Thoughts on Pixel 4?

I assume your using an iPhone?

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

1 Like

Hmmmmā€¦ I donā€™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

I ordered the 4xl orange 64gb or whatever it is because of that reason. I should be ok with that. I donā€™t run a lot of apps. And donā€™t keep a lot locally.

So, after a few days of use I managed to get this thing on a tripod and try some astrophotography mode shots.

Although I live in the suburbs, light pollution is generally low but was still an issue with the new night mode. Some liberal use of the Dehaze tool in Lightroom does reveal a lot of stars being captured.

The moon light caused it to freak out a little, but still impressive.

In the end however, Iā€™m not sure how often I would use this.

2 Likes

I just got the 4 XL today. Here are some initial thoughts -

  • The app and data transfer from the old phone (2 XL) certainly went smoothly. Iā€™m glad Google put some effort into this since it makes setting up the new phone less of a chore. I still need to sign in to a bunch of apps and tweak settings, but way better than starting from scratch.
  • Oh So Orange could be a bit more orange.
  • The matte finish on the back is pretty nice. No more glossy finger print magnets. Overall the phoneā€™s design looks nice.
  • Face unlock is pretty quick, and seems to work well. The only problem Iā€™ve found so far is trying to unlock while outside with sunglasses on (no dice). Itā€™d be nice to be able to store two or more different face profiles.
  • Itā€™s nice that Lastpass added the face unlock biometric. If you are already looking at your phone and logging into an app , the Lastpass popup is pretty instantaneous.
  • Performance overall is very snappy.

Hmmā€¦ I am a bit of a Oakley fan and have about 6 pairs, and when I need sun protection I switch them out regularly, plus I have a couple of different pairs of reading glasses. So unless I am an anomaly, youā€™re basically asking for it to disregard that portion of the face for identifying youā€¦ which is probably less secure, but way more convenient.

The Windows facial recognition feature (Windows Hello Camera) seems fine with my reading glassesā€¦ so I wonder how they manage it. (I am not terribly worried about security here, so this is why I use Windows Hello.) Iā€™ve never tried them with sunglasses, as who wears sunglasses indoors, but I must try it once sometime in the future for a lark.

I just tried the 4 XL indoors with both sunglasses and reading glasses. It seemed to unlock with no problems. It might have been a glitch when I was outdoors, or maybe the bright sun reflecting off the glasses interfered.

I think it is still relatively secure, since these facial recognition systems measure many points on the face to create their map. They probably unlock based upon a certain percentage of match.

I believe itā€™s the sunlight affecting the reading, not the glasses. Iā€™ve also noticed it in direct sunlight sometimes with sunglasses on.

Either way, I donā€™t find it too much of an issue at this stage.

I took some Astrophotography photos in Rio Rancho, New Mexico this past weekend and Iā€™m impressedā€¦

4 Likes

That is a great photo!

Just read the review in cā€™t magazine, here in Germany. They compared the photography capabilities with the Huawei P30.

Wow, the difference is day and night, when it comes to zoomed images. They photographed a tree using the telephoto capabilities of the phones. At 10x the Pixel 4 photo looked like a pixelated point-and-shoot camera image from the 1990s, whilst the P30ā€™s image was crystal clear. It just shows what using an actual lens of the correct focal length to capture the image does, compared to using a shorter lens and using AI to create data that isnā€™t there.

The other interesting by-product was, that the image was a fuzzy, muddy brown on the Pixel, whereas on the P30 you could see the various shades of vivid red in the autumnal maple leaves.

So I keep playing around with the Pixel 4 camera, particularly Super Res Zoom. While it does get soft but still very usable past 4x, one area Iā€™m pleasantly surprised by is using Super Res Zoom for macro photography.

A small example of whatā€™s possible below. Never going to match a proper macro but good in a pinch.


Standard wide, close as I could focus (approx 5cm)


4x zoom


8x zoom

3 Likes

I bought a Pixel 4 XL on Black Friday $200 discount. I used it for two days and am returning it. I like the phone, itā€™s just too big for me. I wonā€™t even try the smaller one because of the battery. I hope the 4a brings better battery life to the smaller one.

2 Likes

Makes sense. Crappy battery on the smaller 4 is sad.

1 Like