.
At 100 dollars more than the iPhone 11, this phone is a hard stretch for me, the 90Hz OLED is nice but the battery life is correspondingly worse.
Please do not regurgitate unfounded "views" as a fact. The 'new' Nokia has a significant number of people from the 'old' Nokia and is 100% Finnish. This allegation of being a chinese shell is laughable. If you are referring to Nokia phones being manufactured in China, ahem, even Iphones are manufactured in China. As are hundreds of other brands...
The battery is so terrible that I have the 90hz feature and the hand gesture thingy turned off on my 4XL. Frankly some Google execs need to be in jail for bundling such a terrible battery with a $1000 phone. It should be a crime in 2019 for what they offer for the price tag. Since Ive left Apple, they probably caught the lazy fewks at Google off guard. What a year! APPLE bundling a bigger battery and improved battery life than any one else.
Not sure what you're attempting but if you're gonna post a comment, stick to the topic. There's already enough meaningless spam to go around in the internet.
I was going to cancel my ore order. I got mine for $300 off by chance so I took it. I think it's every bit worth the $650ish incl tax i paid for the XL. Googles problem is they are pricing these as iPhones but have cut so many features. I'm sure with the ass kicking they've received now for the pixel 4 at least next year the pixel will have a bigger battery. :D
If $650 inc. tax also covers warranty then...I suppose it's still up for consideration, just not for many here who don't want to put too much personal data on clouds because of the puny storage.
The OnePlus 7T crushes the Pixel 4 in every aspect of hardware except stupid gimmicks like "radar". So glad I gave that a shot after being disappointed with the Pixel 4's reveal. Super happy with the 7T.
Except for the camera which is very important for most users. If the S11 doesn't come with a VRR 120Hz screen, I might just wait and get an iPhone (never owned an iPhone before). Not sure how all of these manufacturers continue to mess up, especially Google.
I love the 7. Only reason I had to drop it was lack of proper water resistance. I could probably put up with a mediocre camera but water proofing is a must with a toddler.
With Soli(motion sense), Now Playing and Live Transscribe turned off, I get almost 2 full days on a single charge of my 4XL even with 90hz on. A far cry from my 3XL's SoT which was abysmal.
Maybe google should try fixing their software too. You’d think money makers like play music wouldn’t so horribly unstable. It’s not like they’re hurting for cash. Something is going very wrong over there. I’m sure I’ll learn what in season 6 of silicon valley.
Had to look up SJW. HAHA rotten inside...Would've been a much more fitting metaphor for Apple but ironically Apple is on their A game with the Iphone so.
Pixel4-XL-128GB here. better compared to the iPhone Pro\XL, which is more expensive for models above 64GB, but then have more storage and extra camera.
the Google hardware seems pretty serious to me. first non-Apple with real face unlock (Soli-accelerated), squeeze for assistant, 90hz amoled at 1440p, Pixel Neural Core, 6GB RAM, etc. but of course the main draw is software and integration... it just works, and more sensibly than iPhone, IMO.
I wish people would stop spouting this nonsense. Are we pretending the Huawei Mate 20 Pro with its full array of dot projected 3D facial scanning didn’t exist?
Ouch. I really don't understand Google's approach with regards to the Pixel line, especially the 4. I can swallow the fact that it's not the most bleeding edge processor in lieu of decent software. But they really sold themselves short with the 4. Soli is half baked, so is the 90hz panel regulation, and then you double down by excluding a fingerprint reader? Oh, and ZERO headphone adapter? All for a flagship price?? It screams "me too" while implementing terrible differentiation (aside from the camera). I'll pass.
"Unfortunately, the storage tiers this year also remain the same, at 64GB, 256GB and 512GB. I do find it extremely conservative of Apple to continue the 64GB base model given that the majority of the competition has switched over to 128GB as a minimum."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Or you could just, go for a brand that has a close-to-stock software experience, and live without all the compromises of the Pixel 4. Or you could just install LineageOS on any other flagship and get the same "Android Software experience"
Pixel UI isn't good for how it looks, but how it runs. Frame consistency (smoothness) in animations, scrolling, etc. and consistency in general is something you can't get in every other run-of-the-mill stock Android interface, whether it's OxygenOS or Nokia UI. I don't understand why people never get this.
Any particular reason the design of the phone looks pre-2018? Everyone is going for full screen with 85%+ screen to body ratio, why did Google op for a huge bezel on top? Also 2800 mAh battery for a $800 premium flagship?
I'm perfectly fine with the design. I love my pixel 4 XL. Ultimately all my phones go into a case on day 1 anyways. The screen is big and the display is nice. What I'm upset about is the terrible #@&#a@ battery life. They could've done so much better. It's almost 2020. Wtf Google.
The Pixel 3a is perfect in that range. Someone in the family uses and loves it. Goes on sale often now for $300. And the camera, screen, speaker all are perfect in that price range. And darn it's super light weight too compared to my heavy pixel 4 XL because some douche execs still believe that glass and heavy weight somehow makes stuff "premium".
I loved my Nexus 5 - the only things about it I really had a problem with was the limited storage and slightly sub-par battery life.
I'd happily buy the exact same thing again with the equivalent current-gen internals (better SoC, more RAM, more storage, updated camera sensor, marginally improved battery). Hell, I'd pay up to $600 if they threw in a decent OLED display and better speakers.
Instead, we keep getting the same warmed-over overpriced nonsense.
The Pixel 4 XL is an excellent device. Definitely built for the user experience and not for the tech snobs and spec chasers. The Pixel 4 is hands down the best way to experience Android.
At this stage I am hoping that Nokia or someone else will release Android One flagship-class phone.
I understand that this is more about software/experience than hardware, but just as iPhone - good as it might be - feels overpriced for me, this actually feels worse.
has a pixel 3 a user I was excited to see the pixel 4 come out but I usually wait for all the reviews and then decide and have you seen the jerry-rigged video where he test the durability of the pixel 4 and it fails miserably with cracking in four areas
Coming from a Pixel 2XL, it ticks all the boxes for me. Performance (in terms of responsiveness rather than sustained benchmarks) is great, 90Hz display is a nice step up, the return of Qi charging means battery life is a nonissue for me (Put it down on the desk, and oh, it's charged when I go to pick it up again), and Soli has thus far been generally useful in a subtle way (activation on reach, and quieting alarms and rings before contact, rather than hand-waving demos). Camera is Good Enough for the few times I take photos. I miss the fingerprint reader for the notification swipe gesture, but it also means I can unlock and authenticate payments (pattern/code unlock is no good here) quickly without taking my gloves off - or even taking the phone out of the mount - to pay for fuel which is a nice convenience.
Then there are the alternatives. Iphones are right out, ain't nobody got time to deal with Apple's ecosystem. Samsung (and most others) get the boot due to their glacial update rate and/or OS-fiddling. And as this is by definition a device intended to be network connected continuously, it's either updated or it's PWNed. Out of the manufacturers who are vaguely on the ball when it comes to consistent, reliable and timely updates and don't go messing with the core OS that leaves basically Nokia, Essential, and Sony. Essential seem to be dead for all intents and purposes, Sony still haven't gotten Qi implemented, and Nokia lock their bootloaders (and are still on Android 9).
> Samsung (and most others) get the boot due to their glacial update rate and/or OS-fiddling. And as this is by definition a device intended to be network connected continuously, it's either updated or it's PWNed.
My S10 is on the November security patch since a couple of days. The Pixel 4 XL is still on the October one. People need to get their facts right.
I could be wrong, but I believe the point he was getting at is over device lifetime. This is the predominant reason I'm still using my Droid Turbo. Outside of Essential and Google the device makers for android bail on their device OS updates relatively rapidly (ex: Pixel 2 running 10, Galaxy S8 running 9). Samsung seems good about security updates as old devices do get those albeit at lower cadence, but that doesn't mean the devices get OS support.
Android in general is a nightmare when it comes to OS support, but the alternative is Apple, so that's a non starter for me. In general it'd be nice if Google did the work to square away OS updates so they could be device independent, but there is no pressure on anyone to do this it seems.
What does security update have to do with what he said? Andrei security updates are pushed on pixel phones in normal updates as well so its tied into regular autoupdates anyways now.
His point is valid, OS specific UI can totally ruin a phone experience, especially when upgrading is not a must have thing for you. Samsung is notorious for not pushing updates, or even down right lying about updating. Look at Tablet line they have..they still sell tablets and make them WITHOUT updates of any kind, despite them constantly saying after a couple years they will unlock them for users.
I have the Pixel 3 and love it, i won't be going to Pixel 4 (want fingerprint unlock). I might consider it for home use if price drops way low.
Would an article on this be possible? I’m currently on an iPhone Xs but have been looking at Androids as a change but have had doubts over some of them because of concerns over update cadence due to anecdotal evidence (Samsung, normally) but if that’s not right then that changes things a bit.
Custom ROMs are a thing, do your research before to get a phone that is well supported and you can have unlimited* software support. I can get an Android 9.0 ROM for my Moto G 2013. And if you buy the right phone, something like a Pocophone from last year or a Xiaomi Mi 9 variant now, you can get a top of the line specced phone (S855, 6 GB RAM, 64+ GB ROM, 1080+ AMOLED, 48 MP tripple cameras etc.) for half the price of the entry level iPhone 11, get good custom ROM support and even decent normal support for a year or two and if you don't anymore, you can buy the newest thing from them and have paid less than one iPhone for 2 phones in the end. You can even get their entry level phone with a slower SoC and if you don't game you won't notice the performance difference in Facebook or Youtube, and then get 3 phones for the price of one iPhone.
I'll take 3 years of support on my OnePlus device for roughly 1/2 to 2/3 of what an equivalent-spec iPhone would have cost. The battery's already tired after that length of time, and even if you keep your iPhone a year or two longer I'm still winning on cost.
Well, what? Google only released latest security patches along with updates to all their pixel phones on 5th of nov and does this each month. It's a rarity that some OEM pushes those before google does, essential only does simultaneously. And when other's do, they still get 1st of each month .
Well, what? Google only released latest security patches along with updates to all their pixel phones on 5th of nov and does this each month. It's a rarity that some OEM pushes those before google does, essential only does simultaneously. And when other's do, they still get 1st of each month .
The Galaxy S7 I am typing this with received 2 full OS upgrades, and is running the Aug 1 2019 k installed in Sept). It has received security updates every other month for the past year, so I'm expecting the next one in the next or so.
My wife's Galaxy A8 (2018) has already received an OS upgrade and gets security updates every other month as well. We've had it for just over a year now.
Our old Galaxy S6 received OS upgrades, and the last security update it received was for late 2018.
IOW, Samsung update process has greatly improved the past few years. You get 2 full OS upgrades and at least 3 years of security updates.
For me, the real choices haven't changed much since the beginning. Samsung, LG or Nexus 4/5/HTC Desire/OnePlus. Either the latest flagship, or a decent Google-only device. Not a cheap plastic mid-tier phone (unless that cheap phone is also a Nexus5-type phone with at least flagship CPU.) Pixel 4 should be $400 total.. So should be 50% off.
You missed OnePlus in your final assessment. They don't do much to the OS, and I've found the small things they do very useful. They don't do Qi either, but their Dash charge and superior battery life serve the same practical function.
I consider them to be an ideal replacement for the Nexus line that Google ditched.
Back in May of this year I bought a pixel 3a just to give it a try and I so enjoy the experience I sold my iPhone 8 plus and waited for the pixel 4 to come out and I've been watching reviews and I have to say up kind of disappointed in this phone. Recent review I watched was YouTuber by jerry-rig which tested the durability of the pixel for it failed miserably cracks in 4 areas...yeah I know I know I'm going to stick it in the case but you know it's a back pocket and you sit down in your car forget to take it out take it out after you sit down and madewell cause a problem but after watching that review I don't think I'm buying a mix before going to keep my pixel 3 a.... In the battery was the first thing I thought what a disaster
Underwhelming, but some of the feature decisions can be explained. 64GB base storage encourages people to make more use of cloud alternatives so Alphabet has greater access to perform analytics on user uploaded information. It's hard to pilfer information from over someone's cellular data plan without that catching attention and motivating the IT security types to go poking around at what you're doing. Encouraging users to put information out there of their own free will means analytics will attract a lot less attention.
Face unlock is downright alarming stuff that would do Eric Schmidt's decade-old walk right up to the creepy line (his own words back when he was the CEO of Google) expected justice. All that sensor equipment can capture a significant amount of data and put facial analysis of other photographs from other sources into a more useful context. Alphabet is leaning forward here and I would expect the mothership's repository of highly personal data to increase somewhat from this and the addition of Fitbit biometrics collection -- but it's all beneficial to society so it's okay, right?
As for RAM, I don't see a significant disadvantage in only including 6GB. I rarely see utilization go beyond 900MB on my current phone. Maybe being a bit behind on OS versions has something to do with it though. The only problem here is that Google is offering less memory and less storage for a similar price after showing up late to the party.
I don't understand why that's so impossible. My prior phone had 1GB and hovered around 600MB utilization with occasional need for up to 750MB. Both my current phone and my prior one saw/see heavy use as a stand-in for my laptop at times when I can't be bothered to turn it on so everything from working on a few documents to gaming have fallen to my phones. On the other hand, I find it odd that people feel RAM-limited at 4GB or would be worried that the next couple of years using a Pixel 4 would push 6GB to its limits.
It's perplexing what phone you're using. My S6E eats more than 1GB on a clean boot, and easily surpassed 2GB even in the past when it was still supported. Now it's about a year since it's last update and it could only juggle 2 apps maximum, with lag, and system animations already off. Any additional apps and the oldest will be terminated, not to mention certain popular and well-maintained apps that are just a glorified browser (I'm talking about Taobao and the sort) will only run half-smoothly(it would sometimes get stuck for 3-5 seconds, which was very rare on my Note8) with all background apps terminated, I don't know about hidden processes but in my experience Samsung's app manager puts those to sleep as much as possible, since it puts even active apps to sleep resulting in me missing notifications from almost all apps, only SMS, call, alarm, and occasionally the calendar break through. I could only tolerate S6E's performance because it's a backup device I only use for occasional communications and shopping, yet it still can't smoothly handle these light loads.
Your RAM usage looks low specifically because you don't have much RAM. With only 2GB of RAM to go around, your apps will be being suspended and thus not running simultaneously.
For comparison - my OnePlus 6 has been used for the browser, Signal and WhatsApp so far today and is sitting at 3.7GB of RAM usage.
Great review Andrei but I have some questions regarding the benchmarks in general.
First, on the GPU section, how do you corroborate the massive discrepancy between 3dmark GRAPHICS and the GFXBench series of benchmarks? I mean, on the former, the A series GPU seems on par with the competition, but on the latter the A series GPU is orders of magnitude better. I would interpret it that the difference is actually not between the GPUs but between the API implementations, GFX runs in Metal on ios and in Vulkan on android. Am I correct to read it this way?
Secondly, on the CPU side, referencing 3dmark PHYSICS, the A-series actually does not keep up with the competition. Now don't get me wrong, I understand that A13 is the most complex mobile CPU on the market, biggest and most expensive die. I also understand your testing with SPEC in an active cooled scenario. It clearly shows the quality of the design, desktop class arch. On the bursty side, the A13 is also on top, referencing Geekbench and other short benches. Why is the 3d mark PHYSICS the Achilles' heel? Talking "phones in hand", past the burst time interval, is Snapdragon able to sustain its performance better and higher than A13?
Thank you for the prompt response. On the GPU, if I may, similarly with how javascript tests are also about browser engine optimizations in addition to hardware, isn't the difference between Vulkan and Metal as implemented in their respective OS, an academic asterisk on GFX numbers?
Not trying to be politically correct or anything, but the "schmuck" bit about wireless earbuds is a bit unnecessary even if it is tongue in cheek. I've got a pair of Jabras I got on sale (you don't have to spend a "heavy premium") and the experience has been completely freeing compared to even the wireless cans they replaced. Not saying they're for everyone, but the popularity of Airpods and true wireless earbuds clearly shows they have massive appeal to many.
> I've got a pair of Jabras I got on sale (you don't have to spend a "heavy premium")
$100-150 is a very high premium for the sake of having audio. I'd argue the popularity of Airpods are very much less about wireless audio and more about them being style and status symbols.
I will never stop thinking that "true wireless" earbuds are a terrible idea. Even laying the physical issues of losing them or the case aside, you're charging a small battery to charge two even smaller batteries through induction, so the overall power efficiency is *terrible* and they're guaranteed to be e-waste within 4 years at the very most.
The only way to fix this is to be able to service the batteries yourself. I could do that to my Philips Sonicare now and it could last many years to come until spare parts cease to be available but I reckon the earbuds are a lot more difficult.
- No 3.5mm jack, "Made for Google" Apple copy bs - No SD slot - 4K 60 nope, No high FPS capturing either. - No Wide angle (It's funny when LG did this for 2016 and up no one batted an eye but when Apple does this its a ground breaking innovation. Also Pixel ia over as Huawei is too good (Which is really sad given its coming from a State funded corporate CPC stooge) - No UFS 3.0 - No 256GB base like Note 10+ nor base 128GB - 6GB bog standard RAM, in 2016 OP3 had 6GB RAM. - Google and all are praised for camera but no one reviews the Manual / Pro camera modes. A big sham that we don't get any of them on Pixel or iPhone but they are touted Best. Especially when LG and Sony break the mold with Manual/Pro Video settings (Siny just started with Xperia 1 while LG was doing since V20. - Pathetic battery. - Weak construction, Jerryrig tests failed, even that shitty paint is cheap feeling. - Propreitary System UI, uses AOSP only in name but Google slowly killing all of the OSS components into Pixel experience a massive shame. - Scoped Storage Bullshit (Android 10 bonus) a.k.a Death of Filesystem access. - Huge Forehead over rounded design, My V30 has much smaller bezela over this POS. - Pixel 4 has Huawei type Read Only Filesystem. EXT4 is RO in this crap making Custom ROM scene a pain. Like Pixel 3 Dynamic Partitions (P4 adds this too) and they also have A/B slotting BS, what does this mean ? - Multiple flashing of TWRP, Zips, need to change a lot of things as traditional mod flashes won't work.
The only good thing is Fastboot OEM unlock Bootloader unlock without any Code drama.
Also forgot to add the lack of proper fingerprint scanner and add that Face ID clone. Google Rick Osterloh doesn't have any shame and their lead designer lady is stupid as well.
Andrei thanks for reply. But isn't the HDR requirement at 500Nits optimum ? I see its maxing at 438 which is pretty poor esp in 2019. Also HDR10 is advertised on Samsung panels for a long time. Even LG from V30 onwards. Also same for Dolby Vision.
Daylight: I now realize that the crushed black issue is probably not really an issue, it's an attempt to hide the raised noise floor resulting from stacking underexposed shots. Take the poorly lit loading area of that building in sample 3 for example, Pixel 3 displays a similar depth into the shadows to iP11P and S10+, but Pixel 4 goes further at the cost of a lot more noise, while Mate30P simply has more shadow DR because of the larger sensor and that it doensn't use such a stack. Also I don't believe the difference in shadow mapping(darker, but far from pitch black leaves, vs. lighter leaves) is evidence of raised DR. It's only raised DR if deeper shadows are revealed at the cost of no more noise, or if the same shadow is now less noisy, but neither is true as evident in the foreground shadow of sample 4, Pixel 4's shadow is, as I noticed at GSMA without even a direct comparison, more noisy than Pixel 3's. Not only noisy but flat-looking, an overdone HDR effect. It's so bad there's blotching, under the roof of the building to the left in sample 4. The costs seem to notably outweigh the gains, or Pixel 4 used an even faster shutter for this specific shot to recover more highlight, resulting in worse shadows. In this shot iP11P's hybrid bracketing approach utilizing longer exposure time for some of the frames shows its strength and delivers the most solid shadows among the different stacking approaches. So if Apple were to lift shadows to the same extent as Pixel 4 then we might have been able to see deeper shadows back in sample 3. Come to think of it, Pixel 4's noisy shadows were even notable in the official samples leaked before launch. I thought it was due to pre-retail firmware but I was too optimistic. Look's like Apple's is the best overall but Pixel 3 has the most stable detail retention. Samsung still lacks detail as it has been for quite some time but at least DR wise it generally matches Apple. Huawei's latest Mate30P greatly dials down both sharpening and NR resulting in a surprising number of keepers, only sometimes sharpening would seem too low yielding in what's now not waxyness but a thin haziness, or maybe the sharpening threshold is too high. Low light: In the first sample Pixel 4 obviously added more NR, not a good choice as the noise level of Pixel 3 in this image is completely manageable, more NR only smeared the output. iP11P seems between the two Pixels in a number of metrics. Huawei's night mode apart from somewhat aggregated texture intensely suppresses highlights at the cost of various artifacts present since P20P, can't say I ever liked it. Sample 2: Again Pixel 4 is rather taking the shove the noise floor in your face approach rather than actually yielding more shadow DR, just look at the blotchy sky compared to its predecessor, however it's able to better recover highlights from the office windows. In the castle sample Pixel 4 definitely does something right, it's not only much cleaner but the blotchy sky is gone. Also I suspect less falloff from the new lens, which yields better corners. Mate30P's technically very large UWA is better than the Samsung's tiny sensor yet a lot worse than the main, perplexing as this sensor's output stacked should still be competitive, also the fact that Mate30P's night mode is only ~21mm equiv. which is halfway between the other two UWA(~12-13) and the mains, in fact leaning toward the FoV of the mains is another issue to consider. Second last sample: Apple's algorithm of being able to extract data from relatively sufficient light but complete inability to work with deeper shadows in low light reminds me of the Kandao RAW+ I tried out recently, it's similar in that decent data from a single frame could be greatly improved when stacked, but really poor data from a single frame is left untouched no matter how many frames you stack, which could result in very clean highlights yet completely useless shadows at a certain noise level.
Thanks for the great samples, your hands seem even steadier than before and the framing is far more consistent than what I expect of handheld comparisons.
Great analysis and I agree with much of your comments. Each of these cameras provide a slightly different look with different emphasis placed on Noise Reduction / Detail, White Balance, shadows, highlights, etc. I think a lot of it comes down to your individual preference.
Personally I do not like how Samsung applies a lot of noise reduction which impacts detail. But I know there are many that prefer this.approach.
The Night scenes seam to provide the greater variance. One example is the Castle where the S10, Pixel and iPhone provide similar renderings with differences in white balance, noise reduction and detail. The P30 Pro seems to take a different approach that I do not like. In this scene the P30 Pro provided a more flat lighting that seems unrealistic. The background trees are the brighter green and the sky has lost all cloud detail. This reminds me of the HDR from the previous gen iPhones that also did not look realistic.
"Personally I do not like how Samsung applies a lot of noise reduction which impacts detail." Yeah, me neither. What's even more worrying was that the Note10 series had that up a notch compared to the S10 series which was at least largely on par with Note9 and S9. There's hope for a different turn if S11 uses that new HMX, or at least 27MP would still match the pixel downsampled to 12MP, but there's also speculation that the flagship won't use the best and largest sensor(seeing how Mi Note 10 is close to 1cm thick it makes sense).
"The Night scenes... that I do not like." Yeah, me neither. :) It's too flat, not only from Andrei's review but also from GSMA's review that came out faster with far fewer samples. In some instances P30P/Mate30P would suppress highlights so much that a night scene is turned to a dusk scene as street lamps look dim and weak and cast light not significantly brighter than the surroundings. It's completely overdone and it's a mistake I wouldn't have made 10 years ago when I just started to post process my photos. Also if you look closely at the trees I would suspect that it's artificially colored. RYYB should distinguish green poorly(it leaks longer wavelength through by design after all) and the green looks mushy with a fake-looking color tone leaning towards cyan. I wouldn't be surprised if this color was filled by the so-called "AI" as it might have recognized trees when the camera failed to determine the actual color in that area, while it's not precise enough for a more convincing fill.
There is a little trick to force the Night Mode option on the iPhone 11. The iPhone seems to determine the mode based on what it is focusing on. If you manually focus on the one of the darker area in the night photos where Night Mode was not an option, then it would show up as an option. You just need to remember to manually lower exposure as the scene may end up brighter than expected. Something similar can be done to enforce the "deep fusion" mode in certain instances although that is more difficult to determine as the iPhone doesn't tell you when this mode is used.
This seems to be a quirk that Apple can easily fix but for now needs to be worked around manually.
I only care about the following things when checking out a phone.
How does it feel in my hand? How is the display? How long does the battery last? How fast does the camera open? How good is the camera?
Honestly all high end phones are pretty good on these points. I have a Pixel 2 because I'm a Google Fi subscriber. I'll pass on the Pixel 4. I don't see any significant improvements on the points I listed above.
I have mostly used Google Nexus and pixel phones since the original Nexus one. I switched from the pixel 3 xl to the OnePlus 7 pro 12/256 because of the price, 90hz display, battery, pop up camera, and screen to body ratio. I honestly don't miss Google phones at all at this point. Looking at the pixel 4, I feel like Google is once again playing catch-up instead of innovating. It doesn't seem like it would be too hard to turn things around and start releasing amazing, innovative phones. Yet somehow, they release another "me too" snooze fest that is overpriced and underwhelming. I don't want them to stop making hardware, but they seriously need to have a look at what OnePlus, Xiaomi, and Huawei are doing for so much less and re evaluate their entire phone business.
I don't even think they intend for these to sell, it looks like a pet project of sorts. Why buy HTC's Pixel division only to release these disappointments?
I can tell phone designers have run out of ideas when they started adding more cameras to their phones. I guess manufacturers have to come up with something to pretend to justify the prices of phones.
I don't like wearing watches and I just check the phone's lock screen for time. I don't want to unlock while doing that. And while getting the phone out of the pocket, if I want it unlocked, fingerprint gets it unlocked before your face ID. I hope not everyone removes fingerprint sensor.
I just put my pixel 4xl in the mail back to Google. This is the first time I have ever sent something back as it was that bad. No one is talking about how the NFC doesn't work in the new phone or that the missing fingerprint scanner makes all your apps go back to pins/passwords. I agree the battery is terrible and the time to load simple apps is an issue. All in all I wasn't going to give Google 1000 dollars of my money for a horrible phone. Going back to my pixel 2xl
And imagine in just 2 years this a grand dollar "miracle" of circa 2017 is obsolete and not supported anymore like not supported long ago are all those Nexuses. Microsoft and Intel with their PCs working for decades have to learn how to sell planned obsolescence
To add the Swiss army knife or pepper spray would be more useful. Bet women would more appreciate back panel as mirror than useless radar. That would be real innovation. And sell that for $2000 that's a total duper-innivation, all better specced with twice the RAM and storage yet only $169 phones on Ali Express will die from jealousy
Phones like this and literally anything outside the Iphone 11 pro have me waiting. Still rocking my HTC U11 I got to make taking photos easier once I got a desk job before I went on a trip. I used a LG g flex gen1 before that for its durability when I was a installer for towers on roofs. I really like "gimmick" FEATURE phones they just always fade away because people just want name swag and the same no trick Brick in mass. Glad to see apple is still "innovating" upgrading on more than just the performance front.
Thanks Andrei, your review about sums it up! Amazing how Google continues to have a reverse Midas touch when it comes to hardware. It's almost like they don't want to threaten their major Android licensees by resolutely keeping the price/performance ratio solidly below theirs. Google might want to take a look at Microsoft's Surface lineup, which actually leads the Windows field in some areas like 2-in-1s.
I was in the market for a new phone but wanted to wait for the Pixel 4 to drop before making a decision, ended up going with a OP7 Pro. Same SoC, 2x the RAM, 4x the storage, arguably a better implementation of the 90Hz display, larger battery, no forehead/notch, a respectable camera, and a clean OS for $50 cheaper than the cheapest Pixel 4?! Google needs to get serious.
Love Pixel devices as specs are not all. My feeling is that in the last few years phones are fast enough so specs in terms of pure speed are mostly meaningless unless you have some special case that I don have. Unlocked boot-loader, guaranteed fastest updates for 3 years and freedom to sideload apps is a big plus. Best camera on the market, IP68 dust and water resistance are also a must in my book and both Pixel 4 have them.
I agree that the original price is to high ($799 for the regular version and $899 for the XL version) but with a recent $200 discount the new price is $599 for the regular version and $699 for the XL version making them much more reasonable buy.
I am personally skipping Pixel 4 as I plan to upgrade my Pixel 2 next year with Pixel 5.
Interesting that the reviewer rigged Google for not introducing an ultra wide lens like their rivals; thus, ignoring the fact that LG introduced this feature several years ago.
What's your point? LG being first to the UWA doesn't change the fact that Google's the only vendor this year not having it.
LG was first to it and I've always said it's a great addition to the camera experience, but it was Huawei in 2018 which popularised it as the UWA quality was far ahead of what LG was able to ever offer.
I would have said that the Pixels MAIN issue is the woefully short support timeframe from Google. 3 years of support IS NOT ENOUGH for the price, regardless of anything else.
Agree, my original 2016 Pixel won't have anymore updates from January 2020, so 3 years update only. If I bought an iPhone instead it will still have software update at least until the end of 2020, may be more. The camera of the Pixel however was better than iPhone at the time. Now iPhone 11 camera has improved and the video is better than the Pixel 4, if I am to upgrade I would buy the Iphone 11 , not the Pixel 4. To upgrade the memory to 128Gb will cost me £50 for the iphone 11 and £100 for the Pixel 4
We don't have the Note10's and we'd have to buy them to review; I don't feel the phones have any major differentiating factors over the S10 to be that much worth it.
So far all the reviews I have seen has showed that the loudspeaker loudness (or maybe even quality) of the Pixel 4 is better than the iPhone 11, this review says on the contrary! Also those reviews showed the Pixel 4 performing better for day to day tasks (like app opening etc.) faster than the iPhone 11.
Was the reviewer here let down even from before reviewing the device or something? Astrophotography mode was not even tested! If the iPhone 11 had that feature would you cite the pretty nonsense reason of poor weather to skip that part? I don't think so. Not sure what went here.
In any case, Google could have done so many things right with this phone. But they chose not to. Withdrawing the original quality upload was one of the terrible decisions, so was the terrible battery capacity on the Pixel 4 non-XL model. There is no doubt for 2019-2020 the iPhone 11 is a much better choice than the Pixel 4, but this review has some unnecessary and uncalled negative bias towards the Pixel 4.
I expected you, the reviewer, to use that mode. It's not only for taking photos of clouds is it now? It's just something which lets the shutter open for much longer time compared to Night Sight even which would have led to some astonishing shots no doubt.
To me, the great Android experience is basically negated by poor battery life, QC and high price on the Pixel 3 and 4 series. Battery life for a mobile device is an essential requirement which this fails bitterly for a flagship phone. I agree it's a very gimmicky phone. It's rare to see reviewers being so harsh in their conclusion, but I feel Google really deserved a harsh wake up call and not be half hearted when they design a product.
I really think the author missed the point of the Pixel series. They are about Google's machine learning based smarts, which are well ahead of other providers. I plan to buy a Pixel 4 for the on-device transcription feature alone, though other features, not related to the the up-to-dateness of its SoC, are making me hesitate.
the one benefit of this phone vs a samsung, is getting a clean Android install without a bunch of bloatware installed on it by either samsung and/or the carrier's image, which allows for timely updates rather being 1-2 years behind all the time. However i dont see this as a compelling 'upgrade' from a pixel 3 at all.
I agree that the Pixel 4's battery is a bit too small, but the 4 XL should have sufficient capacity.
The Pixel 3a XL I have lasts 3 days under light use and more than a day under heavy use, in fact I never was able to deplete the battery within a day before I came home, even when it was late in the eveing and used the phone excessively.
So with a bit worse battery runtime, the 4 XL should still be fine, perhaps except of the most extreme use cases.
I have played around with both the 4 and 4 XL and they both are very snappy and the face unlock works as advertised. It's not enough improvement for me to upgrade, though.
When we skip all the fancy gimmicks, there are a lot of pros for the Pixels:
- Bootloader unlocking and re-locking with fastboot, no crap like KNOX or warranty void - Very easy to apply updates even when rooted - Pixel users get new features first, like Google Lens - Timely, monthly security updates (at least for 3 years) - First to new Android versions via Google's beta channel - Still a very good camera (in my opinion) - The best software. I know this is subjective, but I e.g. cannot stand Samsung's or LG's launchers, phone apps, contacts etc.
The software features are the main point for me personally. I don't give a rat's a$$ about bezel sizes, popup cameras or slightly better screens, but I want the newest software and being able to easily root the thing.
Other people might put mnore emphasis on things I don't care for, but for me Pixels are the best.
Agree. The actual experience of owning and using the phone matters more than opinions about marginal differences in specs.
Ive had the Pixel 3 since release and its great, especially the camera. Battery life is fine.
Frankly any of these top phones are great, regardless of who makes them. I just refuse to buy into Apples annoying walled garden and so will never own an Iphone.
Well if Astrophotography and Soli radars are gimmicks, what about forced touch for 6s? I just remembered about the glowing tribute to force touch when it was launched in 6s in Anandtech. It praised how it's going to be the future of touch... only to be discarded by Apple a few yrs later as it was not practically useful. Though astrophotography is not a common occurence brushing it aside as gimmick makes one wonder whether theres an inherent bias towards anything Google and being lax on Apple!! Going by the same yardstick, the reviewer makes noise about pixels low display brightness. Now how many of us practically use our phone in bright sunlight to want that? Do we really need levels abouve 800 and 1000? So practicality is not the issue in most cases. As much experience and features a phone can pack, its better. If not you, someone will be benifitted by it. However it's of crucial importance for the pixel team to read such reviews as they are out of touch with reality. It's as if the team is living under a rock!! It's interesting to see how chineses OEMs with limited budget, resources and know how, easily surpass the mighty google in hardware and software design. Google needs a serious introspection.
When you can buy a OnePlus 7 standard model with snapdragon 855 and 256gb of UFS 3.0 and 8gig of ram and android 10 oxygen for 300 pounds,with far better battery life and decent camera why would you pay for a pixel 4
Really odd camera review, zero testing when it comes to subject focusing or how the cameras deal with actual subjects. Which makes sense considering the narrative mostly focuses on samsung's 'advantage' in dynamic range. (I do agree with their advantage there, but they have weaknesses as well). I think more categories needed to be tested for all cameras..
It looks like a much better phone then the pixel 4, but for $700 I'd expect a headphone jack and at least a 5000 MaH battery, or no headphone and 5500+MaH. I've given up on google ever using SD cards again.
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tipoo - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
I dunno if they're smurfing to not upset their partners or genuinely just don't give enough time and thought to hardware development, but Google perpetually seems stuck in the mode of "maybe next year, they'll get really serious about hardware". I'm starting to believe it'll never happen, apart from the Pixel 2 camera catching everyone by surprise.At 100 dollars more than the iPhone 11, this phone is a hard stretch for me, the 90Hz OLED is nice but the battery life is correspondingly worse.
Notmyusualid - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Nokia, I remember, were kinda out of step with the hardware too.Look where they went...
RSAUser - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Pretty good?s.yu - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Nokia leased their name to a bunch of people and capital from Foxconn who now formed HMD.Teckk - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
HMD is a Finnish company I think, not Chinese?They have decent mid range devices, but they just don't launch a top of the line device.
s.yu - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
HMD is formed in Finland, mostly by Chinese or by Finnish working for Foxconn.yacoub35 - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
Pixel 3/3A/4: A $400 phone with an $800 price tag.OnePlus 7T: An $800 phone with a $600 price tag.
Drumsticks - Monday, November 11, 2019 - link
Not sure you can lump the literally $400, and very good, 3A that is often on sale in with the other two there...RaduR - Monday, November 11, 2019 - link
I will never understand how come OnePlus price is double vs Xiaomiboozed - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
There are phones with "Nokia" labels on them but Nokia doesn't have anything to do with them other than collecting royalties.LiverpoolFC5903 - Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - link
Please do not regurgitate unfounded "views" as a fact. The 'new' Nokia has a significant number of people from the 'old' Nokia and is 100% Finnish. This allegation of being a chinese shell is laughable. If you are referring to Nokia phones being manufactured in China, ahem, even Iphones are manufactured in China. As are hundreds of other brands...Spunjji - Monday, November 11, 2019 - link
Pretty sure their bigger problem was being tied to a Microsoft OS.milkywayer - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
The battery is so terrible that I have the 90hz feature and the hand gesture thingy turned off on my 4XL. Frankly some Google execs need to be in jail for bundling such a terrible battery with a $1000 phone. It should be a crime in 2019 for what they offer for the price tag. Since Ive left Apple, they probably caught the lazy fewks at Google off guard. What a year! APPLE bundling a bigger battery and improved battery life than any one else.s.yu - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
*Gasp*A LIVE user!
milkywayer - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Not sure what you're attempting but if you're gonna post a comment, stick to the topic. There's already enough meaningless spam to go around in the internet.s.yu - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
What I mean is somebody reading Anandtech actually buys this crap. The specs and pricing alone should be ample deterrent.milkywayer - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
I was going to cancel my ore order. I got mine for $300 off by chance so I took it. I think it's every bit worth the $650ish incl tax i paid for the XL. Googles problem is they are pricing these as iPhones but have cut so many features. I'm sure with the ass kicking they've received now for the pixel 4 at least next year the pixel will have a bigger battery. :Ds.yu - Sunday, November 10, 2019 - link
If $650 inc. tax also covers warranty then...I suppose it's still up for consideration, just not for many here who don't want to put too much personal data on clouds because of the puny storage.Spunjji - Monday, November 11, 2019 - link
At that price it's a reasonable phone. Marginally worse hardware than the competition, better software support.Shame they actually don't sell it for that, otherwise I'd consider buying one!
chrnochime - Tuesday, November 12, 2019 - link
They will just mess up something else next year. They just can't compete at this price level with the seemingly half-baked products they release.yacoub35 - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
The OnePlus 7T crushes the Pixel 4 in every aspect of hardware except stupid gimmicks like "radar". So glad I gave that a shot after being disappointed with the Pixel 4's reveal. Super happy with the 7T.Toss3 - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
Except for the camera which is very important for most users. If the S11 doesn't come with a VRR 120Hz screen, I might just wait and get an iPhone (never owned an iPhone before). Not sure how all of these manufacturers continue to mess up, especially Google.milkywayer - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
I love the 7. Only reason I had to drop it was lack of proper water resistance. I could probably put up with a mediocre camera but water proofing is a must with a toddler.hecksagon - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
Yet still can't make a home screen you can customize.Pooppoot - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
I have a Pixel 4 XL and the battery isn't actually a problem to me. It last pretty much a day for me and I have those features turned on!DnaAngel - Sunday, December 15, 2019 - link
With Soli(motion sense), Now Playing and Live Transscribe turned off, I get almost 2 full days on a single charge of my 4XL even with 90hz on. A far cry from my 3XL's SoT which was abysmal.willis936 - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Maybe google should try fixing their software too. You’d think money makers like play music wouldn’t so horribly unstable. It’s not like they’re hurting for cash. Something is going very wrong over there. I’m sure I’ll learn what in season 6 of silicon valley.peevee - Monday, November 11, 2019 - link
They've hired a lot of humanity major SJWs instead of good engineers. Google is now rotten inside.chrnochime - Tuesday, November 12, 2019 - link
Had to look up SJW. HAHA rotten inside...Would've been a much more fitting metaphor for Apple but ironically Apple is on their A game with the Iphone so.DnaAngel - Sunday, December 15, 2019 - link
Really? because I see article after article of all the issues Apple is having right now, many of them with the iPhone 11.MooseNSquirrel - Sunday, November 17, 2019 - link
Just when you think comments cant get any dumber, one gets proven wrong.MScrip - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
-- "I dunno if they're smurfing to not upset their partners..."Their partners sell 300 million units a quarter or 1.2 billion units a year.
Meanwhile... Google is lucky to sell 12 million Pixels the entire year.
So I'm not really sure the partners are worried about the Pixel... :)
surt - Sunday, November 10, 2019 - link
But the question is, would Google eat into partner sales if they made a good phone?MScrip - Sunday, November 10, 2019 - link
Even if Google somehow quadrupled their sales... that's still a pitiful 48 million units per year.Samsung can sell that many in TWO MONTHS. And that is *just* Samsung.
We haven't even mentioned Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo, and the countless other vendors who contribute to the 1.2 BILLION units sold per year.
So I don't think Google can do anything to "eat into" partner sales. There's simply too many of them.
Pixel 5 could be the greatest Android phone ever made... but it's not gonna put a dent in partner sales.
austonia - Monday, November 11, 2019 - link
Pixel4-XL-128GB here. better compared to the iPhone Pro\XL, which is more expensive for models above 64GB, but then have more storage and extra camera.the Google hardware seems pretty serious to me. first non-Apple with real face unlock (Soli-accelerated), squeeze for assistant, 90hz amoled at 1440p, Pixel Neural Core, 6GB RAM, etc. but of course the main draw is software and integration... it just works, and more sensibly than iPhone, IMO.
Spencer1 - Sunday, November 17, 2019 - link
I wish people would stop spouting this nonsense. Are we pretending the Huawei Mate 20 Pro with its full array of dot projected 3D facial scanning didn’t exist?727200 - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Ouch. I really don't understand Google's approach with regards to the Pixel line, especially the 4. I can swallow the fact that it's not the most bleeding edge processor in lieu of decent software. But they really sold themselves short with the 4. Soli is half baked, so is the 90hz panel regulation, and then you double down by excluding a fingerprint reader? Oh, and ZERO headphone adapter? All for a flagship price?? It screams "me too" while implementing terrible differentiation (aside from the camera). I'll pass.ElBerryKM13 - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Apple releases devices with 64gb "Oh so innovative, what a company" Google pixes releases 64gb "device is stuck in the past"Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
https://www.anandtech.com/show/14892/the-apple-iph..."Unfortunately, the storage tiers this year also remain the same, at 64GB, 256GB and 512GB. I do find it extremely conservative of Apple to continue the 64GB base model given that the majority of the competition has switched over to 128GB as a minimum."
bji - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Why bother with evidence? Haters are gonna delude themselves into hating no matter the facts.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?Retycint - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
Or you could just, go for a brand that has a close-to-stock software experience, and live without all the compromises of the Pixel 4. Or you could just install LineageOS on any other flagship and get the same "Android Software experience"generalako - Sunday, November 10, 2019 - link
Pixel UI isn't good for how it looks, but how it runs. Frame consistency (smoothness) in animations, scrolling, etc. and consistency in general is something you can't get in every other run-of-the-mill stock Android interface, whether it's OxygenOS or Nokia UI. I don't understand why people never get this.s.yu - Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - link
If you just turn system animations off, it's faster. I'm currently using a laggy backup phone and it really shows.29a - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Do you always lie?airdrifting - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Any particular reason the design of the phone looks pre-2018? Everyone is going for full screen with 85%+ screen to body ratio, why did Google op for a huge bezel on top? Also 2800 mAh battery for a $800 premium flagship?Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
The forehead is filled with sensors and hardware. It's not really an issue for the phone - you get used to the looks pretty fast.Oliseo - Sunday, November 10, 2019 - link
It might not be an issue for the phone, but it's an issue for the customers.But hey, some random nobody on the Internet halfway down an obscure website said not to worry about it, so.....
Sharma_Ji - Sunday, November 10, 2019 - link
Well, that nobody is whom who wrote the article you are reading.Spunjji - Monday, November 11, 2019 - link
"obscure website"Either you're trolling or you genuinely have no idea what you're talking about; neither looks good.
s.yu - Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - link
I know right, the guy probably thinks Engadget has more authority.milkywayer - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
I'm perfectly fine with the design. I love my pixel 4 XL. Ultimately all my phones go into a case on day 1 anyways. The screen is big and the display is nice. What I'm upset about is the terrible #@&#a@ battery life. They could've done so much better. It's almost 2020. Wtf Google.hammer256 - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Gah, their ads for the phone is so annoying too. Not that I'm willing to spend more that $300 for a phone anyways...milkywayer - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
The Pixel 3a is perfect in that range. Someone in the family uses and loves it. Goes on sale often now for $300. And the camera, screen, speaker all are perfect in that price range. And darn it's super light weight too compared to my heavy pixel 4 XL because some douche execs still believe that glass and heavy weight somehow makes stuff "premium".hammer256 - Sunday, November 10, 2019 - link
I was definitely tempted by it, would have been a great deal for 300 bucks, just like the original Nexus 5. That was a good phone...Spunjji - Monday, November 11, 2019 - link
I loved my Nexus 5 - the only things about it I really had a problem with was the limited storage and slightly sub-par battery life.I'd happily buy the exact same thing again with the equivalent current-gen internals (better SoC, more RAM, more storage, updated camera sensor, marginally improved battery). Hell, I'd pay up to $600 if they threw in a decent OLED display and better speakers.
Instead, we keep getting the same warmed-over overpriced nonsense.
ToTTenTranz - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
There are some references to Galaxy S11 in page 5 (camera daylight).Is this an exclusive access that anandtech got from a future phone?
;)
Jcaro14 - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
The Pixel 4 XL is an excellent device. Definitely built for the user experience and not for the tech snobs and spec chasers. The Pixel 4 is hands down the best way to experience Android.ToTTenTranz - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Ok Google...Ironchef3500 - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
+1nikon133 - Sunday, November 10, 2019 - link
The gist of it, eh :)At this stage I am hoping that Nokia or someone else will release Android One flagship-class phone.
I understand that this is more about software/experience than hardware, but just as iPhone - good as it might be - feels overpriced for me, this actually feels worse.
Jonahtrav - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
has a pixel 3 a user I was excited to see the pixel 4 come out but I usually wait for all the reviews and then decide and have you seen the jerry-rigged video where he test the durability of the pixel 4 and it fails miserably with cracking in four areasOliseo - Sunday, November 10, 2019 - link
Yeah, it's for halfwits.edzieba - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Coming from a Pixel 2XL, it ticks all the boxes for me. Performance (in terms of responsiveness rather than sustained benchmarks) is great, 90Hz display is a nice step up, the return of Qi charging means battery life is a nonissue for me (Put it down on the desk, and oh, it's charged when I go to pick it up again), and Soli has thus far been generally useful in a subtle way (activation on reach, and quieting alarms and rings before contact, rather than hand-waving demos). Camera is Good Enough for the few times I take photos. I miss the fingerprint reader for the notification swipe gesture, but it also means I can unlock and authenticate payments (pattern/code unlock is no good here) quickly without taking my gloves off - or even taking the phone out of the mount - to pay for fuel which is a nice convenience.Then there are the alternatives. Iphones are right out, ain't nobody got time to deal with Apple's ecosystem. Samsung (and most others) get the boot due to their glacial update rate and/or OS-fiddling. And as this is by definition a device intended to be network connected continuously, it's either updated or it's PWNed. Out of the manufacturers who are vaguely on the ball when it comes to consistent, reliable and timely updates and don't go messing with the core OS that leaves basically Nokia, Essential, and Sony. Essential seem to be dead for all intents and purposes, Sony still haven't gotten Qi implemented, and Nokia lock their bootloaders (and are still on Android 9).
edzieba - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Biggest thing I'm missing is an up/down motion gesture for scrolling recipes with dirty hands.Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
> Samsung (and most others) get the boot due to their glacial update rate and/or OS-fiddling. And as this is by definition a device intended to be network connected continuously, it's either updated or it's PWNed.My S10 is on the November security patch since a couple of days. The Pixel 4 XL is still on the October one. People need to get their facts right.
thestryker - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
I could be wrong, but I believe the point he was getting at is over device lifetime. This is the predominant reason I'm still using my Droid Turbo. Outside of Essential and Google the device makers for android bail on their device OS updates relatively rapidly (ex: Pixel 2 running 10, Galaxy S8 running 9). Samsung seems good about security updates as old devices do get those albeit at lower cadence, but that doesn't mean the devices get OS support.Android in general is a nightmare when it comes to OS support, but the alternative is Apple, so that's a non starter for me. In general it'd be nice if Google did the work to square away OS updates so they could be device independent, but there is no pressure on anyone to do this it seems.
imaheadcase - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
What does security update have to do with what he said? Andrei security updates are pushed on pixel phones in normal updates as well so its tied into regular autoupdates anyways now.His point is valid, OS specific UI can totally ruin a phone experience, especially when upgrading is not a must have thing for you. Samsung is notorious for not pushing updates, or even down right lying about updating. Look at Tablet line they have..they still sell tablets and make them WITHOUT updates of any kind, despite them constantly saying after a couple years they will unlock them for users.
I have the Pixel 3 and love it, i won't be going to Pixel 4 (want fingerprint unlock). I might consider it for home use if price drops way low.
Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
> What does security update have to do with what he said?Because he specifically brought up security concerns?
Sigil224 - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
Would an article on this be possible?I’m currently on an iPhone Xs but have been looking at Androids as a change but have had doubts over some of them because of concerns over update cadence due to anecdotal evidence (Samsung, normally) but if that’s not right then that changes things a bit.
Oliseo - Sunday, November 10, 2019 - link
You'll get three years MAX from the BEST android phone OEM (including Google) and that's from the Launch date.Prepare to junk it after 4 years at the latest (and that's a year with no OS upgrade).
And these are BEST CASE SCENERIOS.
Pick the wrong phone and it will be junk soon as you buy it.
Death666Angel - Sunday, November 10, 2019 - link
Custom ROMs are a thing, do your research before to get a phone that is well supported and you can have unlimited* software support. I can get an Android 9.0 ROM for my Moto G 2013.And if you buy the right phone, something like a Pocophone from last year or a Xiaomi Mi 9 variant now, you can get a top of the line specced phone (S855, 6 GB RAM, 64+ GB ROM, 1080+ AMOLED, 48 MP tripple cameras etc.) for half the price of the entry level iPhone 11, get good custom ROM support and even decent normal support for a year or two and if you don't anymore, you can buy the newest thing from them and have paid less than one iPhone for 2 phones in the end. You can even get their entry level phone with a slower SoC and if you don't game you won't notice the performance difference in Facebook or Youtube, and then get 3 phones for the price of one iPhone.
Spunjji - Monday, November 11, 2019 - link
I'll take 3 years of support on my OnePlus device for roughly 1/2 to 2/3 of what an equivalent-spec iPhone would have cost. The battery's already tired after that length of time, and even if you keep your iPhone a year or two longer I'm still winning on cost.Sharma_Ji - Sunday, November 10, 2019 - link
Well, what?Google only released latest security patches along with updates to all their pixel phones on 5th of nov and does this each month.
It's a rarity that some OEM pushes those before google does, essential only does simultaneously.
And when other's do, they still get 1st of each month .
Sharma_Ji - Sunday, November 10, 2019 - link
Well, what?Google only released latest security patches along with updates to all their pixel phones on 5th of nov and does this each month.
It's a rarity that some OEM pushes those before google does, essential only does simultaneously.
And when other's do, they still get 1st of each month .
phoenix_rizzen - Monday, November 11, 2019 - link
The Galaxy S7 I am typing this with received 2 full OS upgrades, and is running the Aug 1 2019 k installed in Sept). It has received security updates every other month for the past year, so I'm expecting the next one in the next or so.My wife's Galaxy A8 (2018) has already received an OS upgrade and gets security updates every other month as well. We've had it for just over a year now.
Our old Galaxy S6 received OS upgrades, and the last security update it received was for late 2018.
IOW, Samsung update process has greatly improved the past few years. You get 2 full OS upgrades and at least 3 years of security updates.
ahamling27 - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Um, OnePlus?flyingpants265 - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
For me, the real choices haven't changed much since the beginning. Samsung, LG or Nexus 4/5/HTC Desire/OnePlus. Either the latest flagship, or a decent Google-only device. Not a cheap plastic mid-tier phone (unless that cheap phone is also a Nexus5-type phone with at least flagship CPU.) Pixel 4 should be $400 total.. So should be 50% off.Spunjji - Monday, November 11, 2019 - link
You missed OnePlus in your final assessment. They don't do much to the OS, and I've found the small things they do very useful. They don't do Qi either, but their Dash charge and superior battery life serve the same practical function.I consider them to be an ideal replacement for the Nexus line that Google ditched.
Jonahtrav - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Back in May of this year I bought a pixel 3a just to give it a try and I so enjoy the experience I sold my iPhone 8 plus and waited for the pixel 4 to come out and I've been watching reviews and I have to say up kind of disappointed in this phone. Recent review I watched was YouTuber by jerry-rig which tested the durability of the pixel for it failed miserably cracks in 4 areas...yeah I know I know I'm going to stick it in the case but you know it's a back pocket and you sit down in your car forget to take it out take it out after you sit down and madewell cause a problem but after watching that review I don't think I'm buying a mix before going to keep my pixel 3 a.... In the battery was the first thing I thought what a disasterPeachNCream - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Underwhelming, but some of the feature decisions can be explained. 64GB base storage encourages people to make more use of cloud alternatives so Alphabet has greater access to perform analytics on user uploaded information. It's hard to pilfer information from over someone's cellular data plan without that catching attention and motivating the IT security types to go poking around at what you're doing. Encouraging users to put information out there of their own free will means analytics will attract a lot less attention.Face unlock is downright alarming stuff that would do Eric Schmidt's decade-old walk right up to the creepy line (his own words back when he was the CEO of Google) expected justice. All that sensor equipment can capture a significant amount of data and put facial analysis of other photographs from other sources into a more useful context. Alphabet is leaning forward here and I would expect the mothership's repository of highly personal data to increase somewhat from this and the addition of Fitbit biometrics collection -- but it's all beneficial to society so it's okay, right?
As for RAM, I don't see a significant disadvantage in only including 6GB. I rarely see utilization go beyond 900MB on my current phone. Maybe being a bit behind on OS versions has something to do with it though. The only problem here is that Google is offering less memory and less storage for a similar price after showing up late to the party.
dudedud - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
> rarely see utilization go beyond 900MB on my current phoneAre you using just one app or do you still have a 1GB phone?
PeachNCream - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
The phone has 2GB of RAM. I use a lot more than one app at a time.Oliseo - Sunday, November 10, 2019 - link
You can't possibly if you're only using less than 1Gb.PeachNCream - Sunday, November 10, 2019 - link
I don't understand why that's so impossible. My prior phone had 1GB and hovered around 600MB utilization with occasional need for up to 750MB. Both my current phone and my prior one saw/see heavy use as a stand-in for my laptop at times when I can't be bothered to turn it on so everything from working on a few documents to gaming have fallen to my phones. On the other hand, I find it odd that people feel RAM-limited at 4GB or would be worried that the next couple of years using a Pixel 4 would push 6GB to its limits.s.yu - Sunday, November 10, 2019 - link
It's perplexing what phone you're using.My S6E eats more than 1GB on a clean boot, and easily surpassed 2GB even in the past when it was still supported. Now it's about a year since it's last update and it could only juggle 2 apps maximum, with lag, and system animations already off. Any additional apps and the oldest will be terminated, not to mention certain popular and well-maintained apps that are just a glorified browser (I'm talking about Taobao and the sort) will only run half-smoothly(it would sometimes get stuck for 3-5 seconds, which was very rare on my Note8) with all background apps terminated, I don't know about hidden processes but in my experience Samsung's app manager puts those to sleep as much as possible, since it puts even active apps to sleep resulting in me missing notifications from almost all apps, only SMS, call, alarm, and occasionally the calendar break through.
I could only tolerate S6E's performance because it's a backup device I only use for occasional communications and shopping, yet it still can't smoothly handle these light loads.
Spunjji - Monday, November 11, 2019 - link
Your RAM usage looks low specifically because you don't have much RAM. With only 2GB of RAM to go around, your apps will be being suspended and thus not running simultaneously.For comparison - my OnePlus 6 has been used for the browser, Signal and WhatsApp so far today and is sitting at 3.7GB of RAM usage.
StormyParis - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Very informative thank you; especially the real-life pictures from almost all current flagships.I've jumped off the flagship bandwagon several years back. I'm curious how more reasonnably-priced handset (Redmi Note 10 especialy) would fare.
id4andrei - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Great review Andrei but I have some questions regarding the benchmarks in general.First, on the GPU section, how do you corroborate the massive discrepancy between 3dmark GRAPHICS and the GFXBench series of benchmarks? I mean, on the former, the A series GPU seems on par with the competition, but on the latter the A series GPU is orders of magnitude better. I would interpret it that the difference is actually not between the GPUs but between the API implementations, GFX runs in Metal on ios and in Vulkan on android. Am I correct to read it this way?
Secondly, on the CPU side, referencing 3dmark PHYSICS, the A-series actually does not keep up with the competition. Now don't get me wrong, I understand that A13 is the most complex mobile CPU on the market, biggest and most expensive die. I also understand your testing with SPEC in an active cooled scenario. It clearly shows the quality of the design, desktop class arch. On the bursty side, the A13 is also on top, referencing Geekbench and other short benches. Why is the 3d mark PHYSICS the Achilles' heel? Talking "phones in hand", past the burst time interval, is Snapdragon able to sustain its performance better and higher than A13?
Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Adrenos performing well in the 3DMark GPU test might be related to some corner case and their microarchitecture does well there.Similarly, the physics test might have some prefetcher or inter-core dependency limitation that doesn't fare well on Apple's CPUs.
id4andrei - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Thank you for the prompt response. On the GPU, if I may, similarly with how javascript tests are also about browser engine optimizations in addition to hardware, isn't the difference between Vulkan and Metal as implemented in their respective OS, an academic asterisk on GFX numbers?warreo - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Not trying to be politically correct or anything, but the "schmuck" bit about wireless earbuds is a bit unnecessary even if it is tongue in cheek. I've got a pair of Jabras I got on sale (you don't have to spend a "heavy premium") and the experience has been completely freeing compared to even the wireless cans they replaced. Not saying they're for everyone, but the popularity of Airpods and true wireless earbuds clearly shows they have massive appeal to many.I'll get off my soapbox now.
Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
> I've got a pair of Jabras I got on sale (you don't have to spend a "heavy premium")$100-150 is a very high premium for the sake of having audio. I'd argue the popularity of Airpods are very much less about wireless audio and more about them being style and status symbols.
generalako - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
And the fact that most flagship phones don't have headphone jacks, so people are "forced" into buying them.Spunjji - Monday, November 11, 2019 - link
I will never stop thinking that "true wireless" earbuds are a terrible idea. Even laying the physical issues of losing them or the case aside, you're charging a small battery to charge two even smaller batteries through induction, so the overall power efficiency is *terrible* and they're guaranteed to be e-waste within 4 years at the very most.s.yu - Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - link
The only way to fix this is to be able to service the batteries yourself. I could do that to my Philips Sonicare now and it could last many years to come until spare parts cease to be available but I reckon the earbuds are a lot more difficult.Quantumz0d - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
This phone is DOA.- No 3.5mm jack, "Made for Google" Apple copy bs
- No SD slot
- 4K 60 nope, No high FPS capturing either.
- No Wide angle (It's funny when LG did this for 2016 and up no one batted an eye but when Apple does this its a ground breaking innovation. Also Pixel ia over as Huawei is too good (Which is really sad given its coming from a State funded corporate CPC stooge)
- No UFS 3.0
- No 256GB base like Note 10+ nor base 128GB
- 6GB bog standard RAM, in 2016 OP3 had 6GB RAM.
- Google and all are praised for camera but no one reviews the Manual / Pro camera modes. A big sham that we don't get any of them on Pixel or iPhone but they are touted Best. Especially when LG and Sony break the mold with Manual/Pro Video settings (Siny just started with Xperia 1 while LG was doing since V20.
- Pathetic battery.
- Weak construction, Jerryrig tests failed, even that shitty paint is cheap feeling.
- Propreitary System UI, uses AOSP only in name but Google slowly killing all of the OSS components into Pixel experience a massive shame.
- Scoped Storage Bullshit (Android 10 bonus) a.k.a Death of Filesystem access.
- Huge Forehead over rounded design, My V30 has much smaller bezela over this POS.
- Pixel 4 has Huawei type Read Only Filesystem. EXT4 is RO in this crap making Custom ROM scene a pain. Like Pixel 3 Dynamic Partitions (P4 adds this too) and they also have A/B slotting BS, what does this mean ? - Multiple flashing of TWRP, Zips, need to change a lot of things as traditional mod flashes won't work.
The only good thing is Fastboot OEM unlock Bootloader unlock without any Code drama.
Quantumz0d - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
No HDR as display is crap in 2019. My V30 clocks at 600Nits from 2017. And from S8 too.No USB Video Out too. A massive shame as OP, Samsung, LG, Sony, Huawei all have it.
This phone is crap.
Quantumz0d - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Also forgot to add the lack of proper fingerprint scanner and add that Face ID clone. Google Rick Osterloh doesn't have any shame and their lead designer lady is stupid as well.Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
It does have HDR.Quantumz0d - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Andrei thanks for reply. But isn't the HDR requirement at 500Nits optimum ? I see its maxing at 438 which is pretty poor esp in 2019. Also HDR10 is advertised on Samsung panels for a long time. Even LG from V30 onwards. Also same for Dolby Vision.Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
It goes up to 600 nits in HDR video content, I don't currently have a good methodology to measure that.s.yu - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Daylight:I now realize that the crushed black issue is probably not really an issue, it's an attempt to hide the raised noise floor resulting from stacking underexposed shots. Take the poorly lit loading area of that building in sample 3 for example, Pixel 3 displays a similar depth into the shadows to iP11P and S10+, but Pixel 4 goes further at the cost of a lot more noise, while Mate30P simply has more shadow DR because of the larger sensor and that it doensn't use such a stack.
Also I don't believe the difference in shadow mapping(darker, but far from pitch black leaves, vs. lighter leaves) is evidence of raised DR. It's only raised DR if deeper shadows are revealed at the cost of no more noise, or if the same shadow is now less noisy, but neither is true as evident in the foreground shadow of sample 4, Pixel 4's shadow is, as I noticed at GSMA without even a direct comparison, more noisy than Pixel 3's. Not only noisy but flat-looking, an overdone HDR effect. It's so bad there's blotching, under the roof of the building to the left in sample 4. The costs seem to notably outweigh the gains, or Pixel 4 used an even faster shutter for this specific shot to recover more highlight, resulting in worse shadows. In this shot iP11P's hybrid bracketing approach utilizing longer exposure time for some of the frames shows its strength and delivers the most solid shadows among the different stacking approaches. So if Apple were to lift shadows to the same extent as Pixel 4 then we might have been able to see deeper shadows back in sample 3.
Come to think of it, Pixel 4's noisy shadows were even notable in the official samples leaked before launch. I thought it was due to pre-retail firmware but I was too optimistic.
Look's like Apple's is the best overall but Pixel 3 has the most stable detail retention. Samsung still lacks detail as it has been for quite some time but at least DR wise it generally matches Apple. Huawei's latest Mate30P greatly dials down both sharpening and NR resulting in a surprising number of keepers, only sometimes sharpening would seem too low yielding in what's now not waxyness but a thin haziness, or maybe the sharpening threshold is too high.
Low light:
In the first sample Pixel 4 obviously added more NR, not a good choice as the noise level of Pixel 3 in this image is completely manageable, more NR only smeared the output. iP11P seems between the two Pixels in a number of metrics. Huawei's night mode apart from somewhat aggregated texture intensely suppresses highlights at the cost of various artifacts present since P20P, can't say I ever liked it.
Sample 2: Again Pixel 4 is rather taking the shove the noise floor in your face approach rather than actually yielding more shadow DR, just look at the blotchy sky compared to its predecessor, however it's able to better recover highlights from the office windows.
In the castle sample Pixel 4 definitely does something right, it's not only much cleaner but the blotchy sky is gone. Also I suspect less falloff from the new lens, which yields better corners. Mate30P's technically very large UWA is better than the Samsung's tiny sensor yet a lot worse than the main, perplexing as this sensor's output stacked should still be competitive, also the fact that Mate30P's night mode is only ~21mm equiv. which is halfway between the other two UWA(~12-13) and the mains, in fact leaning toward the FoV of the mains is another issue to consider.
Second last sample: Apple's algorithm of being able to extract data from relatively sufficient light but complete inability to work with deeper shadows in low light reminds me of the Kandao RAW+ I tried out recently, it's similar in that decent data from a single frame could be greatly improved when stacked, but really poor data from a single frame is left untouched no matter how many frames you stack, which could result in very clean highlights yet completely useless shadows at a certain noise level.
Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Thanks for your input, great post.s.yu - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
:)s.yu - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
Thanks for the great samples, your hands seem even steadier than before and the framing is far more consistent than what I expect of handheld comparisons.hoodlum90 - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Great analysis and I agree with much of your comments. Each of these cameras provide a slightly different look with different emphasis placed on Noise Reduction / Detail, White Balance, shadows, highlights, etc. I think a lot of it comes down to your individual preference.Personally I do not like how Samsung applies a lot of noise reduction which impacts detail. But I know there are many that prefer this.approach.
The Night scenes seam to provide the greater variance. One example is the Castle where the S10, Pixel and iPhone provide similar renderings with differences in white balance, noise reduction and detail. The P30 Pro seems to take a different approach that I do not like. In this scene the P30 Pro provided a more flat lighting that seems unrealistic. The background trees are the brighter green and the sky has lost all cloud detail. This reminds me of the HDR from the previous gen iPhones that also did not look realistic.
s.yu - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
"Personally I do not like how Samsung applies a lot of noise reduction which impacts detail."Yeah, me neither. What's even more worrying was that the Note10 series had that up a notch compared to the S10 series which was at least largely on par with Note9 and S9. There's hope for a different turn if S11 uses that new HMX, or at least 27MP would still match the pixel downsampled to 12MP, but there's also speculation that the flagship won't use the best and largest sensor(seeing how Mi Note 10 is close to 1cm thick it makes sense).
"The Night scenes... that I do not like."
Yeah, me neither. :) It's too flat, not only from Andrei's review but also from GSMA's review that came out faster with far fewer samples. In some instances P30P/Mate30P would suppress highlights so much that a night scene is turned to a dusk scene as street lamps look dim and weak and cast light not significantly brighter than the surroundings. It's completely overdone and it's a mistake I wouldn't have made 10 years ago when I just started to post process my photos.
Also if you look closely at the trees I would suspect that it's artificially colored. RYYB should distinguish green poorly(it leaks longer wavelength through by design after all) and the green looks mushy with a fake-looking color tone leaning towards cyan. I wouldn't be surprised if this color was filled by the so-called "AI" as it might have recognized trees when the camera failed to determine the actual color in that area, while it's not precise enough for a more convincing fill.
hoodlum90 - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
There is a little trick to force the Night Mode option on the iPhone 11. The iPhone seems to determine the mode based on what it is focusing on. If you manually focus on the one of the darker area in the night photos where Night Mode was not an option, then it would show up as an option. You just need to remember to manually lower exposure as the scene may end up brighter than expected. Something similar can be done to enforce the "deep fusion" mode in certain instances although that is more difficult to determine as the iPhone doesn't tell you when this mode is used.This seems to be a quirk that Apple can easily fix but for now needs to be worked around manually.
Spencer1 - Sunday, November 17, 2019 - link
Thanks for this nugget. I’ll try it when I get my unit.Hulk - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
I only care about the following things when checking out a phone.How does it feel in my hand?
How is the display?
How long does the battery last?
How fast does the camera open?
How good is the camera?
Honestly all high end phones are pretty good on these points. I have a Pixel 2 because I'm a Google Fi subscriber. I'll pass on the Pixel 4. I don't see any significant improvements on the points I listed above.
oRAirwolf - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
I have mostly used Google Nexus and pixel phones since the original Nexus one. I switched from the pixel 3 xl to the OnePlus 7 pro 12/256 because of the price, 90hz display, battery, pop up camera, and screen to body ratio. I honestly don't miss Google phones at all at this point. Looking at the pixel 4, I feel like Google is once again playing catch-up instead of innovating. It doesn't seem like it would be too hard to turn things around and start releasing amazing, innovative phones. Yet somehow, they release another "me too" snooze fest that is overpriced and underwhelming. I don't want them to stop making hardware, but they seriously need to have a look at what OnePlus, Xiaomi, and Huawei are doing for so much less and re evaluate their entire phone business.Lau_Tech - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Whatever considerations google is having while making the Pixels, they sure don't involve the customers.yu - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
I don't even think they intend for these to sell, it looks like a pet project of sorts. Why buy HTC's Pixel division only to release these disappointments?guachi - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
I can tell phone designers have run out of ideas when they started adding more cameras to their phones. I guess manufacturers have to come up with something to pretend to justify the prices of phones.$1000 for a phone is just crazy.
Teckk - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
I don't like wearing watches and I just check the phone's lock screen for time. I don't want to unlock while doing that. And while getting the phone out of the pocket, if I want it unlocked, fingerprint gets it unlocked before your face ID. I hope not everyone removes fingerprint sensor.Jruffer - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
I just put my pixel 4xl in the mail back to Google. This is the first time I have ever sent something back as it was that bad. No one is talking about how the NFC doesn't work in the new phone or that the missing fingerprint scanner makes all your apps go back to pins/passwords. I agree the battery is terrible and the time to load simple apps is an issue. All in all I wasn't going to give Google 1000 dollars of my money for a horrible phone. Going back to my pixel 2xlSanX - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
And imagine in just 2 years this a grand dollar "miracle" of circa 2017 is obsolete and not supported anymore like not supported long ago are all those Nexuses. Microsoft and Intel with their PCs working for decades have to learn how to sell planned obsolescenceSanX - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
To add the Swiss army knife or pepper spray would be more useful. Bet women would more appreciate back panel as mirror than useless radar. That would be real innovation. And sell that for $2000 that's a total duper-innivation, all better specced with twice the RAM and storage yet only $169 phones on Ali Express will die from jealousyTpoking - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
Phones like this and literally anything outside the Iphone 11 pro have me waiting. Still rocking my HTC U11 I got to make taking photos easier once I got a desk job before I went on a trip. I used a LG g flex gen1 before that for its durability when I was a installer for towers on roofs. I really like "gimmick" FEATURE phones they just always fade away because people just want name swag and the same no trick Brick in mass. Glad to see apple is still "innovating" upgrading on more than just the performance front.eastcoast_pete - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
Thanks Andrei, your review about sums it up! Amazing how Google continues to have a reverse Midas touch when it comes to hardware. It's almost like they don't want to threaten their major Android licensees by resolutely keeping the price/performance ratio solidly below theirs. Google might want to take a look at Microsoft's Surface lineup, which actually leads the Windows field in some areas like 2-in-1s.MaxUserName - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
You especially do not take pictures in very high-contrast scenes to hide the fact that the Google Camera does not work real HDR?swood15 - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
I was in the market for a new phone but wanted to wait for the Pixel 4 to drop before making a decision, ended up going with a OP7 Pro. Same SoC, 2x the RAM, 4x the storage, arguably a better implementation of the 90Hz display, larger battery, no forehead/notch, a respectable camera, and a clean OS for $50 cheaper than the cheapest Pixel 4?! Google needs to get serious.Bragabondio - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
Love Pixel devices as specs are not all. My feeling is that in the last few years phones are fast enough so specs in terms of pure speed are mostly meaningless unless you have some special case that I don have. Unlocked boot-loader, guaranteed fastest updates for 3 years and freedom to sideload apps is a big plus. Best camera on the market, IP68 dust and water resistance are also a must in my book and both Pixel 4 have them.I agree that the original price is to high ($799 for the regular version and $899 for the XL version) but with a recent $200 discount the new price is $599 for the regular version and $699 for the XL version making them much more reasonable buy.
I am personally skipping Pixel 4 as I plan to upgrade my Pixel 2 next year with Pixel 5.
Arbie - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
• No 3.5mm headphone jack.• No sale.
s.yu - Sunday, November 10, 2019 - link
I agree, not that the rest of this package would appeal to me if it even had the jack.For example:
• No 256GB+ storage.
• No sale.
Medstar1 - Sunday, November 10, 2019 - link
Interesting that the reviewer rigged Google for not introducing an ultra wide lens like their rivals; thus, ignoring the fact that LG introduced this feature several years ago.Andrei Frumusanu - Sunday, November 10, 2019 - link
What's your point? LG being first to the UWA doesn't change the fact that Google's the only vendor this year not having it.LG was first to it and I've always said it's a great addition to the camera experience, but it was Huawei in 2018 which popularised it as the UWA quality was far ahead of what LG was able to ever offer.
Oliseo - Sunday, November 10, 2019 - link
I would have said that the Pixels MAIN issue is the woefully short support timeframe from Google.3 years of support IS NOT ENOUGH for the price, regardless of anything else.
bengoey - Saturday, November 23, 2019 - link
Agree, my original 2016 Pixel won't have anymore updates from January 2020, so 3 years update only. If I bought an iPhone instead it will still have software update at least until the end of 2020, may be more. The camera of the Pixel however was better than iPhone at the time. Now iPhone 11 camera has improved and the video is better than the Pixel 4, if I am to upgrade I would buy the Iphone 11 , not the Pixel 4. To upgrade the memory to 128Gb will cost me £50 for the iphone 11 and £100 for the Pixel 4SirKronan - Sunday, November 10, 2019 - link
Yet another newly released phone with its full review complete, but still no word on the Note 10/10+ review?Is Anandtech not going to review the new Note phones after all? That would be a shame.
Andrei Frumusanu - Monday, November 11, 2019 - link
We don't have the Note10's and we'd have to buy them to review; I don't feel the phones have any major differentiating factors over the S10 to be that much worth it.SirKronan - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
Andrei, thanks for your response! I was afraid of that. Would you be willing to do a review if I could arrange for a loaner to be sent to you?ithehappy - Sunday, November 10, 2019 - link
So far all the reviews I have seen has showed that the loudspeaker loudness (or maybe even quality) of the Pixel 4 is better than the iPhone 11, this review says on the contrary! Also those reviews showed the Pixel 4 performing better for day to day tasks (like app opening etc.) faster than the iPhone 11.Was the reviewer here let down even from before reviewing the device or something? Astrophotography mode was not even tested! If the iPhone 11 had that feature would you cite the pretty nonsense reason of poor weather to skip that part? I don't think so. Not sure what went here.
In any case, Google could have done so many things right with this phone. But they chose not to. Withdrawing the original quality upload was one of the terrible decisions, so was the terrible battery capacity on the Pixel 4 non-XL model. There is no doubt for 2019-2020 the iPhone 11 is a much better choice than the Pixel 4, but this review has some unnecessary and uncalled negative bias towards the Pixel 4.
Andrei Frumusanu - Monday, November 11, 2019 - link
> So far all the reviews I have seen has showed that the loudspeaker loudness (or maybe even quality) of the Pixel 4 is better than the iPhone 11Loudness isn't an issue, the P4 gets very loud. Quality is on par to lesser than the i11.
> you cite the pretty nonsense reason of poor weather to skip that part? I don't think so. Not sure what went here.
I'm not sure what exactly you expected want me to do here, take pictures of clouds?
ithehappy - Monday, November 11, 2019 - link
I expected you, the reviewer, to use that mode. It's not only for taking photos of clouds is it now? It's just something which lets the shutter open for much longer time compared to Night Sight even which would have led to some astonishing shots no doubt.PenGunn - Sunday, November 10, 2019 - link
Just bought a Huawei Mate 20 Pro from Virgin in BC Canada. I'm getting good at this phone change negotiation and got a smoking deal.Stunning phone. For some reason, here, Google crap works fine.
raju516 - Monday, November 11, 2019 - link
Andrei,U said many vendors have displays calibrated better than Google . Can you name one vendor and the phone model other than Apple?
Thanks
Andrei Frumusanu - Monday, November 11, 2019 - link
Samsung, OnePlus and Huawei on some devices.peevee - Monday, November 11, 2019 - link
HOW have they managed to make Pixel 4XL work slower than Pixel 3? Wow, have Google lost ALL of its good and even decent engineers?yetanotherhuman - Tuesday, November 12, 2019 - link
I'm dissatisfied with basically all the new phones on the market. Bleh.watzupken - Tuesday, November 12, 2019 - link
To me, the great Android experience is basically negated by poor battery life, QC and high price on the Pixel 3 and 4 series. Battery life for a mobile device is an essential requirement which this fails bitterly for a flagship phone. I agree it's a very gimmicky phone. It's rare to see reviewers being so harsh in their conclusion, but I feel Google really deserved a harsh wake up call and not be half hearted when they design a product.nostriluu - Tuesday, November 12, 2019 - link
I really think the author missed the point of the Pixel series. They are about Google's machine learning based smarts, which are well ahead of other providers. I plan to buy a Pixel 4 for the on-device transcription feature alone, though other features, not related to the the up-to-dateness of its SoC, are making me hesitate.kaesden - Thursday, November 14, 2019 - link
the one benefit of this phone vs a samsung, is getting a clean Android install without a bunch of bloatware installed on it by either samsung and/or the carrier's image, which allows for timely updates rather being 1-2 years behind all the time. However i dont see this as a compelling 'upgrade' from a pixel 3 at all.BabelHuber - Friday, November 15, 2019 - link
I think that this review is a bit too harsh.I agree that the Pixel 4's battery is a bit too small, but the 4 XL should have sufficient capacity.
The Pixel 3a XL I have lasts 3 days under light use and more than a day under heavy use, in fact I never was able to deplete the battery within a day before I came home, even when it was late in the eveing and used the phone excessively.
So with a bit worse battery runtime, the 4 XL should still be fine, perhaps except of the most extreme use cases.
I have played around with both the 4 and 4 XL and they both are very snappy and the face unlock works as advertised. It's not enough improvement for me to upgrade, though.
When we skip all the fancy gimmicks, there are a lot of pros for the Pixels:
- Bootloader unlocking and re-locking with fastboot, no crap like KNOX or warranty void
- Very easy to apply updates even when rooted
- Pixel users get new features first, like Google Lens
- Timely, monthly security updates (at least for 3 years)
- First to new Android versions via Google's beta channel
- Still a very good camera (in my opinion)
- The best software. I know this is subjective, but I e.g. cannot stand Samsung's or LG's launchers, phone apps, contacts etc.
The software features are the main point for me personally. I don't give a rat's a$$ about bezel sizes, popup cameras or slightly better screens, but I want the newest software and being able to easily root the thing.
Other people might put mnore emphasis on things I don't care for, but for me Pixels are the best.
MooseNSquirrel - Sunday, November 17, 2019 - link
Agree. The actual experience of owning and using the phone matters more than opinions about marginal differences in specs.Ive had the Pixel 3 since release and its great, especially the camera. Battery life is fine.
Frankly any of these top phones are great, regardless of who makes them. I just refuse to buy into Apples annoying walled garden and so will never own an Iphone.
Hubert Satheesh - Monday, November 18, 2019 - link
Well if Astrophotography and Soli radars are gimmicks, what about forced touch for 6s? I just remembered about the glowing tribute to force touch when it was launched in 6s in Anandtech. It praised how it's going to be the future of touch... only to be discarded by Apple a few yrs later as it was not practically useful. Though astrophotography is not a common occurence brushing it aside as gimmick makes one wonder whether theres an inherent bias towards anything Google and being lax on Apple!! Going by the same yardstick, the reviewer makes noise about pixels low display brightness. Now how many of us practically use our phone in bright sunlight to want that? Do we really need levels abouve 800 and 1000? So practicality is not the issue in most cases. As much experience and features a phone can pack, its better. If not you, someone will be benifitted by it. However it's of crucial importance for the pixel team to read such reviews as they are out of touch with reality. It's as if the team is living under a rock!! It's interesting to see how chineses OEMs with limited budget, resources and know how, easily surpass the mighty google in hardware and software design. Google needs a serious introspection.tranceazure1814 - Thursday, November 21, 2019 - link
When you can buy a OnePlus 7 standard model with snapdragon 855 and 256gb of UFS 3.0 and 8gig of ram and android 10 oxygen for 300 pounds,with far better battery life and decent camera why would you pay for a pixel 4coronafelix - Tuesday, August 25, 2020 - link
Really odd camera review, zero testing when it comes to subject focusing or how the cameras deal with actual subjects. Which makes sense considering the narrative mostly focuses on samsung's 'advantage' in dynamic range. (I do agree with their advantage there, but they have weaknesses as well). I think more categories needed to be tested for all cameras..TheinsanegamerN - Thursday, October 1, 2020 - link
It looks like a much better phone then the pixel 4, but for $700 I'd expect a headphone jack and at least a 5000 MaH battery, or no headphone and 5500+MaH. I've given up on google ever using SD cards again.