The Google Pixel 4 XL Review: Stuck In The Past In 2019
by Andrei Frumusanu on November 8, 2019 11:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Mobile
- Smartphones
- Pixel 4
- Pixel 4 XL
GPU Performance
3D and GPU performance of the Pixel 4, much like all other devices this year with the same Snapdragon 855 chipset, will only be able to differentiate itself from the pack if it has any kind of special heat dissipation or extremely lax thermal throttling designs. We’re not expecting any big surprises here, and do hope the Pixel 4 XL is able to fare competitively.
Starting off with the 3DMark Physics test, which is actually a CPU benchmark within a temperature constrained test scenario, we see the Pixel 4 XL fall in line with the middle of the pack of Snapdragon 855 devices in terms of the sustained performance scores. It’s interesting to see the peak performance standing out and being ahead by a measurable margin against other S855 devices. I’m not too sure why this would be other than maybe Google having extra optimisations in the scheduling of the workload, or maybe even DVFS behaviour of the CPUs, as the actual workload performance shouldn’t change based on any other external factors such as drivers or software.
In the graphics workload, things are GPU bound and that’s the main limiting factor for the performance scores. Here the Pixel 4 XL again falls around the middle of the pack amongst other S855 devices.
This ranking is continued on over all the GFXBench tests as the Pixel 4 XL does adequately but still remains below medium amongst our Snapdragon 855 devices. A peculiarity we’re seeing in the benchmarks is that the peak performance of the Pixel 4 XL is a few percentages lower than that on other S855 phones. Again, I have no proper explanation for this other that it may be some regression in Qualcomm’s GPU drivers, or that maybe Google is being more relaxed on other DVFS behaviour such as on the memory controllers.
Again, whilst this performance isn’t outright bad, we have to keep in mind the pricing of the phone and its very late release date in the year. The contrast to Apple’s iPhone 11s here in the charts is pretty absurd, as it’s able to showcase scores essentially twice as fast as what the Pixel 4 XL can achieve.
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warreo - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Not trying to be politically correct or anything, but the "schmuck" bit about wireless earbuds is a bit unnecessary even if it is tongue in cheek. I've got a pair of Jabras I got on sale (you don't have to spend a "heavy premium") and the experience has been completely freeing compared to even the wireless cans they replaced. Not saying they're for everyone, but the popularity of Airpods and true wireless earbuds clearly shows they have massive appeal to many.I'll get off my soapbox now.
Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
> I've got a pair of Jabras I got on sale (you don't have to spend a "heavy premium")$100-150 is a very high premium for the sake of having audio. I'd argue the popularity of Airpods are very much less about wireless audio and more about them being style and status symbols.
generalako - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
And the fact that most flagship phones don't have headphone jacks, so people are "forced" into buying them.Spunjji - Monday, November 11, 2019 - link
I will never stop thinking that "true wireless" earbuds are a terrible idea. Even laying the physical issues of losing them or the case aside, you're charging a small battery to charge two even smaller batteries through induction, so the overall power efficiency is *terrible* and they're guaranteed to be e-waste within 4 years at the very most.s.yu - Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - link
The only way to fix this is to be able to service the batteries yourself. I could do that to my Philips Sonicare now and it could last many years to come until spare parts cease to be available but I reckon the earbuds are a lot more difficult.Quantumz0d - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
This phone is DOA.- No 3.5mm jack, "Made for Google" Apple copy bs
- No SD slot
- 4K 60 nope, No high FPS capturing either.
- No Wide angle (It's funny when LG did this for 2016 and up no one batted an eye but when Apple does this its a ground breaking innovation. Also Pixel ia over as Huawei is too good (Which is really sad given its coming from a State funded corporate CPC stooge)
- No UFS 3.0
- No 256GB base like Note 10+ nor base 128GB
- 6GB bog standard RAM, in 2016 OP3 had 6GB RAM.
- Google and all are praised for camera but no one reviews the Manual / Pro camera modes. A big sham that we don't get any of them on Pixel or iPhone but they are touted Best. Especially when LG and Sony break the mold with Manual/Pro Video settings (Siny just started with Xperia 1 while LG was doing since V20.
- Pathetic battery.
- Weak construction, Jerryrig tests failed, even that shitty paint is cheap feeling.
- Propreitary System UI, uses AOSP only in name but Google slowly killing all of the OSS components into Pixel experience a massive shame.
- Scoped Storage Bullshit (Android 10 bonus) a.k.a Death of Filesystem access.
- Huge Forehead over rounded design, My V30 has much smaller bezela over this POS.
- Pixel 4 has Huawei type Read Only Filesystem. EXT4 is RO in this crap making Custom ROM scene a pain. Like Pixel 3 Dynamic Partitions (P4 adds this too) and they also have A/B slotting BS, what does this mean ? - Multiple flashing of TWRP, Zips, need to change a lot of things as traditional mod flashes won't work.
The only good thing is Fastboot OEM unlock Bootloader unlock without any Code drama.
Quantumz0d - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
No HDR as display is crap in 2019. My V30 clocks at 600Nits from 2017. And from S8 too.No USB Video Out too. A massive shame as OP, Samsung, LG, Sony, Huawei all have it.
This phone is crap.
Quantumz0d - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Also forgot to add the lack of proper fingerprint scanner and add that Face ID clone. Google Rick Osterloh doesn't have any shame and their lead designer lady is stupid as well.Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
It does have HDR.Quantumz0d - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Andrei thanks for reply. But isn't the HDR requirement at 500Nits optimum ? I see its maxing at 438 which is pretty poor esp in 2019. Also HDR10 is advertised on Samsung panels for a long time. Even LG from V30 onwards. Also same for Dolby Vision.