Google Pixel 4/Pixel 4 XL

[Harthag]

At that price the Pixel is a steal. It really is a brilliant phone. The more I use it however, the more mad I get that Google used such a small battery. Make the phone slightly thicker and include a 4000 mah battery and this phone turns from pretty good to excellent with pretty much no tradeoff. It was such a dumb decision by them to ship this thing with a 3700 mah battery.

Agree, they should've used 4000 mah. I also hate how slippery the phone is, it's ridiculous. I'm leaving the phone on default regarding smooth display. So far I notice 90hz on most of my apps and certainly within Chrome. I don't need forced 90hz on all the time, but I'll try it at some point in dev settings to see battery difference.

Another thing that ticks me off is that Verizon call filter app doesn't work. You'd think since it is a "Verizon branded" Pixel 4 that all Verizon apps would work. That app works wonderfully well on my iPhone, I've been getting no spam / robo callers whatsoever since I got the Pro Max. Hopefully the Google spam filter works almost as well.

 

[jamezr]

At that price the Pixel is a steal. It really is a brilliant phone. The more I use it however, the more mad I get that Google used such a small battery. Make the phone slightly thicker and include a 4000 mah battery and this phone turns from pretty good to excellent with pretty much no tradeoff. It was such a dumb decision by them to ship this thing with a 3700 mah battery.

My thoughts as well....make it wider and with a bigger battery. It is just too narrow...it is a big phone that feels so small.

 

[Awesomesince86]

My thoughts as well....make it wider and with a bigger battery. It is just too narrow...it is a big phone that feels so small.

Some may see the small feel of it as a plus. I can at least see Googles thinking in that regard even if I agree that it feels a little too narrow (most noticeably when typing). But I'm sure 99% of people, especially Pixels target audience, would gladly take the trade-off of having a slightly heavier, thicker device for greatly improved battery life.

 

[michael9891]

At that price the Pixel is a steal. It really is a brilliant phone. The more I use it however, the more mad I get that Google used such a small battery. Make the phone slightly thicker and include a 4000 mah battery and this phone turns from pretty good to excellent with pretty much no tradeoff. It was such a dumb decision by them to ship this thing with a 3700 mah battery.

Needs to be bigger than 4000 for this particular phone. An extra 300mAh won’t take battery performance from lacklustre to excellent.

 

[Awesomesince86]

Needs to be bigger than 4000 for this particular phone. An extra 300mAh won’t take battery performance from lacklustre to excellent.

It doesnt take much. It doesnt need to be iPhone Pro Max levels. All it would take is a 300-500 mAh increase to add on extra hour and thats really all it would need.

 

[michael9891]

It doesnt take much. It doesnt need to be iPhone Pro Max levels. All it would take is a 300-500 mAh increase to add on extra hour and thats really all it would need.

I have to disagree. If so many people are complaining about the battery being below average and struggling to make the day, one extra hour would make it average at best.

 

[Aneres11]

I get bang on four hours from my Pixel 4 regular size. It's not enough but now my car has Android Auto, it means a (slow) charge for 20 mins on the journey home which does go some way to making it last a little longer.

I thought the XL was more like 5-6? If it got 6 I'd be more than happy with that.

 

[Awesomesince86]

I have to disagree. If so many people are complaining about the battery being below average and struggling to make the day, one extra hour would make it average at best.

I'm talking about the 4 XL. The 4 isn't salvageable. It would need a 1000 mAh just to be decent. The 4 XL has pretty respectable battery life, it just doesnt match up to the Note or iPhone. If you added an hour to it's current SOT, it would be getting between 6 and 7 hours. That's full day battery for 95% of people.

 

[Tig Bitties]

All this talk about the 4 XL battery life, not being good. I have my Pixel 4 XL since launch, and I am surprised at the good battery life I get, and I am a pretty heavy user. Never once has the phone not lasted a full day and died on me.

This entire holiday weekend, I was off for the 5 days, and on Black Friday went downtown Chicago all day, to The Walnut Room, then to dinner, then to see the play Hamilton, and using GPS to get around places, and inside the skyscrapers bad connections, and I was taking pictures left and right and posting on FB, and using the phone a ton. And that day the phone easily lasted from unplugging at 7am, to going to bed at like 11:45pm.

Today, I unplugged my phone at 6:30am, it is now 5:04pm, and I have 75% battery left, it's been a light workday, only 2h 28m Screen on Time.

Compared to my previous Pixel 3 XL, the 4 XL has significantly better battery life. This phone can give me 7h SoT easily, some days 8h if great network connection. My Pixel 3 XL was more of a 5.5h to 6h phone.

 

[Awesomesince86]

All this talk about the 4 XL battery life, not being good. I have my Pixel 4 XL since launch, and I am surprised at the good battery life I get, and I am a pretty heavy user. Never once has the phone not lasted a full day and died on me.

This entire holiday weekend, I was off for the 5 days, and on Black Friday went downtown Chicago all day, to The Walnut Room, then to dinner, then to see the play Hamilton, and using GPS to get around places, and inside the skyscrapers bad connections, and I was taking pictures left and right and posting on FB, and using the phone a ton. And that day the phone easily lasted from unplugging at 7am, to going to bed at like 11:45pm.

Today, I unplugged my phone at 6:30am, it is now 5:04pm, and I have 75% battery left, it's been a light workday, only 2h 28m Screen on Time.

Compared to my previous Pixel 3 XL, the 4 XL has significantly better battery life. This phone can give me 7h SoT easily, some days 8h if great network connection. My Pixel 3 XL was more of a 5.5h to 6h phone.

That's impressive. I'd love to know what you have turned off. I am getting right around 5 to 5.5 hours SOT. But I do have 90 hz forced on and nothing turned off. Adaptive brightness. I may still be in the settling faze as I'm less than a week in.

If I'm being honest, I still haven't rules out keeping the phone. I really like it. I prefer Android and I got it for only $700 vs $1250 for the iPhone. I could probably sell the iPhone for close to retail still so the savings are significant. But I need battery life around the 6 hour mark.

 

[Tig Bitties]

That's impressive. I'd love to know what you have turned off. I am getting right around 5 to 5.5 hours SOT. But I do have 90 hz forced on and nothing turned off. Adaptive brightness. I may still be in the settling faze as I'm less than a week in.

If I'm being honest, I still haven't rules out keeping the phone. I really like it. I prefer Android and I got it for only $700 vs $1250 for the iPhone. I could probably sell the iPhone for close to retail still so the savings are significant. But I need battery life around the 6 hour mark.

I have forced 90hz on too, it's too nice not to always have on.

- GPS Location stuff is always off for me
- Motion Sense off, don't see the point in it.
- Most sync background stuff off


Other than that, everything on;

-Adaptive Display on
-Ambient EQ on
-Always on Display on
-Auto brightness on

 

[tonybarnaby]

At that price the Pixel is a steal. It really is a brilliant phone. The more I use it however, the more mad I get that Google used such a small battery. Make the phone slightly thicker and include a 4000 mah battery and this phone turns from pretty good to excellent with pretty much no tradeoff. It was such a dumb decision by them to ship this thing with a 3700 mah battery.

Potential 4a xl 4500mah? I'd pay $499 for that

 

[michael9891]

Potential 4a xl 4500mah? I'd pay $499 for that

Never going to happen. lol

 

[Awesomesince86]

Never going to happen. lol

I wouldn't be surprised if they need up the battery a little. But I also don't expect the 4a to have a 90hz display so maybe battery life won't even be an issue.

 

[Harthag]

Potential 4a xl 4500mah? I'd pay $499 for that

Not me. Even if it has a 5000mah battery. The 3a is a fantastic phone but I notice choppiness / lag / micro stutter (whatever you want to label it) on a daily basis when I use it. Even at 60hz my Pixel 4 XL destroys it in terms of my user experience. Display while quite good, is not a premium display. It was a fun experiment but a mid range processor on an Android phone is just a no-go for me in the future. Sticking to my current strategy of buying the flagship Pixel at steep discount on black Friday.

 

[Awesomesince86]

I realize I keep wavering here but I'm getting closer and closer to keeping the Pixel 4 XL and selling my iPhone Pro Max. The thing is just blistering fast and smooth. Plus, iMessage isnt a big thing for me as most of my most contacted people have android devices. However I did run into an issue today while using android messages (with RCS jive forced using activity launcher) where it thought the person I was contacting had RCS but they didnt so the messages hung. That would never happen on an iPhone.

Still, even though the 4 XL is an inferior phone...and it most certainly is an inferior phone...I enjoy using it more than the iPhone. I'm still in week 1 so I have another before I need to decide but the swing factors for me will be where does battery settle in (and does it last me a full day) and is the cost savings enough for the drawbacks of the Pixel. Right now I calculate I'll save roughly $400 by selling my Pro Max now and keeping the Pixel. Thats a considerable amount.

 

[comper]

I realize I keep wavering here but I'm getting closer and closer to keeping the Pixel 4 XL and selling my iPhone Pro Max. The thing is just blistering fast and smooth. Plus, iMessage isnt a big thing for me as most of my most contacted people have android devices. However I did run into an issue today while using android messages (with RCS jive forced using activity launcher) where it thought the person I was contacting had RCS but they didnt so the messages hung. That would never happen on an iPhone.

Still, even though the 4 XL is an inferior phone...and it most certainly is an inferior phone...I enjoy using it more than the iPhone. I'm still in week 1 so I have another before I need to decide but the swing factors for me will be where does battery settle in (and does it last me a full day) and is the cost savings enough for the drawbacks of the Pixel. Right now I calculate I'll save roughly $400 by selling my Pro Max now and keeping the Pixel. Thats a considerable amount.

The iPhone is so good this year at the basics, but I too am just bored with iOS itself. I also know I'll be grabbing the redesign next year if it has the higher refresh rate screen. But in the meantime I'd rather mess with Android's offerings.

Heck, for the price I just picked up a Note 10+ for open box in like new condition, I'd have nearly paid that much in iPhone upgrade payments over the next year and then if/when I grab the next iPhone I could just keep the Note to still have an Android device around at the same time instead of just handing in the iPhone to upgrade.

I almost picked up a Pixel 4XL again because of the sale prices but the Note+ ended up only being an extra $50 so I had to try it since I hadn't tried it at all yet and it's very good. I think people would be very happy with either of the two options.

 

[JaySoul]

I realize I keep wavering here but I'm getting closer and closer to keeping the Pixel 4 XL and selling my iPhone Pro Max. The thing is just blistering fast and smooth. Plus, iMessage isnt a big thing for me as most of my most contacted people have android devices. However I did run into an issue today while using android messages (with RCS jive forced using activity launcher) where it thought the person I was contacting had RCS but they didnt so the messages hung. That would never happen on an iPhone.

Still, even though the 4 XL is an inferior phone...and it most certainly is an inferior phone...I enjoy using it more than the iPhone. I'm still in week 1 so I have another before I need to decide but the swing factors for me will be where does battery settle in (and does it last me a full day) and is the cost savings enough for the drawbacks of the Pixel. Right now I calculate I'll save roughly $400 by selling my Pro Max now and keeping the Pixel. Thats a considerable amount.

Honestly, I'd tell people in that position to save the $400 and buy a good quality 20,000mAh power bank for $20

 

[jamezr]

I realize I keep wavering here but I'm getting closer and closer to keeping the Pixel 4 XL and selling my iPhone Pro Max. The thing is just blistering fast and smooth. Plus, iMessage isnt a big thing for me as most of my most contacted people have android devices. However I did run into an issue today while using android messages (with RCS jive forced using activity launcher) where it thought the person I was contacting had RCS but they didnt so the messages hung. That would never happen on an iPhone.

Still, even though the 4 XL is an inferior phone...and it most certainly is an inferior phone...I enjoy using it more than the iPhone. I'm still in week 1 so I have another before I need to decide but the swing factors for me will be where does battery settle in (and does it last me a full day) and is the cost savings enough for the drawbacks of the Pixel. Right now I calculate I'll save roughly $400 by selling my Pro Max now and keeping the Pixel. Thats a considerable amount.

lol....sounds like the inferior phone....is not so inferror then huh?
I mean why keep an inferior device right?

 

[Awesomesince86]

lol....sounds like the inferior phone....is not so inferror then huh?
I mean why keep an inferior device right?

Because its $400 cheaper

 

[Tig Bitties]

Yes on paper the iPhone 11 Pro Max is the best phone, Apple's hardware design and efficiency is #1, and the display they have Samsung manufacturer is great.

But, it runs iOS, which is a deal breaker for me. I don't like an OS that feels stuck in 2010 or like decade old. iOS just sucks. But that's my opinion.

So Android is the only other option, and to me the pure stock the way it was designed to be, meaning only vanilla Android phones are the best options. Pixel, OnePlus, and Essential. Everything else sucks and is a mess or wannabe Android.

 

[Lava Lamp Freak]

I bought the smaller Pixel 4 and used it for almost a week. Ultimately I ended up returning it because I didn't feel justified at spending the money when my S8 is still working great. I also prefer the higher PPI and slimmer feel of the S8.

Battery wise, I was expecting to have major issues, based on reviews. However, I found that at the end of the day I never dropped below 50%. My use may be different than the power users I see in threads here on MR, but I never go over 2 hours of SOT during the work day.

And based on the information I can find, between 3 and 4 hours SOT is pretty typical for most people around the world.

https://www.emarketer.com/content/us-time-spent-with-mobile-2019

 

[jamezr]

Because its $400 cheaper

Sorry but $400 does make a device inferior or superior.....You can overpay for something but that doesn't make it superior.
The Pixel 4 XL is a great phone at regular price...discounts make it a great value for sure.

 

[Awesomesince86]

Sorry but $400 does make a device inferior or superior.....You can overpay for something but that doesn't make it superior.
The Pixel 4 XL is a great phone at regular price...discounts make it a great value for sure.

You're combining two separate statements. For $400, I said I'm willing to take an inferior phone. The Pixel 4 XL is an excellent phone, but make no mistake, the iPhone Pro Max is a better device. 99% of reviews will tell you the same thing. And I am very much an Android guy. But the iPhone has a much better battery, more versatile cameras, way better video recording, and the screen brightness is a huge difference. And those aren't iOS vs Android things, those are hardware decisions. The only place Android really wins from a hardware standpoint is the screen quality.

 

[jamezr]

You're combining two separate statements. For $400, I said I'm willing to take an inferior phone. The Pixel 4 XL is an excellent phone, but make no mistake, the iPhone Pro Max is a better device. 99% of reviews will tell you the same thing. And I am very much an Android guy. But the iPhone has a much better battery, more versatile cameras, way better video recording, and the screen brightness is a huge difference. And those aren't iOS vs Android things, those are hardware decisions. The only place Android really wins from a hardware standpoint is the screen quality.

You said

Still, even though the 4 XL is an inferior phone...and it most certainly is an inferior phone...I enjoy using it more than the iPhone.

I disagree....there are somethings the Pixel 4 XL does better than my iPhone Pro Max and some things the pro max does better. But in no way is the P4 XL and inferior phone.

Then as I said earlier......price doesn't make a phone inferior......or superior for that matter.
Then if you enjoy using the Pixel 4 XL more that the iPhone.....well that kinda speaks for itself now doesn't it? For me and most others the overall user experience means more than a set of specs a phone has on paper or what a vlogger says on youtube.

The Pixel wins versus my Pro Max on camera....Face Unlock and digital assistant and notifications