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
Battery Life
Battery life of the Pixel 4 series was a concern from the very first moment we had confirmation about the phone having a 90Hz panel, yet doing nothing special or even regressing in terms of the battery capacity of the two models. I put the Pixel 4 XL through the paces in all three display modes, testing the battery life at 60Hz, 90Hz auto, and 90Hz forced refresh rates.
Unfortunately, as expected, the results aren’t too fantastic. The device that we should be comparing things to is the OnePlus 7 Pro – both devices feature 1440p 90Hz displays with the same SoC, it’s just that the Pixel 4 XL has a smaller battery at 3700mAh. While the Pixel 4 XL is lagging behind the OP7Pro, the interesting thing is that Google’s 90Hz seemingly uses less of a power hit than OnePlus’ implementation, degrading by 7.7% versus 8.7% when comparing full 90Hz versus 60Hz.
Given the results and the fact that Google dual-sources with LG, I very much doubt the Pixel 4 XL is taking advantage of Samsung’s newest more efficient OLED emitter generation which is said to be 15% more efficient.
In PCMark, the results are also average to bad. 60Hz to full 90Hz incurs a 12.3% penalty, which is again slightly less than the 13.6% of the OnePlus 7 Pro. Naturally we can’t come to a conclusion of saying Google’s 90Hz is more efficient, maybe OnePlus’ 60Hz power management is just better implemented.
Battery Life Conclusion - Average to meagre, still useable for the 4 XL
Overall, the Pixel 4 XL’s battery life isn’t very competitive. It’s amongst the worst results we’ve had for a 2019 device. I have to be accountable to myself here as whilst the phone has worse battery life than the OP7Pro, it’s not that much worse. Having said that the OP7Pro battery life was still completely useable, the Pixel 4 XL is also still very useable as it is. The problem again is that the Pixel came 6 months later, and in the face of a new iPhone generation which brought immense leaps in battery life, the Pixel 4 XL doesn’t seem to be that wise a purchase.
I really find it unfortunate that we weren’t able to test the battery life of the smaller Pixel 4. This model’s 2800mAh battery is 25% smaller and also comes with the wildcard of having an LG panel which historically have always been less power efficient. I can easily imagine that the battery life of that model is outright disastrous, and given coverage by other reviewers, it seem this would be an apt description of the situation.
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Jonahtrav - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
has a pixel 3 a user I was excited to see the pixel 4 come out but I usually wait for all the reviews and then decide and have you seen the jerry-rigged video where he test the durability of the pixel 4 and it fails miserably with cracking in four areasOliseo - Sunday, November 10, 2019 - link
Yeah, it's for halfwits.edzieba - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Coming from a Pixel 2XL, it ticks all the boxes for me. Performance (in terms of responsiveness rather than sustained benchmarks) is great, 90Hz display is a nice step up, the return of Qi charging means battery life is a nonissue for me (Put it down on the desk, and oh, it's charged when I go to pick it up again), and Soli has thus far been generally useful in a subtle way (activation on reach, and quieting alarms and rings before contact, rather than hand-waving demos). Camera is Good Enough for the few times I take photos. I miss the fingerprint reader for the notification swipe gesture, but it also means I can unlock and authenticate payments (pattern/code unlock is no good here) quickly without taking my gloves off - or even taking the phone out of the mount - to pay for fuel which is a nice convenience.Then there are the alternatives. Iphones are right out, ain't nobody got time to deal with Apple's ecosystem. Samsung (and most others) get the boot due to their glacial update rate and/or OS-fiddling. And as this is by definition a device intended to be network connected continuously, it's either updated or it's PWNed. Out of the manufacturers who are vaguely on the ball when it comes to consistent, reliable and timely updates and don't go messing with the core OS that leaves basically Nokia, Essential, and Sony. Essential seem to be dead for all intents and purposes, Sony still haven't gotten Qi implemented, and Nokia lock their bootloaders (and are still on Android 9).
edzieba - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
Biggest thing I'm missing is an up/down motion gesture for scrolling recipes with dirty hands.Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
> Samsung (and most others) get the boot due to their glacial update rate and/or OS-fiddling. And as this is by definition a device intended to be network connected continuously, it's either updated or it's PWNed.My S10 is on the November security patch since a couple of days. The Pixel 4 XL is still on the October one. People need to get their facts right.
thestryker - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
I could be wrong, but I believe the point he was getting at is over device lifetime. This is the predominant reason I'm still using my Droid Turbo. Outside of Essential and Google the device makers for android bail on their device OS updates relatively rapidly (ex: Pixel 2 running 10, Galaxy S8 running 9). Samsung seems good about security updates as old devices do get those albeit at lower cadence, but that doesn't mean the devices get OS support.Android in general is a nightmare when it comes to OS support, but the alternative is Apple, so that's a non starter for me. In general it'd be nice if Google did the work to square away OS updates so they could be device independent, but there is no pressure on anyone to do this it seems.
imaheadcase - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
What does security update have to do with what he said? Andrei security updates are pushed on pixel phones in normal updates as well so its tied into regular autoupdates anyways now.His point is valid, OS specific UI can totally ruin a phone experience, especially when upgrading is not a must have thing for you. Samsung is notorious for not pushing updates, or even down right lying about updating. Look at Tablet line they have..they still sell tablets and make them WITHOUT updates of any kind, despite them constantly saying after a couple years they will unlock them for users.
I have the Pixel 3 and love it, i won't be going to Pixel 4 (want fingerprint unlock). I might consider it for home use if price drops way low.
Andrei Frumusanu - Friday, November 8, 2019 - link
> What does security update have to do with what he said?Because he specifically brought up security concerns?
Sigil224 - Saturday, November 9, 2019 - link
Would an article on this be possible?I’m currently on an iPhone Xs but have been looking at Androids as a change but have had doubts over some of them because of concerns over update cadence due to anecdotal evidence (Samsung, normally) but if that’s not right then that changes things a bit.
Oliseo - Sunday, November 10, 2019 - link
You'll get three years MAX from the BEST android phone OEM (including Google) and that's from the Launch date.Prepare to junk it after 4 years at the latest (and that's a year with no OS upgrade).
And these are BEST CASE SCENERIOS.
Pick the wrong phone and it will be junk soon as you buy it.