Pixel 4 After The Buzz: Perfect - While It Lasts

I’m not one to usually buy flagship phones, I just find them oddly unnecessary seeing as the budget market is as capable as it is. This year for my birthday however, I decided to treat myself, and got my hands on a Google Pixel 4, the most expensive phone I’ve yet to own. After spending roughly a week or so with it, I can say that for the most part my experience was perfect - but I’d still have a hard time recommending this device to anyone.

Original Impressions

Upon first unboxing the Pixel 4, I was in awe, in both the best and worst ways. Holding the phone case less made me just appreciate the machinery that went behind constructing such a beautiful device. From its perfectly aligned speaker grills to the soft finish in the back, I felt from the very start that I was getting what I paid for.

Unfortunately, once covered with a case, which you will most likely want to do, the phone’s squared camera has an awful resemblance to Apple’s new IPhone 11 Pro. This resemblance is so striking in fact, that upon laying my phone on a table with the camera facing upwards, most of my friends asked me how I was liking my new iPhone 11.

Google Pixel 4 in “Clearly White”

Perhaps more striking than the phone’s resemblance to Apple’s iPhone 11, is the lack of accessories bundled with the phone. Besides the phone itself and its charger, there is nothing else to be found in the box. This is disappointing, especially when you’re already paying so much money for what should be a premium device. Personally, I opted to purchase an Otterbox case, which provides military grade protection at the cost of style points, and Google’s own pair of USB C earbuds, which for 35 Canadian, offer what I can easily call “decent” audio quality

The Good

I’m going to phrase this as simply as humanly possible: The Google Pixel 4 is an absolute blast to use. From its beautiful 90hz OLED screen to the extreme fluidity that comes with Google’s stock Android powered by the beastly Snapdragon 855, this phone flies through everyday tasks.

But the Pixel is more than just an everyday performer - it’s also a great audio companion. With its stereo speaker setup, I found myself not needing my Bluetooth speaker as much as I did with prior phones, a feature that is definitely nice to have when you’re spending as much as you will be with this device.

When the fun is over (and trust me, it will be - more on that later) the Pixel 4’s quick charge feature should give a full charge in around 50 minutes, meaning that you can get a sufficient enough boost for a couple more hours of fun within a typical shower’s time.

It is no understatement by now that I feel like the Google Pixel 4 absolutely blows it out of the water as a phone - but how does it handle as a camera? The answer is: really good actually. Comparing my photos with that of my friend’s three thousand dollar camera, the Pixel 4 offers a surprising amount of detail. This detail, when paired with Google’s AI smarts, can result in photos that will leave everyone in awe.

Having never personally owned another Pixel phone, I can’t exactly comment on just how much of an improvement the Pixel 4 is, but when side by side with all other modern smartphones I have had a chance to test, I am quick to say that the Pixel 4 offers the most true to life colours, and vest dynamic range that I’ve yet to see coming from a smartphone.

The camera experience is by no means perfect however, in fact, while I’m writing this review, I still can’t come to understand any logical excuse that can explain Google’s choice to opt for a 2x telephoto camera instead of an extra wide lens now that the Pixel lineup finally has moved on from its single lens infancy.

The Ugly

With so many predominantly awesome features, you may be wondering why I am not recommending anyone to rush to their nearest tech store and grab themselves a new Pixel 4. The main answer: battery life. Featuring a 2800 mAh battery capacity on my smaller variant, the Google Pixel 4 lasts me the entire day - but that’s because as a busy university student, I barely interact with my phone as much as the average user.

Throughout my days of use, the Pixel 4 never managed to give me more than 5 and a half hours of screen on time. To make this matter worse, I must specify that these hours were mainly spent on apps such as Google Chrome and WhatsApp, making me wonder how it might stack up for someone who sees themselves using this device as a video streaming or gaming device.

Equally as bad are the memory options. With the roughly 1000 Canadian Dollar version sporting only 64 GB (with no way to expand its memory), I often find myself wondering if I - despite Google’s 5 years of guaranteed software updates - made a wise long-term investment.

Also as “eh” worthy were the new “features” Google introduced to the device, like the smart 90hz display and its radar gestures. Attempting to force the phone to always run at 90hz proved itself disastrous, with almost an hour of usage being discounted from the already mediocre battery life. As for the gestures, I - along with the few people I demonstrated these features to - found them not more than a “gimmick”, specially considering just how easy it is to use the phone’s touch screen to complete the same functions the radar achieves.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, Google’s Pixel 4 is a reliable, beautifully (and unoriginally) designed phone that carries as much potential to be your daily driver as it does to be your hobbyist camera. With that said, not all is perfect, and with what feels like weird gimmicks and less than subpar battery life, I find it hard to recommend the Pixel 4 to anyone that may consider themselves a “power user”.

Folding Phones Such As The Samsung Galaxy Fold And Huawei Mate X Have No Place In The Market

Every few years the technology market feels the need to rejuvenate itself. Now, after the single screen smartphones have been perfected, the jump to dual screen technology has finally started - and in its current state, we think it doesn’t have space in the smartphone market.

First introduced to the mainstream masses by Samsung and Huawei, folding phones aim to combine the portability of the everyday smartphone with their opportunities provided by a larger tablet screen. As seen with the recent Galaxy Fold, the concept includes the mending of two screens, which can be bent in half or opened depending on just how much screen real-estate a user may require.

In concept, combining two everyday technology products into one could be quite brilliant, but in actuality, the product shows more than a few flaws. For starters, combining two products that were always meant to be used separately creates what ultimately doesn’t achieve the perfection of either or. This is especially true in the age of the iPad Pro, where tablets have started adapting into work machines instead of the media giants they were always treated as.

Samsung has resorted to their own custom skin in the form of DEX

This issue is especially true when software is taken into consideration. On the tablet side of the spectrum, more desktop based experiences have been the driving force of allowing tablets to be more than media consumption devices. Apps such as the full version of Adobe Photoshop have now been made for the iPad, making this multi-tasking centric interpretation of what a tablet can do feeling very archaic.

But for those that think that this first generation technology can progress just as easily as smartphones did, think again. Earlier this year, Google announced that it was shifting its focus from Android tablets entirely to its Chrome OS platform. Though this could be subject to change as folding phones amass popularity, from the get go the platform is disadvantage in terms of support.

Google has moved to Chrome OS for large screen devices

Lastly, but certainly not less important than software is hardware. If the failure that was the first batch of the Samsung Galaxy Fold is to be taken as an example of what this technology can achieve in its first generation, we have quite few things to worry. From the flimsy build quality to the natural bend in the middle of the flexible OLED used for its tablet functions, dual screen phones are not only more expensive, but come with a significant higher risk attached to them.

At the end, what this entails that whilst slowly progressing what seems like a slowing industry, folding phones are not only fundamentally broken, but disadvanted in both their hardware capabilities and future software - leaving them at what can only be described as an awkward space in the current smartphone market.