Pixel 4

I guess the same could be said for most androids since they get discounted a few months after their release.

Totally. Hello Samsung? Scamdung are famous for this, launch a $1,000+ new smartphone, and then 4 months later BOGO deals, and $400 off deals. That's Samesucks MO
 
I have Motion Sense off, but in my battery use, showing which things used the most, #2 on the list was Ambient Display.

But with Motion Sense off, what's using Ambient Display? I did turn AoD back on, so is it the always on display draining?

I was having great battery life yesterday, at end of day, bedtime I had like 5h 43m SoT with like 35% battery life left. I didn't charge overnight, and this morning checked the phone and it was at 20%. I was like, how the heck did the phone lose like 10% overnight, when not in use, but unplugged. It's on WiFi. Does Always on Display kill it?
 
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Might be some weird bug yeah. Normally AoD drains almost nothing but maybe Google messed something up? Are you on the latest update?
 


I don't like some of the points this guy makes. He thinks it's $100 overpriced, but is still somehow satisfied with the price? He compares it to the iPhone 11 with only 4 GBs of RAM after mentioning the complaints of this only having 6 GBs of RAM, and even acknowledges that Apple's hardware is more optimized to their OS, but yet still thinks that's a valid comparison somehow? Then he says he thinks "it's ridiculous" when comparing it to direct competitors who have both a telephoto and wide-angle lens instead of only having the telephoto on here. I don't see how it's ridiculous to compare this directly to other phones in its price range that have better overall hardware in them. Google has to justify their price somehow and typically that's with competitive hardware and software, which they've not quite delivered on, on both fronts this year. They dropped the unlimited original media backups this year, so really the only major advantage they have anymore is fast and guaranteed software updates for 3 years, where it seems 1/3 of the time they break something either in terms of a feature or performance degradation until enough people complain about it online and then hopefully they fix it in the next update. At least that's been what my experience has been with my 2 XL the past 18 months I've had it.
 
A co-worker showed me his 4XL, today. First time I've actually seen one in person. I agree with Z that it feels like a better built phone than my 3XL. It's marginally faster with a nicer screen, but beyond that it's not a substantial upgrade, IMO. I definitely feel better about skipping this year's Pixel.
 
How do you control screen brightness on your Pixel 4 / 4 XL?

To help battery life, I have read that Ambient display or Adaptive Brightness and that EQ thing too, can be a bit of a battery drainer, and it's best to just set your brightness yourself. But there's no easy quick way to do that it seems? Other than going into Settings - Display, and sliding the bar up or down to get the specific % you want.

Is there an app, or what are you guys doing?
 
How do you control screen brightness on your Pixel 4 / 4 XL?

To help battery life, I have read that Ambient display or Adaptive Brightness and that EQ thing too, can be a bit of a battery drainer, and it's best to just set your brightness yourself. But there's no easy quick way to do that it seems? Other than going into Settings - Display, and sliding the bar up or down to get the specific % you want.

Is there an app, or what are you guys doing?

Umm swipe down from top twice and adjust the slider...

It's what I do. I just set the screen to a comfortable brightness. I'm not paying attention to battery life. I just do what is right for me.

Today 18 hours off charger 7 hours SoT.
 
How do you control screen brightness on your Pixel 4 / 4 XL?

To help battery life, I have read that Ambient display or Adaptive Brightness and that EQ thing too, can be a bit of a battery drainer, and it's best to just set your brightness yourself. But there's no easy quick way to do that it seems? Other than going into Settings - Display, and sliding the bar up or down to get the specific % you want.
Is there an app, or what are you guys doing?

I've been following Google guidelines regarding brightness and Adaptive Brightness and have been very pleased.
Ambient EQ is an added feature that contributes to the visually appealing display on the Pixel 4.

Pixel Phone Help
Brightness Settings
  • Brightness level
    To set your screen's brightness, tap Brightness level and move the slider
    18e_J5AQo_wk0rASq1E_RZcFFVUnvB1Rse_3pTY_aH1ABimSkGrS1FpG6POvU47Fcn0=w18-h18.png
    .
  • Adaptive brightness
    To automatically fit your screen's brightness to the light around you, turn on Adaptive brightness. This is on by default. You can change your brightness while adaptive brightness is on. Over time, your phone will learn your preferences.
Ambient EQ (Pixel 4 only)
Automatically adjusts your screen's color temperature to the light around you.
 
Still have not received the November update for my Pixel 4 XL
My hope is that they issue a fix to allow us to access the New Assistant while using the 3-button navigation method. Believe me when I say I have tried using the Android 10 gesture method of navigation several times, and failed to attain any sense of it being easier to use than the 3-button method. Google knows there remains a significant amount of users who feel the same, which is why they retained the buttons as an option .

It's so simple and intuitive to just tap the left, right or home button, no wasted motion or failed attempts that are inherent with swiping.
 
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Speaking of New Assistant, have you noticed that half the time you use it, the Assistant doesn't speak her reply? She will rapidly display her reply but it is silent. Whereas, when you access the 'former' Assistant you will always hear her reply to you? I used to think that I had to reactivate Voice or something like that, but her sporadic silent replies are apparently some quirk. You can wake her up (New Assisant) to verbally reply by asking her to "Tell me a joke" or some other trigger to make her speak. But then she reverts back to her moody silent mode without notice. It is nice though, that she recognizes when your questions or commands continue in a contextual manner.
 
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Super, I totally agree.

I am still using the new Gesture nav just because it allows full screen, and the new Assistant works as advertised on it. But I much preferred the Android 9, two button nav setup best, but that's not even an option.

There's no denying the fact that the old 3 button or Android 9's two button layout are just quicker and get things done instant, compared to the iPhone wannabe gestures. In a webpage, just tap the home key, and you are INSTANTLY brought to to the home screen. But gestures you need to swipe up and then your in the home screen, it does take a bit longer, and more action to do that. Or the back button, just tap the Back key, and you go back immediately, compared to the gestures, where you need to drag and swipe and get it right to actually go back, it takes longer, or can erase texts if you do it while in Messages.

And yes on the new Assistant, sometimes I'll ask the score for the Blackhawks or Bears game, and I see the score come up, but don't here it verbalized. I check to make sure Media volume is up, and it is, but no sound. And it's very inconsistent, sometimes says the score out loud, but a lot of times nothing.
 
I am still using the new Gesture nav just because it allows full screen, and the new Assistant works as advertised on it. But I much preferred the Android 9, two button nav setup best, but that's not even an option.
Yes, the Android 9 two button nav setup was indeed nice. I liked it very much.
 
The New Google Assistant is so fast and efficient it is downright scary.

 
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Incidentally, RCS was enabled for my Pixel 2 XL in Canada but I ended up having to turn it off because of battery drain issues. Hopefully those are worked out now.
 
Incidentally, RCS was enabled for my Pixel 2 XL in Canada but I ended up having to turn it off because of battery drain issues. Hopefully those are worked out now.

Meaning your phone was having battery drain issues before you enabled RCS, or after you enabled RCS?
 
Still have not received the November update for my Pixel 4 XL

November 5 update rolled out today for my Pixel 4 XL.
Was hoping that the update included a fix to access the new Assistant in three button mode but it doesn't.
 
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I also received the update this morning. Pretty straightforward install, don't notice any difference or improvement.
 
I suspect the "out of touch" might hurt Google's team more than most, and there's certainly a degree of truth to it. People are crying out for improvements to the fundamentals (battery, storage, camera) while Google is off building radar that's only somewhat helpful. And like it or not, Apple managed to nail those fundamentals Google didn't this year.
I suspect that "out of touch" remark also was a subtle dig at Google for abandoning the fingerprint scanner. :D
 
Google needs to release a Pixel 4X or something as soon as possible thicker with bigger batteries, WiFi 6, and inclusion of free original size cloud storage. If google could add a better camera sensor or ultra-wide, that would also be plus. But bigger batteries, WiFi 6, and the free storage would be enough to rectify the most of the issues IMHO. Talk about planned obsolescence...
 

I hope they (Google) see this review and other similarly titled reviews as well, they earned it. I just read XDA's Pixel 4/4XL display analysis earlier too and it largely still doesn't compete with other phones in its price rage (or even OnePlus' that's considerably cheaper) since it still doesn't get nearly as bright as it should.. hell it apparently they've somehow regressed, as it doesn't even get quite as bright as my 2 XL and it's certainly not adequate in direct sunlight.

All of these hardware shortcuts could be somewhat forgivable if they priced it adequately too, but they don't and I bet they have a hard time moving these units even during sales like this upcoming BF (I've decided against it even if it's on sale at least). I don't see how they're going to sustain this line of phones if they keep half-assing their hardware while also cutting back software perks like unlimited original quality media storage.

Isn't it only like $2/mo to get that back? Hardly seems worth sweating if you take that many pictures.

Yeah, so why can't they eat the $48 (which I'm sure costs significantly less for them still) for two years of storage given how overpriced the phones are still? Hardly seems worth buying the phone if they can't at least fork over some service perks along with it anymore when they're obviously not putting that saved money into the phone's hardware.
 
Isn't it only like $2/mo to get that back? Hardly seems worth sweating if you take that many pictures.
Pretty sure it doesn’t cost google anywhere near as much as it costs us. Google also could tell me exactly how much money they made off selling my data... but that’s hardly worth sweating for Google
 
It's exactly because it costs Google basically pennies that it's especially insulting that they've decided to cut this out from their flagship. The only reason why it's not beyond my comprehension that Google would do this is because they regularly do things that have long-ranging bad word-of-mouth because their stats told them it'd be fine.
 
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