Unboxing the Google Pixel 4, Pixel 4 XL, Nest Mini and accessories By TechRadar

On that slider I'm David Sum, and we're both from Schrader, and today we're unboxing a bunch of Google products, including the Google Pixel. For let's take a look, so we have a bunch of stuff. We got from the Google Pixel for launch events and that we are reviewing on Schrader right now. In fact, if you go there, you'll probably find some good content on techradar. com but David. What do you have in your basket? We've got some cases.

We got a nice car charger for all the wireless charging you want to do on the road. Furthermore, we have the new Google Nest Mini, that's nice. This is their new Google small home product. That also is partnered with all their nest. Router Wi-Fi sort of things yeah, but let's start with the phone.

So you have your phone. The Pixel 4 XL I have the pixel 4 right here and yeah, let's clear, all these off the table and do it unboxing. So we have a little tape right here and easy to open little tabs its appeal, so you have the orange version or is it just barely orange? Is that the price sort? It is oh, so orange? Oh, so our I have the penguin color, also known as clearly White's. So that's the white version, the signature Google of funny color names yeah. Let's open these up tab here, as you can see very nice signature, Google packaging, nice little tab here, write that out.

So mine is a lot smaller and I kind of prefer that these days with a smaller phone in the hands, although I like the bigger screen, so I'm kind of conflicted, and that's why I want a foldable phone, but maybe not this year from Google, maybe yeah, maybe 20 20 beyond what wait till the next generation right. So as you can see, the phone isn't completely different from what we've used before. So we can actually get out as we turn these on and let them fire up there we go well. We can get out the comparison to last year. Last year's phone lots, the measurements are almost the same.

It's a tad less wide, but everything else is pretty big, girth and length wise or tallness, but the back is really what you want to kind of pay attention to, and that's the camera so tell us about the camera. It's pretty much what we saw with all the leaks, including the one that Google lifted itself so last year's model up and until the pixel 3 and pixel 3 a had one single 12.2, megapixel shooter that camera is still here. We also have this 16 megapixel telephoto and those combines are going to improve the photography. We've already seen some good shots at the presentation today really eager to go out on the hunt with this. This is definitely the year that we saw a bunch of ultra-wide lens is added on, but those are the iPhone and the Samsung S 10 and Note 10 lines that at Ultra woods from going from two to three, maybe next year will get ultra-wide on our Google Pixel line.

Yeah, it's funny. Google is usually a step behind on the actual camera hardware, and they mostly focus on software and just blow everybody out of the water, and that's you know really what we want to test out, but before we get into the phone itself any further, lets kind of see what else is inside this box, we don't even know this is our first time opening up a pixel for in a pixel for Excel. So you have the directions that you will never read, although hidden in directions is a sim ejector tool that may be actually useful for you and if you're you're, swapping SIM cards. Funny thing is this: this phone is available on all US carriers and that's that's a significant change used to be a Verizon exclusive in the US, and it begins at $7.99 for this version here. So that's that's kind of a good thing, $8.99 in the US for the picks like so yeah, so we have a USB to USB charger. You have the same in the pixel for Excel and that's kind of a handy thing.

It doesn't have a little nub on it that used to actually help you wrap the cable that was a kind of staple of some prior pixel phones, but get rid of this paper. So you know the cable seems just as long as it has been previously, but yeah that little nub is missing. That used to help you wind up, the cable I, don't know if anybody actually uses that it wasn't the strongest way to coil your cable for your phone, but also inside is this little thing. Have you ever used this um? No, because I don't have a MacBook, ah so yeah. If you want to plug it into a MacBook or transfer stuff from a different device and not wait around for a wireless connection to do so.

This is I think they call it an OTG cable, and that is you know the ability to transfer data through USB-C from a regular USB, C or regular USB connection. Now this is going to be the power brick and once again it is the same as last year's it is USB-C on this end, which is something that I wasn't quite ready for when they came out with it for I think it was the first pixel, and it was a USB, connector and, and everybody else was using USB an on this one end, but now I am all USB-C. So that's kind of a great thing Google was at ahead of its time. Even Apple is jumping in on the USB-C to USB. C been well the Lightning to us PC bandwagon, but this allows for fast charging.

Of course, the phone will cap out at some point. Not all phones are get that fast as each other. The Samsung s10 can get up to 45 watts, MMM, a stun of the note in the note 10, you know 10 with the optional 45 watt. This should be, it's going to be faster than an apple. That's for sure yes yeah, so it may not be 45, but it's definitely faster than an iPhone, and that's that's a perfect thing.

So you have a user guide here and the safety instructions which not going to use that. So that is everything that's in the box, pretty much for the pixel for Excel, but definitely love your color that you have. You know I like the white and there's also the black version, but you'll notice, it's a different white and a different back finish than last year's. They went with an all one sort of matte tone here and instead of this like sort of two-tone here and definitely a sandwich, the outer rim is still aluminum, but instead of the glossy that you saw, it is kind of a textured. So it's going to be a little better grip, but some of you might see it is a little bit cheaper kind of like the feel you'd get on a mid-range phone I like it, because it's not as slippery, or it doesn't feel it feels a little more drippy mm-hmm and also the iPhone has a matte finish or an almost yeah I would say they call it a matte look to it: woo-hoo versus the glossy iPhone from years prior.

It's the year of the matte, which I'm not a'm, not opposed to so yeah I prefer this and also fewer fingerprints were fewer fingerprints on there. So that's that's kind of nice, so you'll also notice, there's no more rear, fingerprint display. Another thing all face, ID this time yeah. So that's interesting, so your finger may gravitate towards that display or that a fingerprint reader and that scanner is no longer there and there's not one inside the screen like you're. Staying on a lot of phones, for example, Samsung phones, Huawei phones, it's just thing, and we're relying on the camera in the front, and it has an Elsa radar.

So there's a radar project, sold, which we saw Google IO ages ago before it was being held in Mountain View. That was something that was in the Mo scone Center in San Francisco, and so that was something I, remember, testing, and it never actually made into made it into a Google product you could buy. But here it is its Google touted as the first smart film with radar inside I. Don't know if you need that, but does gestures, and you can switch tracks and stop music and everything I, don't know what that's going to do for people in day-to-day use, but it's kind of a cool tech. You know tech thing to show off to people and definitely something that we're going to look forward to testing in our full review yeah.

So, lets alpha T's with some cases. So let's do this. One first comes in a little planet, friendly bag, I, guess and yeah. They are apparently made from recycled materials that what's interesting about the Google Home Mini or the Google Tasmania house, as it's called, is that it's made from 100% recycled plastic bottles, and this seems to be on that same mission of being better for the planet, and it's made of the world's first compostable phone case. So that's uh, that's kind of a nice thing, so all those that recycling you've done has gotten me this case.

Thank you. That's a that's! A great thing: I, like your color, very stay, nice off orange or sorry off, yellow honestly, don't know if I like covering up the sweet, Oh so orange here, but if you've got to do it might as well go for something that's a little better for the environment. Super awkward I was I, have a case for the XL version. I just realized this I have the smaller Google Pixel for okay moving on, so we have a Job case. Jodi is known for their gorilla pod tripods as flexible tripods.

That you'll see a lot of YouTubers have, and so we will unbox this. It's a little of a tear tape here, so we're going to do some surgery Franks. Don't quite think this is made of planet background material but cool nonetheless, because this is what it happened and what happens? You have the ability to stand this up boom and then there you go with varying strengths. To shift which angle you want your phone to be at which is kind of nice yeah once again, I think I got a phone with a case for the pixel for Excel, but that's alright. I love the idea of it because, as you're using your phone more especially the for Excel version- and it has a giant screen on it- you know- sometimes you, your iPad or whatever, using as a tablet, runs out of battery on a plane, and then you're like yeah I, have some Netflix episodes download it on my phone.

Um use this as a way to watch some videos, so it's kind of cool and then let's open up the Google Nest Mini, so the nest may they're using the nest trademark and the nest branding these days. So they bought a nest a couple of years ago and or they form that they bought a company called Dropbox which I really like, and they say they have cameras out these days. They have for security and they have. You know a lot of speakers and that's really cool, and here it is. This is the new I believe it's so it says the second generation version I believe this is the sky collar yep, that's sky color, and what do you have yet? This is chalk talk, so a traditional gray yep, the gray version.

That's like more of a blue hue um. It replaces the aqua color that was out there and also there was a mint color. So if you want a bluish, color sky is the way to go and inside you have the construction. So let's get started pretty quick user guide, and you also have this little thing that people are questioning the most. Are you have a connection there? It's hardwired to the outlet side, so the plug side, and then you don't have a micro USB anymore, but wait.

It's not USB see it is a regular jack, so you'll, you'll have to deal with that and that's fine. That it is it's just easier when everything's USB, because you can just like oh I, lost USB sake. Boom I can power this up, not the case here. That's okay! What's significant about the Google Nest Mini besides, the name change is that it's the basis twice as powerful, and it retains the same form factor and the same price. It's fifty dollars in the US and then on Black Friday, a lot of times that drops down it does have a mute switch, but there's no 3.5 millimeter headphone jack yeah and this thing's kind of neat so because they know it's going to be mounted in your home somewhere placed around this. It's literally a nail hook.

You can pick these up in a hardware store, probably just throw a nail in a wall yeah or a pushpin, and they're smaller. It's interesting because you know there were a lot of third-party manufacturers who had hooks like you just put. You know the old version on, and it would wrap around and stay on a wall if you wanted it to well, not they're, going out of business, but that idea is kind of moved at this point, because you can, you know, just use this hole and that's coming anything we're. Definitely seeing a lot more of these products be geared toward being situated somewhere, Amazonia Boyce Co. We definitely saw some plug-in mini echoes, so Google definitely wants this to be conveniently placed absently around the house instead of just stuck on the desk.

It's not going to counter somewhere yeah and then so yeah, that's the Google whole nest mini. That's probably going to be the hardest thing to remember that it has a slightly different name, that they're using the nest name but also made of high percent plastic bottles, and you know just recycled materials. So that's kind of a neat thing, and it feels the same, so I feel like that's a really nice thing that when they could get to that point, and then they're using you know to make the colors water-based colors, so they're, not using a lot of material that is brand new. So that's that's kind of a nice thing. The last thing that we have is this I believe the company's name is IOT, but I see them around all the time.

But it's some that we could put to use, maybe not necessarily in New York City, where a lot of people don't drive, but it's the ability to have a wireless charger plus a car mount. So this fits in either a CD slot or an air vent, and that's a kind of nice thing that you could use that I. Don't know if I'm gonna fully unbox that, if you're going for it go for it, but it is it's helpful in Fitz, it's universal, so it's not just a pixel for thing or pixel for Excel thing, but um, it's kind of nice in that it doesn't take up space on your ?, now I've owned one previously, not this specific one, but one that fit into an air vent hard to get off. Yes. But if you're in love with the idea, it's kind of a nice thing to be able to not take up some of your windshield, and it never falls off because it's stuck to an air box.

So that's really great. If we'll still have a CD player in your car, even better I think that's a lot of people aren't using that they're, just plugging in the phone or using apple, CarPlay or Android, auto so and there it is good job got that yeah. So it's not too big, and it fits the phone yeah. A lot of these are pretty phone agnostic, which is kind of nice. You literally just Lodge it in there and the arms will kind of keep it in your.

If you drive, and you drive all the time, and you get directions, you're going to be purchasing this up somewhere. You might as well charge your phone while you do it yeah using battery life, especially with the navigation screen on time. Those are the biggest drains of batteries, so it's kind of nice to charge as you go honestly, wireless charging still isn't that fast, but it's kind of you might as well thing every little helps. So what we're going to do now is make these phones. You know we just have our old data on there, so we're going to load them up with everything.

That's on an old Android phone, actually I like to start mine from fresh, so I'm gonna. Try that and then put all my apps on their test it out, speed test it test the battery life and then, most importantly, we're going to go out and test the camera. We're going to have a review on there. You can check out techradar. com and see the review right now, because we're updating our impressions all the time on these phones, because you know you have to test them out, along with things like an iPhone and really see the camera differences in, at the same time it with the same cloud cover.

So we like to test out six phones at once. I know that sounds ridiculous, but when you're trying to determine what has the best white balance, that's something like google claims or what can take a picture of the stars, something that Google claims well with their Castro photography and the nitrite MO that they have that's something. That really requires a lot of comparisons, and we take time to do that. So we take pride in and these uh, you know camera reviews and the phone reviews in general, so yeah looking forward to taking it first bin I mean you know, despite everything leaking out for the Google puts, afford I'm kind of impressed with everything we saw and that's mostly because yeah there's a lot of bezel on these phones as you can see, but the design is in what wins us over it's that camera, and it may have a large block on there, but I am I'm. Okay with that.

I would rather have more function than fashion, which I find that the Samsung phones have the screen that has pixels spilling over the left and right sides with the curved display. That's great I love that display favorite one out there, but this camera, probably the most important thing, because when you're showing off what you're doing around the day that matters- and you know some of the example photos that Google showed were pretty amazing yeah, especially with low-light yeah and their portrait and their new HDR settings. For some of that yeah. This is uh. This is gonna, be a work in progress to see where it situates, especially as we expect on our best camera list.

That's camera phone list, yeah, so I'm, Matt's, whiter, I'm, David lemon and keep it locked to techradar. com, because yeah now that we've unboxed everything we'll have the reviews up and yeah you'll be able to check out our impressions.

Source : TechRadar