Google Pixel 4 XL Review By Slashdot

Every year it seems like there's some questionable design choice with the new pixels last year. It was the massive notch in the pixel 3xl the year before that there was a strong blue tint to the screen this year. Of the only questionable area is the cameras, specifically the decision to add a telephoto sensor instead of an ultra-wide camera sensor. Now there is also some critique of the not-so-great battery life, but that's more found in the standard, pixel 4, but we'll talk more about battery life later in the video Google seems to have learned from its mistakes, and they got rid of the notch, and they added a higher quality OLED display with a HD resolution and pixel density of 537 pixels per square inch. There is some color shift when viewing it at angles, but it's I would say in the normal range 400 LED displays. What's also cool about this display.

Is it supports a 90 Hertz, refresh rate which can be forced on into developer options, and it just helps make content appear really smooth, and it makes the phone feel even faster than others. Similarly, SPENT devices- and you know just like anything- you will get used to it, but switching between the iPhone 11 and this device I think the difference is very noticeable. There's also this ambient EQ setting, which is like the iPhones, true tone, display setting that tries to adjust the displays, color temperature based on these surrounding light levels. It's hardly noticeable in my opinion, but it's its an option. It's there for you.

Also, 90 Hertz by default is dynamic, and it only is available for some content. That's why you'll have to go into the developer options and force it on at all times. If that's what you want to do, but doing so will decrease battery life by I would say about 10%. Now, there's no notch, but I would say there is fairly thick bezels for 2019 standards, and that's because Google has added a front-facing camera here and some other sensors like radar technology to let you perform some swipe based gestures and allow you to silence, alarms without ever touching the screen. The gesture that worked the most consistently for me was when silencing an alarm by swiping my hand across the screen.

You can also swipe to skip songs which supposedly works with third party apps like Spotify, but it did not work consistently for me at all and, as a result, I didn't end up using these gestures at all. After the first day of testing, this phone I commend Google for trying something new, and I think they should continue working on this technology, but right now, they're just gimmicks to me. There's also this cool new facial recognition sensor built into the top of the phone, and it works extremely well, and it locks the phone very quickly faster than face ID on the iPhones, in fact, but it does work with your eyes closed, meaning it's not the most secure face, unlock method out there I'll give you an example. So, right now the screens on I turn it off. It's locked close my eyes.

There you go it's unlocked, that's not good. Google is working on a fix that will be out in the next month, or so they say, but keep in mind that it's not going to be the most secure way to unlock your phone for now. So some people aren't going to like these slightly thicker bezels than the new Galaxy phones or the OnePlus devices, but doesn't look too bad in my opinion. Now what I do like about the design is the flat squared sides. I'm hoping Apple does bring these this design back, because I do like the added grip that the flat sides provide.

Also, the back piece is frosted glass now, and it feels pretty good in the hands except it is really slippery, and it's certainly going to be prone to cracking jury-rigged. Everything actually found that the antenna lines on the sides of the phone which are covered up by paint they hurt the integrity of the phone and can cause the top and bottom halves to crack when under pressure, that's also not good. Now you'll see a camera module similar to the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro, but there's only two camera sensors here, a 12 point: two megapixel F 1.7 main sensor and a 16 megapixel F 2.4 telephoto sensor, no ultra-wide camera sensor that I find a lot of fun to use. Google says most people will benefit from the telephoto sensor and the improved portrait photos thanks to the extra data that telephoto sensor is able to capture and, generally speaking, the telephoto sensor does a very good job at capturing a lot of detail relative to the competition, but portrait mode photos. I thought they looked great in the previous pixels without telephoto sensors, just thanks to Google's, impressive image, processing and their impressive software.

So again, I would prefer an ultra-wide camera sensor instead of this telephoto sensor. With that said, the main camera sensor is still one of the absolute best mobile camera sensors on the market, but I would say it's no longer as far ahead of the pack as it was last year, because Apple has really stepped up their game quite a bit with their latest phones. You'll see the pixel forest photos tend to be more contrast and pack more of a pop than rival sensors, and it does an excellent job with dynamic range. Also, images tend to be cooler than say the iPhone, which you know everyone's different, but I do tend to prefer cooler images than warmer ones. I still think the pixel four captures the best photos of any phone overall.

But when you factor in the lack of an ultra-wide camera sensor, it may still not be the best option for you. It just depends on if you only care about the main sensor, and it's image, quality or its overall set of features. Oh, and one last thing about the cameras, there is no 4k 60fps video mode, because Google says that the majority of users stick with 1080p. Even if that's so that's not a good enough reason to not include a 4k 60fps setting. Okay, now with the cameras behind us, the number one reason why you would buy a pixel is for the Android experience.

It's an experience that Google the creators of Android has crafted and believes is the way all Android phones should look and feel Android 10 is the latest version of Android, and it features these awesome new swiped based gestures that are way better than the previous navigation methods found in last year's pixels. You can now multitask and open up the app drawers separately. The whole layout is just way less Jacky than before, and with the 90 Hertz, refresh rate content and scrolling is wicked, smooth, there's also a new system-wide dark mode to help save battery life and make things easier on the eyes. We don't have the highest end hardware, but the Snapdragon 855, CPU and six gigabytes of RAM offer plenty of power to run the most graphic. Intensive apps and the software is very well optimized to run apps quickly and efficiently.

This is a very fast phone, but it could be better if it had more RAM if it had the newest Snapdragon, 855 plus processors, more than 64 gigabytes of storage in the base model and or support for newer and faster. U FS 3.0 storage, like some other devices, fast phone, but it could have some better overall set of features inside. We have a 3700 William hour battery that is considerably larger than the pixel force battery and if you had all care about battery life, you're worried that the pixel for battery life is not going to be enough, for you definitely go with the XL version. This phone should last you between 4 and 5 hours of screen on time, give or take, which is not great, but it's also not terrible. There is wireless charging support, and it does support 18 watt fast charging via USB SC, so the Pixel 4 XL is a great phone, but it's far from perfect and what I haven't told you yet is the price it starts at eight hundred and ninety-nine dollars, and it comes with only 64 gigabytes of storage with no, u FS 3.0 support. It comes with a slightly older snout dragon.

A 55 processor, with a modest 60 divides of ram, no ultra-wide camera sensor and only average battery life. I wouldn't really recommend this phone unless you can find it on sale. For a hundred to two hundred dollars, which I'm sure will go on sale somewhere within you know the next month or so, because the holidays are coming up. The phone that really stands out to me for how much it offers for the price is the OnePlus, 70 I, think it's nearly better in every category, except the main camera, but it does have an ultra-wide sensor if you're into that. With that said, those are my thoughts on the new Pixel 4 XL I want to thank Google for sending me this unit to review, and I hope.

My constructive criticism will help them contain to craft better devices, because at the end of the day, I'm still very much part of the team, pixel family and I would say: I still very much prefer Android over any other mobile operating system. I actually I probably use the pixel 3xl or pixel 3 more than any other phone in last year. If that's worth anything, so great phone Google keeps up the good work. Keep on fixing refining, pushing out updates curious to hear your guy's thoughts on this device. In the comments down below, as always, I'm BO HD from phone calm, thanks for watching I'll, see you guys in the next one see ya.

Source : Slashdot