There is a nuanced difference between saying “specs don’t tell you the whole story” and “specs don’t matter,” because they absolutely do — if only because the wrong ones can ruin the whole thing. There are a few places where Google could have done better, especially with battery life. But overall the Pixel 4 hits enough of the marks to pass, and it’s a few new features from Google that push the experience ahead of the pack.
The Pixel 4 starts at $799 for the smaller 5.7-inch screen version with 64GB of storage. I suspect many users will pay the $100 for the XL version with the bigger screen, the $100 more for 128GB of storage, or both. I am sympathetic to arguments that the specs don’t quite justify those prices, but only to a point. With the Pixel 4, the cost isn’t about the hardware — it’s about Google’s software, camera, and those new features.
Most new phones try to layer on one or two new features year over year. But the Pixel 4 has at least five major new hardware-based features: face unlock, Motion Sense, the new Google Assistant, the new 90Hz display, and a second telephoto camera lens. It’s also available on all four major US carriers for the first time.
DESIGN
Google completely changed the design language of the Pixel this year. If I had to pick a standout design element, I’d go with the aluminum rail around the edge. It’s painted black metal, rounded simply with a matte finish. That helps significantly with grip but also makes it stand out — the rails are black whether you have the black, orange, or white model. Something about the look reminds me of thick, heavy Buddy Holly-style eyeglasses.
Even though the Pixel 4 shares the iPhone 11’s square camera bump, the overall design and aesthetic is unique and feels of a piece with the Pixel’s lineage. Google is leaning into the contrasts of its material and colors instead of trying to meld them into something that feels like a single whole.
All three colors have Gorilla Glass 5 on the back, but the white and orange models have matte finishes, and I much prefer them to the glossy finish on the black model. The orange has coral tones to it, depending on the light, and it’s also limited-edition for some reason.
After releasing a phone with a hilariously huge notch last year, Google is going back to a notchless, big top bezel design. That’s ostensibly so it can fit both its face unlock and radar sensors up top, but I do wonder if Google just wanted to make life easier on itself this time around. I don’t mind the look, but it does mean the front of the phone is asymmetrical: the top, bottom, and sides all have different bezel widths. You’ll notice it and then you will stop noticing it and then it will be fine.
There are some nice small details, though. The corner radiuses on the screen are larger and actually come closer to matching the radiuses on the phone itself (they even subtly cut off 21:9 video, just like on the iPhone 11 Pro). The power button has a nice pop of color on it.
The Pixel 4 does not have a headphone jack, of course, but it does at least have a USB-C port that doesn’t require headphone makers to pay a licensing fee to access. Weirdly and annoyingly, Google doesn’t include either headphones or an adapter in the box anywhere except France and Australia.
CAMERA
After three years of loudly claiming that it could accomplish with one lens what other phone makers needed two or more lenses to pull off, Google put a second lens on the Pixel 4.
Google opted to go with a 2x telephoto lens, which is the opposite of the trend of putting ultrawide lenses into phones. I’ll admit I’m a little bummed — ultrawide lenses aren’t necessarily better, but they are often more fun and give you creative opportunities you can’t get from a regular wide-angle lens even just by stepping back. But the real bummer is simply that Google treated it like an either/or choice when, you know, it could have just put in both a telephoto and an ultra-wide lens.
The justification for adding the second lens is that Google was able to take advantage of a multiplier effect on the Super Res Zoom technology it debuted last year. Google uses math to combine the extra data it can pick up from hand-shake (or moving the OIS manually) on zoomed-in images to add more detail than would otherwise be possible.And it works. This is an 8x zoom on our social video producer, Mariya Abdulkaf. The iPhone is noisy as hell and looks like the crop it is, while the Pixel is much more natural. Look at her jacket — there’s just so much more detail here.
I also took the below 8X zoom shot of the Statue of Liberty. It’s an incredibly challenging shot, and the Pixel 4 manages it as well as could be expected. The iPhone, on the other hand, overcompensates with sharpening and just ends up throwing all sorts of artifacts all over the place.
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