Thoughts on Pixel 4?

Well I’m planning to pick up a Pixel 4 tomorrow. Coming from a Pixel 2 so I’ll be posting my experiences on here somewhere :grin:

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I’ll be curious to know your thoughts, especially w/ respect to battery life.

Some delays in carrier provisioning means I don’t have the phone yet :slightly_frowning_face: Hoping for better luck tomorrow

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This is a great idea! :100: Someone should make a “how-to”.
My guess is Google pulled “attention-aware” cuz of some bug or issue that made it unusable. It’s too bad they couldn’t get it to work at launch, but it sounds like the bigger frustration for users is how the face detection isn’t backwards compatible with fingerprint authentication.
Growing pains for sure, but stuff that will be fixed in time. I think it’s reasonable to wait on buying the Pixel until some of these kinks are worked out. Might even get some holiday discounts. :blush:

That was a like of solidarity! It’s hard enough waiting for tech to arrive when it ships on time. I feel your pain :tired_face:

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Just linking related conversations Is it worth upgrading to a Pixel 4?

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I’ve had my Pixel 4 XL in my hands for almost 24 hours.
Here are my initial thoughts.
Phone seems snappy.
Gestures are taking time to get used to.
One thing its lacking that I liked was the LED. Especially when charging, I could easily look at the phone to see full or still going.
I miss the fingerprint reader. Yes, the Face ID is great, but I have apps that would hook into the fingerprint reader for authentication. They don’t hook into Face ID. One of them being Microsoft Authenticator.

@AaronK I look forward to your thoughts on battery life after a few days of use. The small battery is concerning, but maybe this hardware is more efficient?
I will check back in on this thread next week. :grinning:

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I have had the Pixel 4 XL for just 2 days (barely 2), and the speed that the radar+face recognition unlocks the phone is amazing! It’s faster, or seems much faster, than either the Hello feature on my Windows Surface or the face recognition on my iPad Pro or the face recognition on my new Samsung Tab 6! The Pixel 4 XL is seriously going to spoil me with respect to any other face recognition scheme.
In no way do I miss the fingerprint sensor (good as it was) on my Pixel 2 XL.

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I agree, the face recognition is great. Also no complaints about battery life, yet.
Still, my biggest gripe is that apps that I used to use my fingerprint to sign in with don’t work with the Face ID. So I either need to use PIN or password. Its very annoying. At least on IOS, FaceID/TouchID were the same API calls to apps, so if one worked, both did. I feel like I’ve taken a step back.

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The battery is not too different from previous Pixel’s. The XL lasts the full day easily, and the non-XL falls a bit short. It was the same for Pixel 3, but that’s the cost of trying to get premium phone that is that small.

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I completely agree. I hope LastPass adds Face ID support.

They already have according to their latest release notes. I pick up my Pixel 4 tomorrow so I can’t test it yet.

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LastPass identifies my face.

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Each year since the Note 7 and original Pixel, I’ve had an opportunity to use and review those phones. And each year, it seems like same story – in general, I stay with the Pixel for the camera. Will this year be any different? I can honestly say, this years decision has been difficult…

I believe the Note 10+ is the best Note since the ill fated Note 7. Not that the 8 and 9 were bad, but they both disappointed with the camera and often the camera app was buggy. The Note 10+ has performed flawlessly and while the camera has frustrated me at times, it has been very close to something that is “good enough” and that I could easily live with in order to keep the wealth of features. So, having used the Note for the last few months, here are my subjective thoughts on the Pixel 4XL…

Screen - The Note 10+’s screen is without a doubt better than the Pixel’s. It just pops out more and for sure is brighter. This isn’t to say the Pixel’s screen is horrible…it is good but no contest here…

Performance - This one may take some time because my Pixel XL2 and XL3 both developed performance issues over time, mostly when opening and closing the camera app. As it stands now, both phones perform awesomely. The Pixel’s clean Android install always feels just buttery smooth whereas the Note 10+ is fast and snappy but there is something that just seems smoother about a Pixel. RAM management has been OK on the Pixel, though it will often reload Chrome pages that I have open for specific purposes. On the Note with, it’s 12GB of RAM, this never happened to me. Battery life has been a mild concern, especially since coming from the Note 10. I generally charge after lunch at work, take off the charger at 5PM or so and don’t need to charge it again until lunch the next day. With the Pixel, I’m charging in the morning and at lunch again (to ensure charge for the evening) because I wake it to being 35% or less. We’ll see if that gets better soon.

Features- The Pixel seems to have cut corners this year as we’ve seen in many reviews. What stands out for me is the loss of the wide angle selfie, a feature I LOVED about the 3XL, even if we had to have the notch to get it. The loss of the fingerprint is notable but Face Unlock is so good that I’ve not missed it. Yeah, it stinks there is no more full res backup of photos but I was already paying for 2TB of Google One, so a non-issue for me. Not having a 256GB options is inexcusable.

Camera - The Pixel Still camera already kicks the Note 10 in consistency, speed and reliability. I can’t say if it is significantly better than the 3XL but so far, I can generally take a photo and feel confident that it is going to look great. The Note 10+ has been capable of some amazing photos but I still battled blurry shots, skin tone that is too bright and slow shutter speed. I’ve not had a chance to try the astral photography as we’ve had cloudy days since getting the Pixel 4XL. Video is alright…I so wish they would allow for 60FPS…the 30FPS video seemed OK if a little blurry.

My battle is that I love the features of the Note 10+. The Samsung “Ecosystem” is tight with it’s accessories and features like Galaxy Watch, Gear 360, Galaxy Buds, Samsung Pay, Charging Pads, Cases, Tab S6, Samsung Dex. But considering the Galaxy Watch and Buds work perfectly with a Pixel (along with Samsung Pay), I may not miss those other features as much as I think. I do like having the option for Dex but even on the Tab S6 with keyboard, I just didn’t find myself using it as much as I would like. For me, it still boils down to the camera and if the Pixel continues to be buttery smooth and the camera more consistent than the Note, it looks like another year with a Pixel.

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I finally got it today! Man that was a frustrating few days for sure

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I assume your using an iPhone?

I’m using a Pixel 4 XL. Lastpass fully identifies me by my face. I wish other apps did as well.

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Hmmmm… I don’t see a setting for that. Only for the fingerprint. It always prompts me for a password.

Ah, they just released an update supporting this. Got it! Thanks