Google made public a successor to Pixel 3 on Oct 15, 2019, at the Made by Google event that showcased the company’s latest products That included Pixel 4, Pixel 4XL, Pixel Buds, Pixelbook Go, Nest Wifi, New Nest Aware, New Nest Mini, and also launched Stadia, online gaming platform. Pixel 4 and Pixel 4XL come with a motion-sensing feature that is supposed to detect hand gestures above the smartphone. It uses radar to form an invisible bubble-like area in space around the smartphone that the smartphone responds to when some set of actions are performed closer to the smartphone. It is a project soli chip on the upper section of the phone giving it that strikingly larger top bezel and the whole technology now rebranded as Motion Sense. A lot of space was needed to house the chip.
This sounds like next-gen smartphone usage but this is just a gimmick and there’s no real usage when you can just touch the smartphone and perform whatever you want as you normally would with other smartphones. Maybe it will find better usage in the future as app developers find ways to utilize it and as Google continues advancing it.
Google Pixel smartphones were always known for their superb photo experience and this isn’t an exception. It is still among the top 10 smartphone cameras though Google made an odd choice leaving out a wide-angle camera and instead of going for a telephoto camera. Personally, I would go for a wide-angle any day and telephoto will a worthy addition after the primary and wide-angle.
From my analysis, Google Pixel 4 doesn’t seem to compete for the number one spot but tries to do the thing it has always done in a different way, not necessarily a better way and the results speak for themselves. A battery that barely sees anyone through the day when the competition is doing two days, lacking a wide-angle camera which is a necessity in 2019, larger than life bezels and a design that leaves a lot to be desired.
Useful additions to software experience like faster search, offline near accurate dictation to notes, car crash detection, Google Maps live view, 100GB of Google One cloud storage for 3 months free and enhancement to the camera that includes improved night sight, superzoom, and 720P slow-motion videos at 240 fps are all a welcome to this smartphone. Here are it’s specifications:
- Operating System – Android 10
- Memory – 6 GB
- Storage – 64/128 GB
- Processor/SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
- GPU – Adreno 640
- Display – 5.7 inches, 2280 x 1080 resolution, 444 PPI, 19:9 Aspect Ratio, OLED Display Technology with Glass 5 Coating
- Ports – USB Type-C, no memory card slot, 1 Nano SIM and 1 eSIM
- Communication
- CDMA 2GCDMA: 800, 1900 MHz
- GSM 2G GSM, GPRS, EDGE: 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
- CDMA 3G CDMA2000, EV-DO: 800, 1900 MHz
- GSM 3G/3.5G UMTS, HSPA+: 850, 900, 1700, 1900, 2100 MHz
- 4G LTE LTE: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 38, 39, 40, 41, 46, 48, 66, 71 Bands
- Wi-Fi Yes, Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac)
- Bluetooth 5.0 + LE
- NFC
- GPS
- Camera
- Back – 16 Megapixel Standard and Telephoto capable of 4K at 30 fps and 1080p at 60 fps
- Front – 8-megapixel camera capable of 1080p at up to 30 fps
- Battery – 2800mAh
- Qi wireless charging
- Colors – Just Black, Clearly White and Oh So Orange
- Biometric Authentication – Face Scanner
- Water Resistant – IP68 rated
- Wight – 162 g
- Dimensions – 68.8 x 147.1 x 8.2 mm
