Reviews

Almost Pixel Perfect: Google's Pixel Four a Strong Addition to the Smartphone Market

Reporter Brady Landry

Google announced its newest addition to the Pixel family last week, introducing an iPhone-esque triple camera, that critics have called “the best camera on the market”, but unreliable battery life and same old stock Android features may throw people off.

The Google Pixel has a refreshing 5.7 inch display, with a glass back for wireless charging, (a must-have for flagship smartphones in 2019) a notchless display, and an OLED display.

Google has continued the trend of excellent cameras with the Pixel 4, sporting a telephoto lens, nightsight, and an 8 megapixel front camera. The telephoto lens is especially useful, allowing the user to zoom in without losing camera quality. It also has excellent camera AI that allows the user to manipulate their photos. It also includes Google Lens where users can scan items like shoes and cars and shop for them on google.

Unfortunately there are some unimpressive things about the Pixel 4. For one, the storage size was extremely low, capping out at 128 gigabytes, whereas one of the Pixel 4’s main competitors, the Apple iPhone 11, has up to 256 gigabytes. Another issue with the Pixel 4 is its battery. The Pixel 4’s battery is the smallest since 2016’s original Pixel.

One new feature introduced with the Pixel 4 is face recognition. It may not be as strong as Apple’s Face ID, which has been out for 2 years now, it is also stronger than that of the Samsung Galaxy S10 and the Note 10. The downside is that it can be unlocked with your eyes shut, meaning that your buddies can unlock your phone while you’re sleeping and mess around. As another security feature, the Pixel has iris scanning, which scans the user’s eyes to unlock their phone.

The Pixel 4 also introduces Google’s motion sense, which lets the user do things like swiping your hand over the screen to skip songs and turn on when the user is reaching for it. It’s a neat option, but not one people asked for or needed.

The Pixel 4 also has huge bezels in place of a notch, with a design that feels straight out of 2016. The battery life is also pretty bad, as mentioned earlier. It only has about nine hours of battery life, which is lower than all of its main competitors. Luckily, it has 11W wireless charger, which previously could only be used on the Google Pixel stand.

All in all, I was pretty impressed with many aspects of the Google Pixel 4, including the camera, OLED display, and the Pixel launcher figure. But I was also disappointed by the battery life, the mediocre face recognition, and the bezels. I would recommend that you should pass on this phone. Cheaper options would be the Google Pixel 3a or the Pixel 2, and for Apple fans, the iPhone 8 and XR would be my preferred option for good phones that will continue to be supported for years to come.