Pixel 4

So don't buy it all full price?

Google phones get huge discounts pretty quickly and regularly. I expect to see this $300 off by Christmas.

I got my Pixel 2 for something like $200 off and then an additional $350 or so in rebates Christmas the year it launched by trading in my mostly broken Nexus 5x.

I forgot the exact amount of the rebate, but it covered my full phone bill + phone monthly payment for 6 whole months.

Edit: Project Fi.
 
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Sort of underwhelmed. Main problem is the price - if it was cheaper, I think I would've gotten this over the iPhone 11. I've been on Android since around 2012 too.

Going by the offerings this year, it just seems like the iPhone 11 is the only flagship phone (not the Pro models) where I'm actually getting my money's worth. I feel weird saying that since it's Apple, but honestly. Their SOC is significantly better than the competition, they didn't skimp on the battery size, and they lowered the price this year. My 11 is actually lasting me 2 days with heavy WiFi use without a charge.

iOS, I don't mind it that much. I think the notifications aren't as good as Android, but for everything else I use it for, it's comparable. Basically what I want out of phone these days is something well supported and delivers long battery life. I was pretty happy with the S8 I had (minus the bloat they preinstall) but Samsung is no longer supporting it with updates so decided to switch.
 
Matthew Moniz impressions of the Pixel 4

Would like to see how the Voice Transcriber performs in the open environment of a lecture hall with ambient sounds and other people speaking. During the October 15 Event where was the source phone located? Was it in the open auditorium or was it located near a dedicated loud speaker that was feeding it the voice of the Google representative?

 
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Zorachus said:
This may be the worst Pixel release to date. Very mediocre. Hardware not top of line. Just overall a good phone, but not a $900+ phone.
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I still think it's a much better upgrade than the 3 XL was, which you bought so I'm somewhat surprised you're saying this. The 3 XL was quite the joke when it was announced at the same price since it was basically the same as the 2 XL with a better display and wireless charging, but a worse design IMO with that ridiculous notch. At least they upgraded the RAM, battery (which the 3XL was even smaller than the 2 XL), and camera setup this year along with new tech for face unlocking and software features like offline assistant/transcribing. I would definitely miss my rear fingerprint scanner though because I use the swipe down gesture on it a lot for the notification shade, esp in landscape mode when I'm in my games so I don't have to swipe twice to actually get to the notifications.

I'm still on the fence on the 4 though and am awaiting reviews to judge it better. But regardless there's going to have to be a good BF sale and/or trade-in promo for current Pixel owners for me to jump on it barring any glaring issues in the reviews. I'm sure it'll be a generally good phone, but for their price and cutting back on original quality photo/video backups, it's a hard sale at MSRP for me. But so were the previous Pixels and pretty much any other $800+ flagship phone, which is why buying at launch and pre-ordering is generally a bad move IMO unless there's a decent promo like Samsung just had giving people $600 + store credit for their 1-2 year old phones towards a S/Note 10.
 
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Zorachus said:
This may be the worst Pixel release to date. Very mediocre. Hardware not top of line. Just overall a good phone, but not a $900+ phone.
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T4rd said:
I still think it's a much better upgrade than the 3 XL was, which you bought so I'm somewhat surprised you're saying this. The 3 XL was quite the joke when it was announced at the same price since it was basically the same as the 2 XL with a better display and wireless charging, but a worse design IMO with that ridiculous notch. At least they upgraded the RAM, battery (which the 3XL was even smaller than the 2 XL), and camera setup this year along with new tech for face unlocking and software features like offline assistant/transcribing.
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I was surprised to see Zorachus say that too and I was preparing a response for him to read. I only got as far as making this list but didn't have the writing skills as you have, to compose a condensed summary that included the Pixel 4 tech features you mentioned.

The Pixel 4 XL has eliminated the cavernously large sized notch of the 3 XL and went with no notch
The Pixel 4 XL has a SD 855 and the 3 XL has a SD 845
The Pixel 4 XL has an improved camera over the Pixel 3 XL
The Pixel 4 XL has 6 GB RAM, the Pixel 3 XL has 4 GB RAM


T4rd said:
I'm still on the fence on the 4 though and am awaiting reviews to judge it better. But regardless there's going to have to be a good BF sale and/or trade-in promo for current Pixel owners for me to jump on it barring any glaring issues in the reviews. I'm sure it'll be a generally good phone, but for their price and cutting back on original quality photo/video backups, it's a hard sale at MSRP for me. But so were the previous Pixels and pretty much any other $800+ flagship phone, which is why buying at launch and pre-ordering is generally a bad move IMO unless there's a decent promo like Samsung just had giving people $600 for their 1-2 year old phones towards a S/Note 10.
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Fortunately for me I don't find myself on the fence to buy a Pixel 4 because my present phone is a Moto G6. The Pixel 4 XL having no notch or hole in the screen, with a flat screen, VoLTE on T-Mobile, dual speakers, a 1440p display, a pure or near Android interface, and 'all' of the Google LLC apps (Google Phone, Messages, Calendar, Clock, Contacts, etc.) is what I am after.

When all of the "new phone release" hype and fault finding dies down and the full reviews are released we will be better able to objectively assess the phone. Not overlooking the likelihood of price reductions and cost saving promotions too.

Zorachus has a lot of experience with phones and has always shown flexibility in buying phones, so I anticipate we may see some rethinking.
 
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Zorachus said:
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His stuff just is not a review anymore. They're just his opinions and what he likes and doesn't like. The fact that he says stupid shit like "i feel attacked" over the lack of wide cameras is beyond stupid. I didn't feel like a single thing in this early "review" was objective other than the lack of the matte on the black Pixel 4. The radar hand movements need a full review and more time in people's hands. I'm not going to base anything off of the few minutes they had with the device. Then again at the same time I'm not the type to wave my hand over my phone either. I've been using voice commands for years for all that stuff.

Bottom line for me here is the Pixel 4 is a Pixel with great software and great hardware. Oh god it doesn't have 855+ OH NOEZ! It has the bezels! NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOO! :rolleyes:

Zorachus said:
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Lee bitching about the camera bump? Really? Really????? A buck twenty into the video and he's bitching about the camera bump? *bang head on desk*

And then he loses ALL credibility by saying 64GB RAM on the Pixel phones. I don't know about you but I'd love 64GB RAM in a phone!

His comparison in price from Pixel 4 to iPhone 11 is justified but personally I feel like I'm getting far more phone for the price.

And why do people still bitch about batteries in 2019? I have a charger everywhere I go. On my desk, in just about every room of the house, in my cars. I don't give a shit and haven't since QC technology became a thing. I feel like anybody that bitches about a battery is simply looking for something to bitch about.
 
I watched a recap of the event since the phone was leaked to death and killed any surprise I could’ve experienced. Long story short, I’m not impressed...and many others seem to fall in the same boat including those who’ve been hands on with the device.

The Pixels were always a step ahead of the competition when it came to computational photography. But now the competition has caught up to match or surpass the Pixels in that area. The only non-gimmicky redeeming feature of this phone is the 90Hz display. And we’ll see how much that impacts battery life (especially on the regular 4 which has a measly 2800 mAh battery).

For $800/900 Google should’ve dropped the motion sense gimmick and included an in display fingerprint reader, bumped the RAM up to 8GB, SD 855+, increased battery size, and gone with an ultrawide lens instead of telephoto (and telling consumers what they want instead of listening to them). Would’ve been the best phone of 2019.

Vermillion said:
And why do people still bitch about batteries in 2019? I have a charger everywhere I go. On my desk, in just about every room of the house, in my cars. I don't give a shit and haven't since QC technology became a thing. I feel like anybody that bitches about a battery is simply looking for something to bitch about.
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This is the dumbest argument I’ve heard in terms of battery life. Why would I want to be tethered to a charger for any period of time throughout the day to charge my phone? Not everyone just sits in doors all day with easy access to charge or wants to walk around with a charger in hand. Get out of here with that non-sense. You can fanboy all over the Pixel 4 you want but this is just a pathetic argument.
 
Vermillion said:
And why do people still bitch about batteries in 2019? I have a charger everywhere I go. On my desk, in just about every room of the house, in my cars. I don't give a shit and haven't since QC technology became a thing. I feel like anybody that bitches about a battery is simply looking for something to bitch about.
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That is the stupidest thing I've read today.
 
Battery life is easily one of, if not the most important feature on a smartphone. A dead phone is as good as a brick to use. I have to give Apple major props for stuffing in HUGE sized batteries into their new 11 Pro's, good for them, and it shows. Peopel are so excited that the iPhone 11 Pro Max for example can go 2 days, and easily one day with extreme heavy use. I wish the Pixel 4 could do that too. Why not want that?

And spec's aren't the biggest thing, but, for $900+, I want the best, so give it 8GB RAM, SD855+, 256GB size, ditch the radar crap and give us a full screen display without a giant forehead.
 
Zorachus said:
Battery life is easily one of, if not the most important feature on a smartphone. A dead phone is as good as a brick to use. I have to give Apple major props for stuffing in HUGE sized batteries into their new 11 Pro's, good for them, and it shows. Peopel are so excited that the iPhone 11 Pro Max for example can go 2 days, and easily one day with extreme heavy use. I wish the Pixel 4 could do that too. Why not want that?

And spec's aren't the biggest thing, but, for $900+, I want the best, so give it 8GB RAM, SD855+, 256GB size, ditch the radar crap and give us a full screen display without a giant forehead.
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I don't mind new features like the radar thing with a forehead, but at $900, I agree that there's little excuse for not having the top of the line components.
 
kirbyrj said:
I don't mind new features like the radar thing with a forehead, but at $900, I agree that there's little excuse for not having the top of the line components.
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Indeed, but imagine paying that much for a phone with only 4GB of RAM, a noticeably smaller battery, and an objectively worse looking notch on the display. That's what Zorachus did barely a year ago now and now he's complaining about all this stuff on the new phone, lol. I mean, I can agree with his complaints on the 4 too, but it's funny seeing him complain about them when he paid full price for that warmed over 2 XL this time last year and this is a considerably better upgrade than that was.
 
Dude, I needed a new phone last year, as my wife's was damaged, so I gave her my old Pixel 2 XL, and then I got the Pixel 3 XL 128GB for $855 w/Tax, when it was on sale. I thought that was a pretty good price.

And last year there was no OnePlus 7 Pro to compare it too. And the iPhone XS had mediocre battery life, nothing like the 11 Pro's today.

My point, the Pixel 3 XL for a 2018 year phone, was pretty great. Best camera on the market for 2018. Wireless charging added, which I use. IP68 rating, a step up from IP67. SD845 over SD835. Better quality A+ display over the 2 XL's. And the top of the screen goes full all way to edges which looks very modern, yeah the notch sucks, but I don't even notice it.

So yeah, I've been very happy with my Pixel 3 XL, only knock is the mediocre battery life.

At this time, my wife is happy with her Pixel 2 XL, works just great, and my Pixel 3 XL is humming along fine. So not on desperate need of a new phone. Now if the Pixel 4 blew away everything the iPhone 11 Pro Max had, and trumped the Note 10+, and was clearly rated #1 of 2019, then yes I'd buy it immediately.

Don't get me wrong, I still think the Pixel 4 XL is one of the best smartphones of 2019. Right up there with the iPhone 11 Pro Max. The Note 10+. And the OnePlus 7 Pro is amazing for it's price. But I'd say the Pixel 4 probably 3rd or 4th best phone of the year.
 
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Vermillion said:
His stuff just is not a review anymore. They're just his opinions and what he likes and doesn't like. The fact that he says stupid shit like "i feel attacked" over the lack of wide cameras is beyond stupid. I didn't feel like a single thing in this early "review" was objective other than the lack of the matte on the black Pixel 4. The radar hand movements need a full review and more time in people's hands. I'm not going to base anything off of the few minutes they had with the device. Then again at the same time I'm not the type to wave my hand over my phone either. I've been using voice commands for years for all that stuff.

Bottom line for me here is the Pixel 4 is a Pixel with great software and great hardware. Oh god it doesn't have 855+ OH NOEZ! It has the bezels! NNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOO! :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

That's because this is not meant to be his review. It says "Impressions" in the title. Like virtually every other tech reviewer on the planet, his first hands-on time with the Pixel 4 was very brief; I think he's allowed to offer an incomplete, subjective take. Give him a week or two with a unit and then you'll get an actual review.

I must admit I'm irked by a broader community tendency to treat hands-on videos as if they were final, absolute verdicts on products, as if spending 15 minutes with a device is the same as spending 150 hours with it. It's not helped by a handful of creators who use intentionally misleading "hands-on review" titles as clickbait. Rather than get angry, why don't we just let hands-on clips be hands-on clips and save our concern for the real reviews?
 
kirbyrj said:
That is the stupidest thing I've read today.
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But you still didn't answer my question. No one ever has when I ask that question and I've asked that question quite a few times in these forums. People bitch to simply bitch.

exlink said:
This is the dumbest argument I’ve heard in terms of battery life. Why would I want to be tethered to a charger for any period of time throughout the day to charge my phone? Not everyone just sits in doors all day with easy access to charge or wants to walk around with a charger in hand. Get out of here with that non-sense. You can fanboy all over the Pixel 4 you want but this is just a pathetic argument.
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This has nothing to do about fanboying a device. I've said this question many times in this forum before about many devices. You still didn't answer my question so thanks for proving my point.

I also never said tethered everywhere I go. I simply said I have a charger if needed. However, in the last few years I've never even needed one. What do you possibly do on your phone in the course of a 12 hour day that will drain a battery fully?

My 6T can go 12+ hours with 6+ hours of SoT. My 6T is my only phone for work and things like that. I use it all the damn time. My previous LG V30 wasn't nearly as good on SoT but it easily made it through the day under heavy usage. That's my point. People want to bitch "OMG it's only 2700 battery"! Yet nobody ever can give a real life example of why that battery is too small. People said the same damn thing about Pixel 3 and Pixel 2 and Pixel. Yet, I don't see massive amounts of horror stories about lack of battery life on Pixel devices. If there were you know Google would make sure the battery was bigger.
 
Vermillion said:
But you still didn't answer my question. No one ever has when I ask that question and I've asked that question quite a few times in these forums. People bitch to simply bitch.



This has nothing to do about fanboying a device. I've said this question many times in this forum before about many devices. You still didn't answer my question so thanks for proving my point.

I also never said tethered everywhere I go. I simply said I have a charger if needed. However, in the last few years I've never even needed one. What do you possibly do on your phone in the course of a 12 hour day that will drain a battery fully?

My 6T can go 12+ hours with 6+ hours of SoT. My 6T is my only phone for work and things like that. I use it all the damn time. My previous LG V30 wasn't nearly as good on SoT but it easily made it through the day under heavy usage. That's my point. People want to bitch "OMG it's only 2700 battery"! Yet nobody ever can give a real life example of why that battery is too small. People said the same damn thing about Pixel 3 and Pixel 2 and Pixel. Yet, I don't see massive amounts of horror stories about lack of battery life on Pixel devices. If there were you know Google would make sure the battery was bigger.
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Well let me be the first to tell you that the Pixel 3 battery was too damn small. It barely made it through the day with moderate usage. I picked up a 3A because the battery life is significantly better. I usually have 40% at the end of the day. Sure, I liked the Pixel 3 better, but I wanted better battery life because I don't always have access to a charger, and I like to not have to turn on "battery saver" just to make sure I get home at the end of the day without the phone shutting off.

I have ZERO faith that with a 90Hz screen and new sensors that the battery life will be an improvement with a smaller battery.

If they advertised the phone with a larger battery and 2 days of usage, I'd probably stomach the $800 price point for the smaller phone. But right now, hard pass and reason #1 is the battery (reason #2 is the price).
 
$799 for a Pixel 4 vs $699 for an iPhone 11... Easy decision for most people.

Does anyone think this motion sense radar sensor in the phone is just Google trying to make that mobile sonar technology that Bruce Wayne commissioned in The Dark Knight?
 
CHANG3D said:
$799 for a Pixel 4 vs $699 for an iPhone 11... Easy decision for most people.

Does anyone think this motion sense radar sensor in the phone is just Google trying to make that mobile sonar technology that Bruce Wayne commissioned in The Dark Knight?
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Ain't it sad how Apple has become the better value now when it comes too phones? All the Android phone makers need to take a step back.
 
Vermillion said:
But you still didn't answer my question. No one ever has when I ask that question and I've asked that question quite a few times in these forums. People bitch to simply bitch.



This has nothing to do about fanboying a device. I've said this question many times in this forum before about many devices. You still didn't answer my question so thanks for proving my point.

I also never said tethered everywhere I go. I simply said I have a charger if needed. However, in the last few years I've never even needed one. What do you possibly do on your phone in the course of a 12 hour day that will drain a battery fully?

My 6T can go 12+ hours with 6+ hours of SoT. My 6T is my only phone for work and things like that. I use it all the damn time. My previous LG V30 wasn't nearly as good on SoT but it easily made it through the day under heavy usage. That's my point. People want to bitch "OMG it's only 2700 battery"! Yet nobody ever can give a real life example of why that battery is too small. People said the same damn thing about Pixel 3 and Pixel 2 and Pixel. Yet, I don't see massive amounts of horror stories about lack of battery life on Pixel devices. If there were you know Google would make sure the battery was bigger.
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I travel quite a bit. Use my phone GPS in rental cars which don’t have a charger handy. Take photos and videos galore. Stream music while walking around a city and using my GPS. Video call family and friends while in different locations. Several times I emptied my iPhone X battery (2716 mAh) while traveling. I don’t want to carry a charger with me while I’m exploring a new locale. Just my phone and wallet.

I’ve traveled once since I got my iPhone 11 Pro Max. I went the whole day traveling and ended with 17%. Plugged in at the end of the night before going to sleep. With my iPhone X I had to carry an annoying 2500 mAh external battery to recharge it usually 3-4 hours before the end of the day. No thanks, not going back to that.

If you spend most of your day at home or somewhere indoors then maybe battery life isn’t as important for you. But for people like me who spend their free time usually on the go then battery life is very important. So that blanket statement of ‘its 2019 stop bitching about battery life and just charge LUL’ is very ignorant and stupid.
 
Vermillion said:
But you still didn't answer my question. No one ever has when I ask that question and I've asked that question quite a few times in these forums. People bitch to simply bitch.



This has nothing to do about fanboying a device. I've said this question many times in this forum before about many devices. You still didn't answer my question so thanks for proving my point.

I also never said tethered everywhere I go. I simply said I have a charger if needed. However, in the last few years I've never even needed one. What do you possibly do on your phone in the course of a 12 hour day that will drain a battery fully?

My 6T can go 12+ hours with 6+ hours of SoT. My 6T is my only phone for work and things like that. I use it all the damn time. My previous LG V30 wasn't nearly as good on SoT but it easily made it through the day under heavy usage. That's my point. People want to bitch "OMG it's only 2700 battery"! Yet nobody ever can give a real life example of why that battery is too small. People said the same damn thing about Pixel 3 and Pixel 2 and Pixel. Yet, I don't see massive amounts of horror stories about lack of battery life on Pixel devices. If there were you know Google would make sure the battery was bigger.
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I agree; I can't remember the last time I've had my phone die on me because I have a desk job and can easily charge at work or in the car. I don't even use fast charging much because I want to save on battery wear. But speaking of charging at work; I stopped doing that intentionally because pretty much all my previous phones stayed at 100% most of the day because I would just plug it in at work and keep it there for most of the day, then I would only use maybe 30-50% of the battery at home before bed and then leave it on charge all night again. This seemed to cause my battery to wear out and lose a lot of capacity only 14-18 months into ownership.

So since getting my 2 XL, I've capped my battery at 80% most of the time and according to Accubattery my battery's capacity is still like 92% of its original capacity after 18 months now. Even while doing this, my battery has been more than enough to get me through the day starting at 80%. The only times I've came close to killing it within a day is when we've been on a trip where I've taken a crap-ton of pictures and videos.

This has pretty much been the case for all of my previous phones as well before their batteries took a dump, except for the Galaxy Nexus which is infamous for having atrocious battery life.

But I understand that it's all relative to the competition as well, and for $800 I think the Pixel 4 should have definitely came with a larger battery at least the same size that competitors like the S10, iPhone 11, or anything else it directly competes against.
 
CHANG3D said:
$799 for a Pixel 4 vs $699 for an iPhone 11... Easy decision for most people.

Does anyone think this motion sense radar sensor in the phone is just Google trying to make that mobile sonar technology that Bruce Wayne commissioned in The Dark Knight?
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I came to the same conclusion so I'm holding an iPhone 11 right now.


As for the soli thing. It's DOA to me considering it can't do any of the cool stuff from the original Soli demonstration. I don't want to wave my hand at my phone. But if I can tap my finger with my thumb to click or scroll by rubbing my finger with my thumb like in the original Soli demos, that would actually be an incredible use case for the technology. Seem they couldn't miniaturize it properly and went with half-assed implementation that's worthless instead.
 
For battery life, not everyone uses their phones the same way. Some people like to use their phones for intensive tasks for large chunks of time (like games or an entire movie) and it's extremely obnoxious to have to be tethered to a wire or having to find a charger.

There's also battery wear and heat concerns. Charging and using your phone at the same time in those intensive tasks generates far more heat and is extremely bad for your phone battery. Warp Charge itself may not heat the phone noticeably (unlike QC or USB-PD) but if you were playing Pokemon Go at the same time, you're generating far more heat than if you were doing either task alone.

Then there's also the fact that going to the extreme ends of a battery charge (>80% and <20%) in itself is hard on the battery. Sure, I can go from 0-50% with warp charge in 20 minutes but that's in exchange for irrevocably shaving off some of the battery capacity.




On my iPhone 11, I can leave home with a 75% charge and be confident that even if I didn't charge it at all during the day, despite using it extremely heavily (i.e., several hours of gaming along with the normal "heavy" usage that people seem to think is heavy), I can be confident I'll still be over 35% level 10 hours later when I'm going home.

It also has fast charging (you can have both!) so if I run into an emergency situation where I need a quick top up it's still available but even with 35% battery left, that's basically a Pixel 3's full battery life! It's nice to have a good sized battery along with an efficient phone combined with fast charging! You don't have to skip any of those (like how the Pixel 4 skips on the good sized battery part of the trifecta).
 
I have an active job where I absolutely CANNOT keep my phone plugged in all the time or even some of the time. Yet I need to have my phone on me available 100% of the time. Sometimes my shifts last 12 hours.

I have an active life where I, quite frankly, don't want to keep a charger on me or look for a place to stay in an area long enough to even fast charge my phone for a few minutes.

I have multiple 10k battery packs. In a day where I'm, for example, traveling or hiking and taking lots of pictures. I will not only use all the battery on my phone -quickly- I will also drain that 10k battery pack. 10k battery packs are big and bulky and I don't always have a place to carry them.

Fuck, in a single 3 hour pokemon community day I'll use 90% of my battery due to constant screen on time.

Just because your particular scenario doesn't require a big battery doesn't mean it's the only scenario in the world.

Fuck man, I was unable to take some pictures at Yellowstone earlier this year because I was on a long hike that drained my phone, my 10k battery pack and part of the 6k battery pack my fiance had. Sure, I'll just stop and plug my phone into the nearest tree. I did have my charger on me.

Complaining about people complaining about battery life has got to be the most ignorant thing I've seen in years.
 
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vegeta535 said:
Ain't it sad how Apple has become the better value now when it comes too phones? All the Android phone makers need to take a step back.
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I can't help but think it's Apple's "eye of Sauron" effect. It's notorious for only focusing on one thing at a time, but whenever its gaze shifts somewhere, it starts crushing rivals in that category. And the iPhone 11 is evidence of that... it's not a huge upgrade, but the extra camera, longer battery life and the price cut suddenly make it a very tempting prospect. Apple seems to understand this category of the phone market better than most others, maybe even OnePlus -- and certainly Google.

I don't think the Pixel 4 is terrible, because you do get a sharper screen and that radar (even if it just means faster face unlock), but it feels like Apple is more in tune with what people actually want... and let's be honest, most people probably won't mind that 828p screen in the slightest.
 
You have to keep in mind that because current OLED's use Pentile, their effective resolution is somewhat lower than the specifications indicate. It's not 1/2 like the insane trolls like to say but it's more like 75%. So the 1080p Pixel 4 screen is... more like 810p which is basically the iPhone 11 screen.
 
Think about this for a second guys...

The Samsung Galaxy S10+

Same processor as Pixel 4
Same resolution screen & 0.1" bigger with smaller overall phone dimensions
More storage on base model
Expandable storage
Bigger battery
Triple Rear Camera
Dual Front Camera
Headphone Jack
HDR 10+
Under-screen fingerprint reader
Samsung Dex



I mean, should I go on? Wtf is the Pixel 4's existence mean? They put in some shitty radar so you can do Swipe gestures that Samsung tried back in like the S5 or S6 days? 90hz refresh rate is nice, but why would you then buy the Pixel 4 instead of the OnePlus 7 Pro?

The Pixel 4 has to be the worst phone release and the most egregious asking price i've ever seen. I hate how uninspired it is and how "Apple" Google is becoming with their phones and software. I actually setup a Pixel 3 the other day for the first time for one of our employees and everything Google is doing in terms of usage of the phone to packaging... it's all Apple. Uninspired as all hell.
 
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exlink said:
I travel quite a bit. Use my phone GPS in rental cars which don’t have a charger handy. Take photos and videos galore. Stream music while walking around a city and using my GPS. Video call family and friends while in different locations. Several times I emptied my iPhone X battery (2716 mAh) while traveling. I don’t want to carry a charger with me while I’m exploring a new locale. Just my phone and wallet.

I’ve traveled once since I got my iPhone 11 Pro Max. I went the whole day traveling and ended with 17%. Plugged in at the end of the night before going to sleep. With my iPhone X I had to carry an annoying 2500 mAh external battery to recharge it usually 3-4 hours before the end of the day. No thanks, not going back to that.

If you spend most of your day at home or somewhere indoors then maybe battery life isn’t as important for you. But for people like me who spend their free time usually on the go then battery life is very important. So that blanket statement of ‘its 2019 stop bitching about battery life and just charge LUL’ is very ignorant and stupid.
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TheSlySyl said:
I have an active job where I absolutely CANNOT keep my phone plugged in all the time or even some of the time. Yet I need to have my phone on me available 100% of the time. Sometimes my shifts last 12 hours.

I have an active life where I, quite frankly, don't want to keep a charger on me or look for a place to stay in an area long enough to even fast charge my phone for a few minutes.

I have multiple 10k battery packs. In a day where I'm, for example, traveling or hiking and taking lots of pictures. I will not only use all the battery on my phone -quickly- I will also drain that 10k battery pack. 10k battery packs are big and bulky and I don't always have a place to carry them.

Fuck, in a single 3 hour pokemon community day I'll use 90% of my battery due to constant screen on time.

Just because your particular scenario doesn't require a big battery doesn't mean it's the only scenario in the world.

Fuck man, I was unable to take some pictures at Yellowstone earlier this year because I was on a long hike that drained my phone, my 10k battery pack and part of the 6k battery pack my fiance had. Sure, I'll just stop and plug my phone into the nearest tree. I did have my charger on me.

Complaining about people complaining about battery life has got to be the most ignorant thing I've seen in years.
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And both of you are way outside the norm. Those are extreme situations that Apple/Google/Samsung won't be looking at when they design a phone. I'm not going to cry for you if you burn 90% of your battery walking around hunting Pokemon. That's bitching to bitch in my opinion. OMG I CAN'T HUNT POKEMON ANYMORE! :rolleyes:

For the extreme situations there are ways around it or you deal with it because no matter what you do you know you'll drain that battery. If you know you go hunting pokemon then find a phone with a bigger battery or grab a few Mophie's. It's not up to Apple/Google/Samsung to help you get your gaming fix. It's up to you to make sure you have enough charge to get that fix.

Whenever I travel and know I'm renting a car you know what I bring with me? Oh right...my car charger. Just in case. It just makes sense to cover my ass.

TheSlySyl out of curiosity what do you do that requires you to burn through a full battery charge while on the job?
 
I say this almost every Nexus and Pixel release. The Google team behind these phones, is just a small group of ultra nerds working in the Google basement, with a limited budget to muster up some Frankenstein new phone every year. Some years it's good, other years it's poor, but rarely have they been a grand slam near perfect best phone. Always something missing or not great, where other areas it's great, but overall it's a mixed bag. Battery life for one, has never been a strong point, always just ok, not bad, but not great.


But Google asking these $900+ price points is getting ridiculous for what they offer. The Pixel 4 XL starting at like $749 should be the starting point.
 
Vermillion said:
And both of you are way outside the norm. Those are extreme situations that Apple/Google/Samsung won't be looking at when they design a phone. I'm not going to cry for you if you burn 90% of your battery walking around hunting Pokemon. That's bitching to bitch in my opinion. OMG I CAN'T HUNT POKEMON ANYMORE! :rolleyes:

For the extreme situations there are ways around it or you deal with it because no matter what you do you know you'll drain that battery. If you know you go hunting pokemon then find a phone with a bigger battery or grab a few Mophie's. It's not up to Apple/Google/Samsung to help you get your gaming fix. It's up to you to make sure you have enough charge to get that fix.

Whenever I travel and know I'm renting a car you know what I bring with me? Oh right...my car charger. Just in case. It just makes sense to cover my ass.

TheSlySyl out of curiosity what do you do that requires you to burn through a full battery charge while on the job?
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Yeah, agreed.

Sure it would be convenient if the battery lasted throughout a full day of use, but honestly, I';m usually near my desk at work, or in my car, or within reach of a power outlet at home, so charging several times a days is kind of my norm, and I expect this is most peoples norm.

I plug my phone in at my desk at work every time I sit down. Every time I hop in my car, I also plug it in and charge. When I am at my desktop in my office at home, I'm charging. When I sit on the couch and watch TV? Guess what, I have a charger there too.

Would I like it if my Pixel had longer battery life? Certainly, but in th elast three years of using it, I can only remember running out of charge a handful of times, and most of those were right before I replaced the original battery in the Pixel as it was running low due to age.
 
I don't know what Google is thinking. $900 fuck that. I think $600 would still be a rip off for the XL. For all the data mining they get from these phones should be subsided.
 
Vermillion said:
And both of you are way outside the norm. Those are extreme situations that Apple/Google/Samsung won't be looking at when they design a phone. I'm not going to cry for you if you burn 90% of your battery walking around hunting Pokemon. That's bitching to bitch in my opinion. OMG I CAN'T HUNT POKEMON ANYMORE! :rolleyes:

For the extreme situations there are ways around it or you deal with it because no matter what you do you know you'll drain that battery. If you know you go hunting pokemon then find a phone with a bigger battery or grab a few Mophie's. It's not up to Apple/Google/Samsung to help you get your gaming fix. It's up to you to make sure you have enough charge to get that fix.

Whenever I travel and know I'm renting a car you know what I bring with me? Oh right...my car charger. Just in case. It just makes sense to cover my ass.

TheSlySyl out of curiosity what do you do that requires you to burn through a full battery charge while on the job?
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I find your justification for accepting mediocre battery life hilarious and bewildering. You’re the first person I’ve seen defend mediocre battery life when the other option is...better battery life?

If you only live in your little bubble at home and at your desk at work then sure have at it. But there are many people out there that like to travel and explore that don’t always have instant access to an outlet or want to carry around a clunky charger or battery with them. Let alone have to sit and wait for your phone to recharge. Peace of mind with battery life is priceless.

And to counter your point Apple DID take my type of ‘extreme’ (lol traveling is considered extreme by your standards) situation into account this time around by providing massive batteries with amazing battery life. And now that Apple did, guess whose probably going to follow next year? Yes, Google (hopefully).
 
My Pixel 3 L gets mediocre battery life, and it upsets me. Sure it lasts an entire workday, but come dinnertime, I need to be watchful of battery, if I am going home, then no big deal, I'll throw it on the charge, but it's still annoying needing to do that as soon as I get home. But if I have plans to go out on a Friday night, I really need to make sure I charge to before leaving the office, otherwise I'm screwed once out and no convenient way to charge it.

Yes of course I can carry a charger brick with me, but that's just a pain. And no my battery never actually dies on me daily, never, but it does get into the 15% to 20% range quite often in the evening. Or heavy use days it will be in the single digits by bedtime on battery saver mode. And I have to make sure the phone is charging over night, and 100% when I leave in the morning, to squeeze everything out of it, which again is a pain.

On something like an iPhone 11 Pro Max, those problems, I guess, just aren't there? If you leave the house in the morning with 70% battery, you'll still be plenty fine the entire day and night. Or going out on a Friday night with a 11 Pro Max, I assume there's zero worry of battery going dead?

I would just like Google to offer me something like that, and not have to babysit my phone's battery.
 
The craziest thing is what would you lose for having better battery life? The iPhone 11 gains 1 hour of battery life over the iPhone XR in exchange for... the same weight and size and $50 less.
 
I’m interested how people are going to benchmark the Pixel 4 battery against other phones. Apparently, the panel reduces to 60Hz when you’re not looking at it which wouldn’t be representative of actual real world usage screen time where you look at the phone and the display would be at 90Hz (except for videos apparently).
 
Supersnake said:
I was surprised to see Zorachus say that too and I was preparing a response for him to read. I only got as far as making this list but didn't have the writing skills as you have, to compose a condensed summary that included the Pixel 4 tech features you mentioned.

The Pixel 4 XL has eliminated the cavernously large sized notch of the 3 XL and went with no notch
The Pixel 4 XL has a SD 855 and the 3 XL has a SD 845
The Pixel 4 XL has an improved camera over the Pixel 3 XL
The Pixel 4 XL has 6 GB RAM, the Pixel 3 XL has 4 GB RAM




Fortunately for me I don't find myself on the fence to buy a Pixel 4 because my present phone is a Moto G6. The Pixel 4 XL having no notch or hole in the screen, with a flat screen, VoLTE on T-Mobile, dual speakers, a 1440p display, a pure or near Android interface, and 'all' of the Google LLC apps (Google Phone, Messages, Calendar, Clock, Contacts, etc.) is what I am after.

When all of the "new phone release" hype and fault finding dies down and the full reviews are released we will be better able to objectively assess the phone. Not overlooking the likelihood of price reductions and cost saving promotions too.

Zorachus has a lot of experience with phones and has always shown flexibility in buying phones, so I anticipate we may see some rethinking.
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For me the deciding factor was the removal of the fingerprint sensor. The pixel 4 has a lot of features I am completely uninterested in and don't want (Cloud, AI, Assistant, Face Unlock, Radar, etc.) , but in the end I could just disable and/or ignore that they were there and just not use them, so it wasn't a big deal.

The killer for me was that it dropped the finger print sensor. Once way or another I was going to leave Face Unlock turned permanently OFF, so since they got rid of the fingerprint sensor, which means I'd be forced to entering my pin/password every unlock, and this is just a non-starter for me, at any price, let alone at $300 more than the Pixel 3 is selling at.

If the fingerprint sensor were still there, I would consider the Pixel 4. It would still be priced higher than justified, and I would be on the fence because of the poor perceived value, but I would still have considered it. Without the fingerprint sensor it is dead to me.
 
exlink said:
If you only live in your little bubble at home and at your desk at work then sure have at it. But there are many people out there that like to travel and explore that don’t always have instant access to an outlet or want to carry around a clunky charger or battery with them. Let alone have to sit and wait for your phone to recharge. Peace of mind with battery life is priceless.
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No one is arguing that more battery life isn't better. it is.

It's just that for most people it is moot.

Most of us charge overnight.

Then we get up, get ready for work, get in our cars and top off the phone in our cars during our drive to work.

Then we spend 8-10 hours in an office, with a second charger at our desks, and plug in to charge every time we sit down.

Followed by the commute home, during which we charge.

By dinner time, I'm usually at 100% charge.

Then I rush around, get dinner in order, do dishes/chores etc. and by the time I am sitting down for either a late night gaming session or to watch some TV or a movie, I am likely no lower than 85% charge, and guess what, I have a charger at my desk at home and a charger next to the couch in the livingroom, so I can charge in both of those places as well.

In normal weekday use my phone probably rarely goes for more than 2 hours without charging.

Sure, weekends and holidays may be different, but rarely am I going anywhere without my car (in which I charge whenever I am in it) or other access to charging. If I am traveling, trains, planes and buses all have charging ports these days (just be sure to bring your USB condom), so I don't have to worry there either.

I'm not the outdoorsy hiking nature type, but I'd imagine that if I were I would be enjoying my hike, not constantly on my phone, so it wouldn't draining much while hiking either.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
No one is arguing that more battery life isn't better. it is.

It's just that for most people it is moot.

Most of us charge overnight.

Then we get up, get ready for work, get in our cars and top off the phone in our cars during our drive to work.

Then we spend 8-10 hours in an office, with a second charger at our desks, and plug in to charge every time we sit down.

Followed by the commute home, during which we charge.

By dinner time, I'm usually at 100% charge.

Then I rush around, get dinner in order, do dishes/chores etc. and by the time I am sitting down for either a late night gaming session or to watch some TV or a movie, I am likely no lower than 85% charge, and guess what, I have a charger at my desk at home and a charger next to the couch in the livingroom, so I can charge in both of those places as well.

In normal weekday use my phone probably rarely goes for more than 2 hours without charging.

Sure, weekends and holidays may be different, but rarely am I going anywhere without my car (in which I charge whenever I am in it) or other access to charging. If I am traveling, trains, planes and buses all have charging ports these days (just be sure to bring your USB condom), so I don't have to worry there either.

I'm not the outdoorsy hiking nature type, but I'd imagine that if I were I would be enjoying my hike, not constantly on my phone, so it wouldn't draining much while hiking either.
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Most of us charge overnight. = Not always, sometimes on busy nights with the kids, and falling asleep reading a book I forget to charge my phone before bed Happens more than you'd think.

Then we get up, get ready for work, get in our cars and top off the phone in our cars during our drive to work. = Nope, no car charger here, my Wife has one, I broke one of mine, just never got around to buying another, as I rarely used it except long vacation travels, but never daily.

Then we spend 8-10 hours in an office, with a second charger at our desks, and plug in to charge every time we sit down. = I never do that, I am on job sites, and meeting customers and managing projects, I can't always just plug it in every time I sit down.

Followed by the commute home, during which we charge. = Nope.

By dinner time, I'm usually at 100% charge. = Said no one ever.


But everyone has always said, I wish my smartphone had a larger battery, and lasted longer throughout the day and night, with not needing to babysit the battery.
 
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Charging overnight is also bad for batteries to the point where the new optimal charging option on the iPhones learns when you generally wake up and holds the battery charge level at 80% until it's closer to when you're about to start the day before charging to 100%.

I just leave it uncharged at 73% when I go to bed, wake up at 71% and am confident it'll last the full day anyway.
 
ChronoReverse said:
Charging overnight is also bad for batteries to the point where the new optimal charging option on the iPhones learns when you generally wake up and holds the battery charge level at 80% until it's closer to when you're about to start the day before charging to 100%.

I just leave it uncharged at 73% when I go to bed, wake up at 71% and am confident it'll last the full day anyway.
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I kind of just expect the battery to need replacement after 2 years anyway, so I don't bother babying my batteries.
 
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