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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milkywayer - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
I'm perfectly fine with the design. I love my pixel 4 XL. Ultimately all my phones go into a case on day 1 anyways. The screen is big and the display is nice. What I'm upset about is the terrible #@&#a@ battery life. They could've done so much better. It's almost 2020. Wtf Google.hammer256 - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Gah, their ads for the phone is so annoying too. Not that I'm willing to spend more that $300 for a phone anyways...milkywayer - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
The Pixel 3a is perfect in that range. Someone in the family uses and loves it. Goes on sale often now for $300. And the camera, screen, speaker all are perfect in that price range. And darn it's super light weight too compared to my heavy pixel 4 XL because some douche execs still believe that glass and heavy weight somehow makes stuff "premium".hammer256 - Sunday, November 10, 2019 - link
I was definitely tempted by it, would have been a great deal for 300 bucks, just like the original Nexus 5. That was a good phone...Spunjji - Monday, November 11, 2019 - link
I loved my Nexus 5 - the only things about it I really had a problem with was the limited storage and slightly sub-par battery life.I'd happily buy the exact same thing again with the equivalent current-gen internals (better SoC, more RAM, more storage, updated camera sensor, marginally improved battery). Hell, I'd pay up to $600 if they threw in a decent OLED display and better speakers.
Instead, we keep getting the same warmed-over overpriced nonsense.
ToTTenTranz - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
There are some references to Galaxy S11 in page 5 (camera daylight).Is this an exclusive access that anandtech got from a future phone?
;)
Jcaro14 - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
The Pixel 4 XL is an excellent device. Definitely built for the user experience and not for the tech snobs and spec chasers. The Pixel 4 is hands down the best way to experience Android.ToTTenTranz - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Ok Google...Ironchef3500 - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
+1nikon133 - Sunday, November 10, 2019 - link
The gist of it, eh :)At this stage I am hoping that Nokia or someone else will release Android One flagship-class phone.
I understand that this is more about software/experience than hardware, but just as iPhone - good as it might be - feels overpriced for me, this actually feels worse.