Contents:
The screen looks colorful and immersive, though I'm not a big fan of the swooping notch. It's narrower but deeper than the one on the iPhone XS Max. Around back, Google has delivered a glass back with a matte finish, which is a pretty great feat. Not only does it provide a good grip, but it resists fingerprints. Some have complained about the back easily scratching, but I have not found that to be the case so far.
The Pixel 3 XL has a fingerprint reader on the back, too, so you can forget about facial recognition or an in-screen fingerprint sensor, which is a bit of a bummer. This panel is colorful and accurate. When watching an episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, the Ferrari in Fly Yellow looked downright luscious, and the picture was so sharp--right down to the fly on the hood--I felt like I was driving around with Jerry Seinfeld. On our lab tests, the Pixel 3 XL's screen turned registered a very good However, the brightness could be better, as this panel emits only nits.
Pixel 3: Which Phone Wins? Based on our testing, the Pixel 3 XL is now the best camera phone you can buy. And it's also the smartest. Google is leveraging AI in ways that Apple and Samsung are not. A new Top Shot feature on the MP rear camera automatically snaps a bunch of photos in succession and attempts to choose the right one. This worked well when I snapped a photo of my colleague, Adam. I just swiped up and could easily see which pics Google had picked out.
Super Res Zoom is also very impressive. I shot a photo of text on a wall from across the room, and I could easily make out the words, even though the Pixel 3 XL doesn't technically have an optical zoom. The camera is smart enough to reframe the photo and fill in the details. The phone captures a succession of frames to simulate a long exposure time, and then stitches those frames together to return color to spaces where it's been lost with the help of AI.
The results are simply amazing, as you can see in the above photos we took with Night Sight mode on and off in our dark video lab. Night Sight also works wonders with the front cameras. Normal camera mode picked out some detail in the below selfie but the overall quality is dark.
Turn on Night Sight, and the result is a bold and bright pic. Take the above challenging scene, which was taken around 6 p. You can also make out the reflections in the glass building on the left. So perhaps the HDR was working better in this case. Everything is sharper, and the shadows come across the best here. Some Pixel 3 owners have encountered a bug that prevents photos from saving, but Google says that an upcoming update will address the issue.
Google isn't the first to do this, but I like the dual front cameras on the Pixel 3 XL. The company says the wide-angle lens captures percent more of the scene than the iPhone XS, and the results are impressive. The standard lens captured pretty much just me and my colleague Adam, but switching to the wide-angle lens fit in much more of the background.
We could have easily squeezed a few more people in. If there's one are where the Pixel 3's camera falls behind the iPhone XS, it's video. In our in-depth video shootout , Apple's phone captured clearer and crisper footage in most situations along with better nighttime footage and audio quality.
As spammers get better and more sophisticated, it can be all too easy to fall for a telemarketer when answering your phone. Google is fighting back with a new call screening feature. Google has yet again put on another master class in doing more with less and building a handset that's far greater — and smarter — than the sum of its parts. The Pixel 4 is the kind of device Mountain View excels at making, and it's easily one of the best smartphones of the year, annoyances aside.
For the first time, Google is offering its phone through all major carriers in the U. Cellular and, of course, Google Fi. You could also buy an unlocked phone and take it to practically any carrier. Google's flagship phone comes in two sizes: the 5. Otherwise, both models have the same specs and cameras, and are available in the same selection of colors: Just Black, Clearly White and limited-edition Oh So Orange.
If these are the things you're looking for in your next handset, you should probably look elsewhere, because the Pixel 4 has none of them. The Pixel 4's design doesn't match Apple's, but it is delightfully weird — and damn, if there isn't space in this oversaturated market for weird. In fact, much like its predecessor, the Pixel 4 rejects most of the tech industry's notions of what constitutes thoughtful design. For starters, there's that eyesore of a square camera module on the rear.
This panel is colorful and accurate. The phone has an e-sim, which will be activated through a software update later this year with EE confirmed to support it. Samsung Galaxy A5 3. Best places to sell your used electronics in The metal and glass body of the Galaxy 10e is solid, and it curves in the right places to fit comfortably in the hand.
And while the bezel below the display has been trimmed to iPhone 11 -esque proportions, the bezel above it is about as prominent as the Pixel 3's. At least this time around, there are technical justifications for the bulky forehead, but we'll dive into those later.
On the backside, you won't find glass polished to look like metal that catches spectrums of light in hypnotic rays — just plain old solid colors. In fact, the rear of this Pixel seems especially sparse now that Google has ditched the capacitive fingerprint sensors of previous iterations in favor of Face Unlock. When Samsung pushes the limits of packaging with devices like the Galaxy Note 10 — which manages to cram in three cameras, a stylus compartment and a generous battery — the Pixel 4 can't help but look a little humdrum.
But these things are all a matter of taste, and personally, I dig the Pixel 4's unique aesthetic. I like the playful, lighthearted contrast of the Clearly White colorway, which combines a frosted Gorilla Glass 5 back with a powdered black aluminum frame and a traffic-cone orange power button. These things shouldn't go together, but against all odds, the funkiness has grown on me. And funky is the best way I can articulate the Pixel 4's vibe. The iPhone 11 Pro is, unquestionably, a more luxurious handset, with a noticeably heftier build and surgical-grade accoutrements.
Get a full comparison between the Pixel 4 and iPhone 11 Pro. While it's about a tenth of an inch taller than the 5. And in keeping parity with last year's phone, this one is also rated as IP68 water-resistant, meaning it should withstand 5 feet 1. One more thing on the design front: While there are only three color options for the Pixel 4, Google deserves kudos for sweating the details and differentiating materials between them.
Only the white and orange variants sport matte finishes on the back. That's in stark contrast to the all-business black version, which employs a glossier, stealthier and more slippery sheen. Personally, I prefer the matte version, but I can't deny the premium flair of the shiny option. The Pixel line has rarely been praised for its displays, but Google's fourth-generation handset goes a long way toward changing that reputation. The Pixel 4 is the first Google device with a screen capable of refreshing at 90 Hz — a feature the company has dubbed Smooth Display.
Smooth Display is on by default, and it essentially means the Pixel 4's 5. A higher refresh rate translates to silkier animations that react to your inputs more immediately, in turn making the entire experience of using your phone snappier. This wasn't necessarily a bad idea; after all, differences in refresh rate become harder to see when the screen is dim.
Still, when it works, the fluidity of 90 Hz makes conventional displays feel sluggish. The Pixel 4 isn't the first handset with a panel like this; the OnePlus 7T , also released this month, is one of several other phones that offer similar tech. But its inclusion is nevertheless appreciated and reinforces that 90 Hz should be the standard for flagships in the future.
The refresh rate isn't the only improvement, though. The Pixel 4 has a new Ambient EQ feature, which modulates the white balance to suit lighting conditions. It's similar to Apple's True Tone system, and it works just as well in this implementation. While watching the trailer for Netflix's adorable and breathtaking stop-motion series Rilakkuma and Kaoru, I was impressed most by the dynamic range of the Pixel 4's display.
The titular bear's fur was rendered with striking clarity in the highlights and shadows alike.
Yet I liked the effect, and users who fancy a more realistic tint can switch to the Natural or Boosted color profiles in the Pixel's settings. In terms of numbers, the Pixel 4 didn't disappoint — at least, not out of the gate. Google's What's more, the Pixel 4's Delta-E color accuracy score of 0. Numbers closer to zero are better. However, the Pixel 4's display came crashing back down when we measured its peak brightness.
At just nits through our light meter, Google's flagship is merely a candle compared with the white-hot intensity of the iPhone 11 Pro's category-leading nit reading. The Galaxy Note 10 also far outmatched the Pixel 4, registering nits.
Indoors, you're less likely to mind a display that isn't the brightest. But step outside on a sunny day, and you'll have a much harder time reading the Pixel 4's screen.
Sure, the main sensor is still rated at Super Res Zoom is a microcosm of Google's entire imaging strategy with the Pixel 4: to use a mix of computational photography and artificial intelligence to do what hardware alone cannot. Take the new AI white balancing, for example, which automatically color-corrects strongly tinted images using a machine-learning model trained on thousands of similar scenarios. Because the Pixel 4 works so much of its magic in the background, without user intervention, it's never easy to tell precisely the difference any one feature is contributing independently.
All you can really go on are the results — and they speak for themselves. Case in point: this stunning scene inside the New York Public Library, which the Pixel 4 painted with brilliant contrast and a nuanced touch, especially in the highlights. The iPhone 11 Pro struggles to rein in the light breaking through the window underneath the ornate ceiling.
Apple's device also dials down the shadows to an almost unnatural level while applying a warm cast. Some onlookers might be put off by the relative darkness of the Pixel's shot, but I love how Google's optics capture the richness of the cherry tones in the carvings and pillars adorning the walls.