Hey guys, I’m Roland the Techusiast and today we’re going to find out
if it’s still worth buying the Google Pixel 4 XL in 2021. Let’s get started.
I think the Pixel 4 series are the best looking Pixels to this date. The elegant
back glass panel and the painted aluminium frame gives it a very stylish dual tone look
that looks fresh and modern. When you compare it with the previous generation of Pixel devices,
you’ll see this as a far more minimal and visually appealing device for more people,
though this is subjective. The 4 XL is narrower and taller
than my previous Pixel 2 XL which I found the exact right size. I could reach across
the other side of the device and reach nearly all of the screen without doing some tricky maneuvers
to use the phone on a daily basis. The one thing that most people seem to hate
is the gigantic forehead. Google sort of learned its lesson and instead of opting for a huge,
ugly notch, they went back to the basics and left a big bezel on the top of the device. Now,
this isn’t very innovative, but it does get the job done without a notch, so I’m all for it.
Overall, I’m very pleased with how the device has aged both in terms of looks and handling,
but I know that many of you will likely dislike the forehead and the wasted space.
Given that at this point you most likely know what’s in the brand new,
shiny Pixel 5, the hardware is where this gets a little more tricky and somewhat exciting.
You see, performance wise, an older snapdragon flagship chipset will still outperform a newer,
mid-range soc - as is the case with the Pixel 5. Therefore, if you really want
the best performance, the Pixel 4 series are the ones you might want to take a look at.
Sure enough, the likes of 5G is nowhere to be found and you will likely miss out on a
few Pixel exclusive features in the near future, but hardware wise, the Pixel 4 has everything you
need on a daily basis, no matter if you’re an average user scrolling through reddit all day,
or a serious gamer playing some graphics intensive games.
I’m happy to mention that while I still had some WiFi issues, it worked well for most of the time
and simply holding the phone did not cut it off or degrade the performance. It was really great
to finally have a Pixel that could actually, properly use the WiFi without any major issues.
One issue that I think is worth mentioning is the 6GB of RAM.
It took Google more than 3 years to finally up the RAM, but they could only include an extra 2GB.
This was a welcome and great addition, but it really should have been 8. More on this later.
In the forehead, you can see that there are multiple sensors. Do you remember soli? Yeah,
neither do I. I disabled it 2 days after getting the phone because it was gimmicky
and never worked properly. The idea was great, execution and support was really bad.
Overall, the hardware managed to keep up, but the ram is the one major downside that makes me not
recommend it to a lot of my friends. It’s great, it gets the job done, but it's far from perfect.
The 6.3” display is colourful, bright and large enough to enjoy movies on the go,
or in bed. I have never experienced any issues with it and found the colours very pleasing to
my eyes. I’ve kept the settings on the natural settings and movies and youtube
videos looked perfect both day and night. The 90hz refresh rate has helped making the
experience fast and responsive and while I did see some colour shifting when the brightness
was all the way down, the software bug was fixed rather quickly and haven’t had any issues since.
Using the phone in direct sunlight was also rather comfortable. I could read all the text,
play games or watch videos comfortably without any issues, however, I did find
myself wondering on a few rare occasions whether the brightness could have been slightly higher,
but I would still consider it excellent overall. As I mentioned earlier, this is still a very fast
chipset and can pretty much cope with everything you throw at it,
be it, multitasking or playing graphics intensive games. I did experience some
slowdowns every once in a while and perhaps the 90hz display helped me notice them more,
but it never felt like a big issue or something that would’ve made me worried.
The only thing that that did actually made me worried was the performance of the RAM.
I simply could not run enough applications in the background without them being reloaded
every time I’d go back to them. This was rather disappointing and something that power users
should look out for. I know we all have different needs and requirements, but if you want to have
youtube, reddit, gmail and 2-3 other apps open in the background, prepare to wait a few more
seconds as it will have to be reloaded very often. This isn’t something non-power users
will really care about since it’s not terribly bad, but I thought it was worth mentioning.
The battery in my opinion is fine. I have seen a lot of people complain that it was bad and
inadequate, but I experienced the opposite. In fact, it was better than my Pixel 2 XL’s battery
life, even with 90hz being on adaptive at all times. I could use it for a full work day without
any issues, I only looked for a charger when I actually used the phone out and about and the
brightness had to be on maximum settings. Charging the phone was easy and I’m happy to confirm that
after all this time, the usb-c port didn’t fail or get damaged by normal use, so that’s at least
one thing Google finally managed to do right. And now, let’s talk about the software. The
software that’s been on this device, and the software that’s keep being updated to this day.
First, I feel like we should talk about all the good things.
The haptic feedback feels great and solid, It’s not quite an iPhone,
but I feel like it stands out for an Android phone for being firm and noticeable. This is one
of the most overlooked features on a smartphone today, so it was great to see this do well.
Although I said that I turned off soli after 2 days, I kept some of the features on as it worked
really well, such as the reach to check phone which would turn on the lockscreen whenever my
hand would go near the display. It was great not having to tap the screen, but just wipe
my hand over my phone when sitting at the table. Active edge, the squeeze to toggle the assistant
is still one of my favourite features and I miss it on devices that don’t have this built in.
This of course depends whether you use it as much as I do.
Face unlock works great, but it took Google more than 6 months to implement
the open/close eye functionality which yet again, was disappointing. On the plus side,
unlocking the phone was always fast and went without issues, unless of course, I wore a mask.
And that’s just about all the good things I can say about the software. Now onto the bad stuff.
Face unlock never matured enough and Google didn’t seem to care and push developers to
properly support it. Because of this, nearly none of my financial applications worked with it,
which meant that I had to go back prehistoric times and enter my password manually.
Many US banking apps started supporting it, but here in the UK, it’s a completely different story.
The navigation gestures got a huge upgrade in Android 11, but sadly Google broke it
when using 3rd party software such as my preferred application; Nova Launcher. Launchers simply don’t
have the same power as system applications and cannot fully work well with gestures,
although there are some tweaks that make it better, it’s not perfect.
There may be some applications flashing when opening or closing them and while multitasking.
At times, both the navigation gesture bar and the notification shade would get stuck,
requiring you to fully close an app and reopen it in order to fix it being glued to the screen.
Using the Pixel launcher was always fluid and did not have the same issues, or even when using
the 3 button navigation buttons. The way this was, and still to this day is being handled
is simply terrible and Google should really be shamed for destroying the user experience
on not only Pixel devices, but other devices running Android 11 too - that is, if you’re
like me and prefer using 3rd party launchers that provide actual customisation options.
Android 11 keeps forgetting whether an application has gotten administrator and other special rights
from the user. I have to toggle it on, on a weekly basis which means that some apps
and functionalities may break, unless you keep going back into settings and turn it on manually.
Soli and its features were not widely implemented and used in all of the music,
video and streaming applications. Google Podcasts for one still doesn’t support it today,
and I feel like I can confidently say that Project Soli is dead for the time being.
Most of these issues are still not fixed at the time of you watching this video,
and I’m certain that it won’t be fixed the next time you check one out in person. The gesture
issue for example exists on all devices running Android 11, but some companies like OnePlus may
have gotten around it and implemented better fixes than Google itself. Google at this point
does not seem to care, but would rather want to push people using their own Pixel launcher which
although is very stable, it lacks pretty much any customisation options that even an average user
would want, such as changing icons for example. I did not mean this video to be a rant about
Google, but you have to know that I am… or used to be a fan of the Pixel lineup and Google’s vision.
The Pixel 4 and now the Pixel 5 have simply made me too disappointed not only with the many
issues with the Pixel devices, but also the Android Operating system in general.
But enough of the rant, let’s talk about the camera.
Did I say enough of the rant? Okay, I’ll stop after the camera part. The main shooter is a
12MP f/1.7 sensor that’s capable of taking some really breathtaking photos, in both day and night.
The colours are usually on par with what I’m seeing in real life and the contrast and shadows
are also optimised to be social network ready, without requiring you to make any touch-ups.
Portraits are also excellent and while some of the bokeh effects aren’t always perfect,
I found the Pixel to be the best among other, even some recent flagship devices.
However, that’s not the same for the less useful, but more fun telephoto camera.
The colours and hue was always off compared to the main sensor and a lot warmer too. This hasn’t
been fixed since the beginning, even though it was pointed out on a number of occasions..
Now, credit’s due where it’s due. The algorithm is really smart at making images clear when using the
digital zoom. It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s really amazing what Google has done software
wise. I still just wish they didn’t come up with such a lame excuse for not including a more
useful wide angle sensor instead. I know this is subjective, but the majority of people including
myself would’ve been more happy with a wide angle on the 4 series. Instead, if you want wide shots,
your only option is the Pixel 5 or other devices from literally any other manufacturer.
Here are some images so you can judge the camera quality for yourself.
Now, conclusion time. Can I wholeheartedly recommend this device to you in 2021? The
answer is: It’s complicated. It really depends on your needs and requirements. If you have a small
budget but always wanted a Pixel and the full Pixel experience, it’s not a bad option. That is,
for as long as you are happy with how limited you may be at multitasking and sticking with
the true Pixel experience software wise. If you are someone who just want a phone that
you can rely on this and next year, and are happy with both the device and Android’s limitations as
it stands right at this moment, this can also be a good device for you at a very low price nowadays.
However, if you are a power user who likes to customise their device and are looking
to save even more by going for the older generation, you may want to check out the Pixel 5,
or altogether just look for a better device that offers an overall better experience.
The Pixel 4 series aren’t terrible by any means, it’s just not for everyone. I really
hope that I can wholeheartedly recommend a Pixel flagship again in the near future,
but that depends on whether Google is keeping a close eye on user feedback and recommendation.
So, there you have it. Review of the Google Pixel 4 XL in 2021.
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IF you have any questions, feel free to leave your comments down below.
With all that said, thank you for watching, I’ll see you next time.