The Google Pixel 4 XL Review: Stuck In The Past In 2019
by Andrei Frumusanu on November 8, 2019 11:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Mobile
- Smartphones
- Pixel 4
- Pixel 4 XL
Video Recording
Video recording on the Pixel 4 is a relatively simple topic as Google hasn’t changed much to the formula other than the inclusion of the new telephoto module. Even this one addition isn’t quite fully supported by the cameras as Google’s 60fps recording mode is only available for the main camera sensor. Another omission, is the lack of a 4K60 recording mode. It’s quite unfortunately that Google still hasn’t been able to expand the recording features over the past few years.
In terms of video quality, it’s relatively ok. Stabilisation and bit-rates are competitive. I would strongly recommend to switch over to HEVC recording in order to save storage space. Dynamic range of the capture on the other hand isn’t really up to par with what we see from the competition, and the Pixel 4 largely falls behind in this aspect.
What’s really unfortunate is the audio recording quality. Unfortunately, the phone doesn’t seem to have any good wind noise cancellation. It wasn’t particularly windy when I was recording the samples, yet the wind noise is particularly distinct in the recordings.
Speaker Evaluation
The speaker setup on the Pixel 4 has changed substantially compared to the Pixel 3. Google is no longer using two front-facing speakers, opting for a more traditional earpiece + bottom firing speaker setup.
This does cause some problems and represents a downgrade for the new Pixel. While last year the Pixel 3’s stereo bias was actually biased towards the earpiece speaker as the stronger and louder unit, this year it’s very much extremely biased in favour of the bottom firing speaker. Volume isn’t an issue as the phone gets plenty loud.
The audio quality of the phone isn’t bad, however there’s a notable lack of mid-range and especially lack of lower mid-range which unfortunately leads to a less “full” audio playback and the phone doesn’t really compete with either Samsung or Apple’s devices in terms of audio playback ability.
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tipoo - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
I dunno if they're smurfing to not upset their partners or genuinely just don't give enough time and thought to hardware development, but Google perpetually seems stuck in the mode of "maybe next year, they'll get really serious about hardware". I'm starting to believe it'll never happen, apart from the Pixel 2 camera catching everyone by surprise.At 100 dollars more than the iPhone 11, this phone is a hard stretch for me, the 90Hz OLED is nice but the battery life is correspondingly worse.
Notmyusualid - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Nokia, I remember, were kinda out of step with the hardware too.Look where they went...
RSAUser - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Pretty good?s.yu - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Nokia leased their name to a bunch of people and capital from Foxconn who now formed HMD.Teckk - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
HMD is a Finnish company I think, not Chinese?They have decent mid range devices, but they just don't launch a top of the line device.
s.yu - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
HMD is formed in Finland, mostly by Chinese or by Finnish working for Foxconn.yacoub35 - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
Pixel 3/3A/4: A $400 phone with an $800 price tag.OnePlus 7T: An $800 phone with a $600 price tag.
Drumsticks - Monday, November 11, 2019 - link
Not sure you can lump the literally $400, and very good, 3A that is often on sale in with the other two there...RaduR - Monday, November 11, 2019 - link
I will never understand how come OnePlus price is double vs Xiaomiboozed - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
There are phones with "Nokia" labels on them but Nokia doesn't have anything to do with them other than collecting royalties.