Google Pixel 4 XL 64GB Just Black

Product Information

Regardless of which color you get, there’s a matte black aluminum frame, which I can only assume is a response to the notoriously slippery edges of the Pixel 3. The Pixel 4 camera is better than the Pixel 3 — and to my eyes, better than the iPhone 11 Pro too — but it’s not as significant a camera improvement as you might have been hoping for. Other than the discrepancy in color temperature, the displays were vibrant and sharp and serviceably bright in direct sunlight. All of these use cases are really small moments of removing just the tiniest amount of friction, and you could argue they are all unnecessary. At launch, you can’t turn Motion Sense off while the screen is locked, which seems like a big oversight.

Moreover, the camera remains best-in-class, despite Google’s shortcomings on video, and everything about the experience is more stable. As for the front-facing camera suite, to make room for the Soli radar chips placed alongside the front-facing lenses, the two selfie shooters present in last year’s model have been reduced to just one 8MP camera. I’ll admit I’m a little bummed — ultrawide lenses aren’t necessarily better, but they are often more fun and give you creative opportunities you can’t get from a regular wide-angle lens even just by stepping back.

Through their software Google is able to show what their phones can do, as Google is mainly a software company. The bad news: the highest amount of storage you can get on either the 4 or the 4XL is 128GB, which I would argue should be a baseline amount for a flagship.

It’s radar on your phone, literally, and in theory it could enable incredibly interesting ways to interact with software.

At this stage of flagship smartphones’ evolution, it’s hard to grade them badly at first glance – this is very much an issue I had reviewing the iPhone 11 Pro last month, and indeed it’s something that occurs with every high-end device Mobile News has a look at. Having worked as a programmer for 20 years (medical devices, AI, data management systems), I've been following the computer scene for many years and especially enjoy finding out about new technology advances. This isn’t a surprise, and most of the improvements on the phone are in the cameras – both software and hardware.