Google Pixel 4 Review : A great phone with a poor battery
Priced at 670$/7000MAD, the Pixel 4 is cheaper than last year’s Pixel 3 and cheaper than Apple’s iPhone 11. It’s also cheaper than its bigger sibling the 900$/10,000MAD Pixel 4 XL.
The 5.7in FHD+ OLED display has the same 90Hz refresh rate as the larger 6.3in version on the Pixel 4 XL. It looks very similar too, with good viewing angles, inky blacks and bold colours and smooth experience thanks to that high refresh rate. But it’s not the brightest screen available, which makes it fine for most things but not quite as bright as I would like in direct sunlight.
There’s the same large forehead containing the sensors for Google’s new Face Unlock and Motion Sense systems. The sides are aluminium, but with a black textured coating, while the glass back is frosted with a texture similar to super-smooth skin. Buy the white or orange version and the contrasting colours make the Pixel 4 stand out.
Combined with its slender proportions of just 68.8mm wide and 162g, the Pixel 4 is one of the smallest, lightest and easiest of top-end smartphones to hold and use. It’s a joy to be able to easily use a smartphone one-handed again.
Specifications
- → Screen: 5.7in FHD+ OLED (90Hz, 444ppi)
- → Processor: octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
- → RAM: 6GB of RAM
- → Storage: 64 or 128GB
- → Operating system: Android 10
- → Camera: Dual rear cameras (12.2+16MP) with OIS, 8MP front-facing camera
- → Connectivity: LTE, wifi 5, NFC, eSIM, Bluetooth 5, GPS, 3D face recognition
- → Dimensions: 68.8 x 147.1 x 8.2mm
- → Weight: 162g
Awful battery life
The Pixel 4 has the same 6GB of RAM, 64GB of storage and one of Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 as the Pixel 4 XL and performs identically – fast and fluid, but not quite as speedy as the OnePlus 7T.
Battery life was really poor. The Pixel 4 only lasts just over 14 hours between charges. Remove it from the charger at 7am and it will be dead by 9pm. Turning off the bells and whistles such as the ambient display only added about 40 minutes to the battery life. Anything under 24 hours simply is not good enough.
For comparison, similarly sized iPhone 11 Pro lasts 32 hours and the Pixel 4 XL lasts 26 hours under similar conditions, while the majority of smartphones in 2019 can last at least 24 hours with heavy usage.
The Pixel 4 fast charges at up to 18W via any USB-C Power Delivery charger, of which one is included in the box, and wirelessly charges at up to 11W. A full charge via cable took 105 minutes hitting 70% in 45 minutes.
Android 10
The Pixel 4 is one of the first smartphones to ship with the latest version of Android 10, complete with system-wide dark mode, full theming support for changing colours, icon shapes, typefaces and more, and vastly improved gesture navigation. At least three years of software updates from the phone’s release are included and it will get Android version updates before most other devices.
Google Assistant is much faster and works without an internet connection for many tasks.
Face Unlock :
Google has dumped the fingerprint scanner for its new Face Unlock using 3D face recognition technology similar to Apple’s Face ID.
It’s seriously fast and worked through polarised sunglasses just fine. Look at the phone and it’ll unlock, skipping the lockscreen and taking you straight back into the last thing you were doing. Although technically you don’t need to actually look at it, as it’ll unlock with your eyes closed, which might be a problem for some.
The biggest issue is that most third-party apps do not recognise Face Unlock, meaning without a fingerprint scanner they just assume the Pixel 4 doesn’t have a biometric input forcing you back to entering pins or passwords.
Camera :
Google has made a name for itself with some of the best smartphone cameras on the market, and the new dual-camera system on the back of the Pixel 4 is no different. It’s the same camera as that fitted to the Pixel 4 XL and performs the same.
That is to say it has fantastic still image quality, even in very difficult lighting conditions. Google is still the market leader with its Night Sight ultra-low light mode, but others have caught up considerably. New for this year is the ability to independently adjust the brightness of the background and foreground, which works very well. Portrait mode is improved, as is the up to 8x zoom thanks to the extra camera on the back. The selfie camera is relatively wide angle and pretty good, too.
Not so good is video capture, which caps out at 4K at 30 frames per second, not the 60fps rivals manage.
Verdict :
The Google Pixel 4 is a potentially great phone hampered by really poor battery life. It doesn’t really matter how good you make a phone if it dies before the day is out.
And that’s a real shame as there aren’t that many manufacturers making fully-featured flagship smartphones in smaller sizes.
The screen is good and big enough. The camera is amazing. Motion Sense is novel and Face Unlock is seriously fast. The on-device natural language understanding is next level and Google’s software magic is thoroughly impressive.
But the Pixel 4 suffers from the same issues with G Suite, limited scenarios in which the screen works at 90Hz, lack of third-party app support for Face Unlock and no gaze-requirement for unlocking the phone as the Pixel 4 XL.
| LAUNCH | Announced | 2019, October |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Available. Released 2019, October |
| BODY | Dimensions | 147.1 x 68.8 x 8.2 mm (5.79 x 2.71 x 0.32 in) |
|---|---|---|
| Weight | 162 g (5.71 oz) | |
| Build | Front/back glass (Gorilla Glass 5), aluminum frame | |
| SIM | Nano-SIM card & eSIM | |
| IP68 dust/water resistant (up to 1.5m for 30 mins) |
| DISPLAY | Type | P-OLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors |
|---|---|---|
| Size | 5.7 inches, 80.7 cm2 (~79.8% screen-to-body ratio) | |
| Resolution | 1080 x 2280 pixels, 19:9 ratio (~444 ppi density) | |
| Protection | Corning Gorilla Glass 5 | |
| DCI-P3 100% HDR Always-on display 90Hz |
| PLATFORM | OS | Android 10.0 |
|---|---|---|
| Chipset | Qualcomm SM8150 Snapdragon 855 (7 nm) | |
| CPU | Octa-core (1x2.84 GHz Kryo 485 & 3x2.42 GHz Kryo 485 & 4x1.78 GHz Kryo 485) | |
| GPU | Adreno 640 |
| MEMORY | Card slot | No |
|---|---|---|
| Internal | 64GB 6GB RAM, 128GB 6GB RAM |
| MAIN CAMERA | Dual | 12.2 MP, f/1.7, 27mm (wide), 1/2.55", 1.4µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS 16 MP, f/2.4, 50mm (telephoto), 1/3.6", 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS, 2x optical zoom |
|---|---|---|
| Features | Dual-LED flash, Auto-HDR, panorama | |
| Video | 2160p@30fps, 1080p@30/60/120fps, 1080p@30fps (gyro-EIS) |
| SELFIE CAMERA | Dual | 8 MP, f/2.0, 22mm (wide), 1.22µm, no AF TOF 3D camera |
|---|---|---|
| Features | Auto-HDR | |
| Video | 1080p@30fps |
| SOUND | Loudspeaker | Yes, with stereo speakers |
|---|---|---|
| 3.5mm jack | No | |
| Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic |
| COMMS | WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, hotspot |
|---|---|---|
| Bluetooth | 5.0, A2DP, LE, aptX HD | |
| GPS | Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO | |
| NFC | Yes | |
| Radio | No | |
| USB | 3.1, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector |
| FEATURES | Sensors | Face ID, accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer |
|---|
| BATTERY | Non-removable Li-Po 2800 mAh battery | |
|---|---|---|
| Charging | Fast battery charging 18W USB Power Delivery 2.0 QI wireless charging |
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