Pixel 4

You're correct that Verizon has always been the only provider that had access to the Pixel line, however
he did not say "Welcome to the party Verizon, you're finally not assed out".

What he said was : "Now this phone is available for all of the carriers, so shout out to everybody with Sprint and Verizon. You finally not assed out, welcome to the party".

Yes I paraphrased slightly but my point is still the same. His statement clearly implies that if you are with Verizon, you were "assed out" at one point. Which is not true. Not a big deal. He's just being lazy with his facts. And his video editing, which is why his videos take several weeks to watch.
 
Yes I paraphrased slightly but my point is still the same. His statement clearly implies that if you are with Verizon, you were "assed out" at one point. Which is not true. Not a big deal. He's just being lazy with his facts. And his video editing, which is why his videos take several weeks to watch.

Yes, I agree with you that it was an oversight to include "Verizon" in his welcome to the party, and the video would benefit from editing.
 
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For those of you who have a need or preference to control music without touching or swiping over the screen, now may be a good time to review how good speaking to your Google Assistant is. See Google Assistant Help

Whenever I am shaving in the morning and want to listen to music on my phone, I use a voice command to interact with the music. I also like the fact that the Google Assistant Voice Control doesn't restrict you to a default music service. To name a few, I have used Voice Control for opening and closing, raising and lowering the volume, and changing the stations within Google Play Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, Jango, and Radio.com .
 
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I agree with most here, the Pixel 4 XL could and should have been better;



- 8GB RAM

- 4,300mAh battery ( like the Note 10+ )

- Brighter display on par with the Galaxy S10 line

- Reduce the forehead bezel, to like half the size if possible, or actually do the Note 10 hole punch, and forget the faceID stuff, and keep the fingerprint scanner.



But it's funny, recent phones that I kept the longest last few years has been the Nexus or Pixel. Yeah I'd get bored with them, then I pick up the latest Samsung Galaxy whatever, and within in a few weeks already regret not having the Pixel. One time I went for the iPhone 7 Plus, when it was the hot new phone, and I was bored with my Nexus 6P, wow what a bad decision, not even a month later ran back to the Nexus, mainly because iOS is a Fischer Price kids OS, and totally blows, feels like a decade old operating system. Or I got the Note 5 at launch, was so happy to have that badass phone, but then I tried to turn it into a Nexus, deleting all the Samsung stuff, and downloading every Google app and setting defaults, and tried to make the Note 5 a Nexus Note LOL, where the phone I traded in for the Note 5 was the Motorola Nexus 6, and that thing was just so smooth, so cool, I regretted getting the Note



Point, the Nexus or Pixel phones, may be ugly, and not have the wham bam cool features, but using it day in day out, I just find them most comfortable and a joy. They are simple, they are minimalist, but they just work, and have a special thing about them.
 
Love the discussion but let's not keep rehashing the same arguments. Move on

Feel free to suggest what specific pixel 4 topics we should be discussing if the current topics are not to your liking. (y)

Were kinda treading water until the embargos drop and the full reviews release.
 
Google is requiring all Pixel 4 users to use Gesture Navigation if you want access to the new Google Assistant.

Get started with the Google Assistant on your Pixel 4
What you need
To use the new Google Assistant, you need a Pixel 4 with:

  • The Google app, version 10.73 and up.
  • Google Play services.
  • A Google Account that’s not through your work or school.
  • The Assistant language set to "English - United States."
  • Navigation mode set to Gesture navigation.
9to5 Google October 19
A slightly more annoying part of the “new” Google Assistant’s requirements on Pixel 4 is that you can’t have a G Suite account on the device at all. Not only can that account not be the “primary” one, but it can’t be signed in on the device at all. For those who have accounts through work or school that need access to their emails on the go, this is going to be a very annoying requirement.

 
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I'm going to highlight something to be found on the Google Assistant Help page and it's not good news. Google is requiring all Pixel 4 users to use Gesture Navigation if you want access to the new Google Assistant.

I had my hands on a carrier displayed Pixel 4 XL and can confirm that I was unable to access the New Assistant when I had enabled the 3 button navigation bar. My attempts to bypass this requirement and gain entry to the New Assistant by entering text in the Search Bar, Tapping the Search Microphone and voicing my search request, Vocalizing my search request (Hey Google), or using Active Edge all failed. If you have the 3 button navigation bar enabled all you will get is the older assistant.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Get started with the Google Assistant on your Pixel 4
What you need
To use the new Google Assistant, you need a Pixel 4 with:

  • The Google app, version 10.73 and up.
  • Google Play services.
  • A Google Account that’s not through your work or school.
  • The Assistant language set to "English - United States."
  • Navigation mode set to Gesture navigation.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SlashGear on October 17 had the following to say:
So here’s the lowdown on Google Assistant’s new requirement for Pixel 4 phones. There are actually two parts and the most important part is that you need to have Gesture Navigation enabled on the phone. In other words, whether you like the gestures or not doesn’t matter if you want to use the new Google Assistant.

The second part is probably the more perplexing one and may even offend some users. It doesn’t matter whether you usually call Google Assistant through other methods, be it using the magic phrase, tapping on the Search icon, or squeezing the phone. To even be able to use those, you have to still enable Gesture Navigation.

That means saying goodbye not only to the usual three-button navigation but also to third party launchers. Google hasn’t yet given other launchers access to that gesture navigation system so it’s practically locking Pixel 4 users into using the Pixel Launcher with Gestures. Not unless they’re fine not using Google Assistant at all.


9to5 Google on October 19 had the following to say:
Android Police uncovered a support document with a list of requirements for the new Google Assistant on the Pixel 4. It explains what version of the Google app you’ll need, the fact that it will only work in English in the United States, and also notes that gesture navigation is required too.

That last point was a bit of a shocker considering the Pixel 4 also supports three-button navigation, and it was unclear if it was a permanent change. Google later reached out, saying that this actually wasn’t the case, and that users could still activate the new Google Assistant with three-button navigation, but it quickly walked back that statement. Even if you trigger Assistant using Active Edge, you’ll need gestures enabled.

A slightly more annoying part of the “new” Google Assistant’s requirements on Pixel 4 is that you can’t have a G Suite account on the device at all. Not only can that account not be the “primary” one, but it can’t be signed in on the device at all. For those who have accounts through work or school that need access to their emails on the go, this is going to be a very annoying requirement.

Update 10/19: Google tells Android Police that it is “actively working” on a fix for this G Suite issue. There’s no timetable for when it will be patched up, but we’re glad to see Google is extending an olive branch to G Suite users. In the meantime, the company points to using a work profile on your device to access work/school accounts without disabling access to the new Assistant. It’s still a hurdle, but at least it makes it possible.

To date there is still no word if Google is working on a fix for the navigation mode issue.

Yeah, that's quite the shit-show just to get Assistant working on the phone. Google said they plan to fix the compatibility issue (for both Assistant and 3rd party launchers) with the 3-button nav at some point "in a post-launch update", but it's ridiculous that they couldn't have figured that out well before the phone launched in the first place.

It's amazing that even with the near-infinite resources that Google has for their software development, they seemingly put all of their interns on the Android dev team with all the bugs and compatibility issues that make it through in half of their updates. I actually have the top comment on that AP article you posted because breaking 3rd party launchers like they have with Assistant and gesture nav is a pretty big deal.
 
I'm going to highlight something to be found on the Google Assistant Help page and it's not good news. Google is requiring all Pixel 4 users to use Gesture Navigation if you want access to the new Google Assistant.

I had my hands on a carrier displayed Pixel 4 XL and can confirm that I was unable to access the New Assistant when I had enabled the 3 button navigation bar. My attempts to bypass this requirement and gain entry to the New Assistant by entering text in the Search Bar, Tapping the Search Microphone and voicing my search request, Vocalizing my search request (Hey Google), or using Active Edge all failed.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Get started with the Google Assistant on your Pixel 4
What you need
To use the new Google Assistant, you need a Pixel 4 with:

  • The Google app, version 10.73 and up.
  • Google Play services.
  • A Google Account that’s not through your work or school.
  • The Assistant language set to "English - United States."
  • Navigation mode set to Gesture navigation.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SlashGear on October 17 had the following to say:
One of Android 10's new features is its full gesture navigation system. While it definitely improves on the initial implementation in Android 9 Pie, some users may not be completely sold on it yet. Some might even find it physically difficult to swipe and swipe and hold around. Pixel 4 owners, however, may not have much choice, that is if they want to use the all-new Google Assistant. It tuns out, Google is locking them into using Gesture Navigation, regardless of how they call the powerful AI assistant.

So here’s the lowdown on Google Assistant’s new requirement for Pixel 4 phones. There are actually two parts and the most important part is that you need to have Gesture Navigation enabled on the phone. In other words, whether you like the gestures or not doesn’t matter if you want to use the new Google Assistant.

The second part is probably the more perplexing one and may even offend some users. It doesn’t matter whether you usually call Google Assistant through other methods, be it using the magic phrase, tapping on the Search icon, or squeezing the phone. To even be able to use those, you have to still enable Gesture Navigation.

That means saying goodbye not only to the usual three-button navigation but also to third party launchers. Google hasn’t yet given other launchers access to that gesture navigation system so it’s practically locking Pixel 4 users into using the Pixel Launcher with Gestures. Not unless they’re fine not using Google Assistant at all.


9to5 Google on October 19 had the following to say:
Android Police uncovered a support document with a list of requirements for the new Google Assistant on the Pixel 4. It explains what version of the Google app you’ll need, the fact that it will only work in English in the United States, and also notes that gesture navigation is required too.

That last point was a bit of a shocker considering the Pixel 4 also supports three-button navigation, and it was unclear if it was a permanent change. Google later reached out, saying that this actually wasn’t the case, and that users could still activate the new Google Assistant with three-button navigation, but it quickly walked back that statement. Even if you trigger Assistant using Active Edge, you’ll need gestures enabled.

A slightly more annoying part of the “new” Google Assistant’s requirements on Pixel 4 is that you can’t have a G Suite account on the device at all. Not only can that account not be the “primary” one, but it can’t be signed in on the device at all. For those who have accounts through work or school that need access to their emails on the go, this is going to be a very annoying requirement.

Update 10/19: Google tells Android Police that it is “actively working” on a fix for this G Suite issue. There’s no timetable for when it will be patched up, but we’re glad to see Google is extending an olive branch to G Suite users. In the meantime, the company points to using a work profile on your device to access work/school accounts without disabling access to the new Assistant. It’s still a hurdle, but at least it makes it possible.

To date there is still no word if Google is working on a fix for the navigation mode issue.
The G Suite issue is boggling. In most cases, these are paying customers; you do not treat them as second class customers.

Sad to say that the 4 looks like a dumpster fire, at least at launch. I wasn't going to get one merely because of the missing finger print scanner, but it seems that level of "thought" has gone into the rest of the device. As a pixel fan, that hurts to see. The 3 might be my last pixel ( although I have to admit I liked the 2 better ).
 
So it's what I feared, a really good phone, they saying the best Pixel to date, but with sh!t battery life. Ugh. Why didn't they use like the Note 10+ 4,300mAh battery?

https://www.androidcentral.com/google-pixel-4-xl-review

The Pixel 4 XL is easily Google's best-ever phone, and the one with the fewest compromises and issues. The display is no longer a weak point — it's bright, colorful, and has a 90Hz refresh rate. Its stereo speakers are loud and clear. Face unlock works exactly as advertised. Google has seemingly addressed the performance hiccups and software instability. And you can't overlook that it's now available from the four largest U.S. carriers and also unlocked from several retailers on Day 1.


The Pixel 4 XL is easily Google's best-ever phone, and one with the fewest compromises.


Those improvements were made while continuing the Pixel's strengths. The hardware is simple, solid, and beautiful. The camera is, once again, the best you can get in the Android world — and arguably as good as the iPhone 11 Pro. Android 10 is clean and functional for novices and pros alike, and Google's handful of extra features, aided by on-device speech recognition, are incredibly useful. And it's guaranteed to receive software updates — both monthly security patches and full feature releases — for years to come.
 


As most have guessed, battery life is subpar compared to other flagships.
 
So it's what I feared, a really good phone, they saying the best Pixel to date, but with sh!t battery life. Ugh. Why didn't they use like the Note 10+ 4,300mAh battery?

https://www.androidcentral.com/google-pixel-4-xl-review

The Pixel 4 XL is easily Google's best-ever phone, and the one with the fewest compromises and issues. The display is no longer a weak point — it's bright, colorful, and has a 90Hz refresh rate. Its stereo speakers are loud and clear. Face unlock works exactly as advertised. Google has seemingly addressed the performance hiccups and software instability. And you can't overlook that it's now available from the four largest U.S. carriers and also unlocked from several retailers on Day 1.


The Pixel 4 XL is easily Google's best-ever phone, and one with the fewest compromises.


Those improvements were made while continuing the Pixel's strengths. The hardware is simple, solid, and beautiful. The camera is, once again, the best you can get in the Android world — and arguably as good as the iPhone 11 Pro. Android 10 is clean and functional for novices and pros alike, and Google's handful of extra features, aided by on-device speech recognition, are incredibly useful. And it's guaranteed to receive software updates — both monthly security patches and full feature releases — for years to come.
I hate when companies like Google and Apple, and reviewers say, “the best phone [insert company] has ever made (or made yet).” It’s like no shit, do you really think they would release a worse phone?
 
I haven't had time to watch the all reviews yet, but is the 4 XL battery life at least on par with the 3 XL's, or please don't tell me it's actually worse?

My Pixel 3 XL battery life is mediocre, not great, not horrible, I would like better, but certainly not worse, but could makedo with the same battery life. If the 4 XL has worse and less battery life than the Pixel 3 XL, then I need to cancel my preorder.
 
I hate when companies like Google and Apple, and reviewers say, “the best phone [insert company] has ever made (or made yet).” It’s like no shit, do you really think they would release a worse phone?

To be fair a lot of people thought that about the Pixel 3 (not that I agree)
 
I haven't had time to watch the all reviews yet, but is the 4 XL battery life at least on par with the 3 XL's, or please don't tell me it's actually worse?

My Pixel 3 XL battery life is mediocre, not great, not horrible, I would like better, but certainly not worse, but could makedo with the same battery life. If the 4 XL has worse and less battery life than the Pixel 3 XL, then I need to cancel my preorder.
Mr.Mobile’s review sounded like it was about on par with the Pixel 3 XL. But he even mentioned that phone’s battery life was poor and wouldn’t get him to the end of the day without charging.

Here are some impressions on the battery life for the little brother Pixel 4:

https://www.droid-life.com/2019/10/21/pixel-4-battery-life/

Also not too great. Battery life is likely the Achilles Heel of the Pixel 4. Otherwise a good phone overall.
 
Frigging Google :( They make a pretty bad ass phone, but always gimped one way or the other.

Early rumors were the Pixel 4 was gonna match the Samsung Galaxy S10 a lot, the same display, with the S10's whole punch, and similar batteries, etc...but that was six months ago. Then the rumors of smaller battery, of 3,700mAh for the XL, came out, and I was immediately worried, thinking that's not gonna cut it. And YEP, it doesn't cut it, big surprise NOT.

Fuck, why couldn't Google pull an Apple, they increased the iPhone XS Max battery by like 27% in the iPhone 11 Pro Max, so if Google did the same, the Pixel 3 XL's 3,450mAh battery, would then be approx. 4,300mAh for the Pixel 4 XL, just like the Note 10+ battery.

How much do larger batteries cost overall in the build parts for a smartphone? I can't imagine going from 3,700mAh to 4,300mAh, would actually increase the cost much at all.
 
Frigging Google :( They make a pretty bad ass phone, but always gimped one way or the other.

Early rumors were the Pixel 4 was gonna match the Samsung Galaxy S10 a lot, the same display, with the S10's whole punch, and similar batteries, etc...but that was six months ago. Then the rumors of smaller battery, of 3,700mAh for the XL, came out, and I was immediately worried, thinking that's not gonna cut it. And YEP, it doesn't cut it, big surprise NOT.

Fuck, why couldn't Google pull an Apple, they increased the iPhone XS Max battery by like 27% in the iPhone 11 Pro Max, so if Google did the same, the Pixel 3 XL's 3,450mAh battery, would then be approx. 4,300mAh for the Pixel 4 XL, just like the Note 10+ battery.

How much do larger batteries cost overall in the build parts for a smartphone? I can't imagine going from 3,700mAh to 4,300mAh, would actually increase the cost much at all.
There are more considerations to take in than just the price; largely design and engineering. To achieve the large increase in battery size of the iPhone 11 phones Apple had to remove 3D Touch and they also “stacked” the motherboard. I’m sure that took a bit of engineering wizardry to make that all work well.
 
Fuck, why couldn't Google pull an Apple, they increased the iPhone XS Max battery by like 27% in the iPhone 11 Pro Max, so if Google did the same, the Pixel 3 XL's 3,450mAh battery, would then be approx. 4,300mAh for the Pixel 4 XL, just like the Note 10+ battery.
That's because Apple hadn't shown their cards yet during development.

Anyone wanna bet that Google will suddenly decide battery size is important next year?
 
How much do larger batteries cost overall in the build parts for a smartphone? I can't imagine going from 3,700mAh to 4,300mAh, would actually increase the cost much at all.

It's not about the cost.. it's everyone that wants a light, razor thin, 99.9% screen-to-body ratio phone.. marketing and sales numbers is all..

https://zerolemon.com/

I used their extended batteries on my note 2/3.. but realistically I'm in the minority, being able to be happy with a 10k mAh extended battery on a phone.
 
Sounds about right and what I expected.



You shouldn't have to get the bigger phone just to get adequate battery life. I hope Google is forced to discount these soon and often to keep selling them.

Edit: Oops, didn't see Exlink post this before.
 
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It's not about the cost.. it's everyone that wants a light, razor thin, 99.9% screen-to-body ratio phone.. marketing and sales numbers is all.
The Galaxy S10E is a lighter, thinner, higher screen ratio phone that has a 300mah larger battery than the Pixel 4.

It may not have Soli or Face Unlock but it does feature the MASSIVE headphone jack and MicroSD slot (without losing water resistance), both of which Google tells me takes up an incredible amount of space in phones
 
I still don't understand why people complain if their phone isn't getting 7-8 hours of SoT. If you spend 1/3 of your day looking at your phone I'd venture to say there's a problem. Even on my heaviest use days (my days off) I don't ever go past 6 hours, and that's with some weird bug that when on certain websites my phones screen doesn't turn off when I set it down which pushes my SoT time up.
 
I still don't understand why people seem to like to make excuses for a shitty battery when there's literally no downside to having it. The existence of the S10E alone proves you're all wrong.
Generally I don't care about battery life but you are right. Especially how much they are charging for their phones. There is no excuses.
 
Verge Review because Dieter is the only one I like there.



Basically echoing what we already know; great pictures, mediocre video, bad battery, bad value.
 
I still don't understand why people complain if their phone isn't getting 7-8 hours of SoT. If you spend 1/3 of your day looking at your phone I'd venture to say there's a problem. Even on my heaviest use days (my days off) I don't ever go past 6 hours, and that's with some weird bug that when on certain websites my phones screen doesn't turn off when I set it down which pushes my SoT time up.

as with anything, apple android samsung etc, the beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Reviews are universally in agreement that the software is amazing. The disconnect is the battery and to a certain degree only including 6gb of ram.

Personally if your in the market, I`d look to see if anyone does detailed battery tests and match your usage to theirs (not precise but better then going in blindly). SOT, standby time are hard metrics to generalize.
 
Verge Review because Dieter is the only one I like there.



Basically echoing what we already know; great pictures, mediocre video, bad battery, bad value.


Usually Verge is pretty pro-Apple but this was a solid review I'd say. He nailed it with saying "There's other Android phones with better specs, that's never what Pixel has been about it. It's about a cleaner, nicer, overall experience."
 
The Galaxy S10E is a lighter, thinner, higher screen ratio phone that has a 300mah larger battery than the Pixel 4.

It may not have Soli or Face Unlock but it does feature the MASSIVE headphone jack and MicroSD slot (without losing water resistance), both of which Google tells me takes up an incredible amount of space in phones

A larger heatsink in the p4 could account for 300mah in theory. But what about nand chips? (Guessing the band on the s10e takes up more space due to storage options?) Motherboard? Larger/smaller anodes could help with charging speed but lower energy density?

A ton of internal parts that play a role. But my point is the simplest way hold more volume is to increase the smaller dimension. Why should we care about an 8mm or 12mm thick phone?
 
A larger heatsink in the p4 could account for 300mah in theory. But what about nand chips? (Guessing the band on the s10e takes up more space due to storage options?) Motherboard? Larger/smaller anodes could help with charging speed but lower energy density?

A ton of internal parts that play a role. But my point is the simplest way hold more volume is to increase the smaller dimension. Why should we care about an 8mm or 12mm thick phone?
The Pixels historically have slower UFS than Galaxy phones (and everyone else in 2019 for that matter). The Pixels also have slower fast charging than Galaxies.

There's no excuse. The Galaxy S10e basically exceeds the Pixel in almost every category conceivable. Who cares about a few mm in thickness right? So Pixels should have larger batteries.
 

Interesting. First “review” that said battery life isn’t bad or on the weak side. But then again he said he didn’t really put it to the test that day. So I’m guessing with moderate use it’ll get you through the day but heavier users will need to recharge towards the evening hours.
 
J. Williams wrote a favorable review of the Pixel 4XL on October 20. I'll put it up again as it has value in him explaining why he believes he obtained his results.


 
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J. Williams on October 20th was the first reviewer I have seen to release a favorable battery review. I'll put it up again as it has value in him explaining why he believes he obtained his results.



I have no idea who this guy is.
 
I've watched Williams reviews over the years. He's a regular guy, who likes tech, and tells it like it is
 
I've watched Williams reviews over the years. He's a regular guy, who likes tech, and tells it like it is
Weird, none of his videos ever have popped up as recommended for me on YouTube when browsing various tech reviews.
 
Crazy me, I just ordered the White 64GB 4 XL

If there was an untethered stable JB for A13 iPhone's, I would pick up a 11 Pro Max. But stock iOS I just can't do. But I greatly respect the 11 Pro Max, great phone if you can deal with iOS. Otherwise I'm a stock Android guy, and the OnePlus phones are close, but just missing some important things I like.

Good time to buy a used Pixel 3/3XL off Swappa as prices are down around $300. Trying not to buy one to play with Android again.
 
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