Google Pixel 4 review

Google's own Android 10

While we've seen several phones with Android 10 out of the box, it's the Pixels that showcase Google's vision of what the OS should look like and how it should behave. We did experience that already on the XL, and the small Pixel 4 is barely any different.

Major changes to the interface in this version include a new Face unlock system, overhauled gesture navigation, and a new appearance for Google Assistant. At the event, Google also demonstrated that it could process vocal queries much quicker as it can store voice-to-speech transcription locally on the device in a much smaller database.

When first starting it up, you are prompted to register your face for security. At this point, you might realize there is no longer a fingerprint scanner, and this is because Google replaced Pixel Imprint in favor of the more generically named "Face unlock."

Setting up face unlock

This was a significant change back when Apple dumped Touch ID for Face ID, and it's a significant change for Google now. Both use IR dot projectors and an IR camera to create and detect a depth map of the user's face.

In practice, Face unlocking works accurately and quickly. With the Motion Sense feature, it wakes the phone and triggers face detection while you're reaching for your phone so you can get in quickly. Just like any other phone with face unlock, it's more difficult to unlock while it's laying on a table. On the upside, Face unlock works from any angle, even upside down.

As Google has noted in the Face unlock intro screen, the phone will authenticate and unlock even with our eyes closed. Google has since confirmed it will update the feature to not be such a liability, but that update is still not here on our units.

Another hurdle with Face unlock is support from banking institutions. It took years before fingerprint authentication could be used with banking and payment apps, among others. Currently, Google Pay works with Face authentication, but banking apps that once supported fingerprint to log in need to be updated to support Face unlock. Right now, only a handful of apps support Face unlock, but they are mostly password management apps.

After setting up Face unlock, the setup will quickly teach you how to use Android 10's new gesture controls. Google's 2-button nav gestures are gone (and we're glad), and the nav bar has been replaced with a slimmer home bar, much like a new iPhone. You can summon Google Assistant by giving the Pixel a squeeze.

Navigation options • Active Edge

Swiping up will go Home, swiping in from the edge will go Back, and swiping up from either corner will open Google Assistant. Multitasking is done by swiping up and holding, but you can easily switch between apps by swiping horizontally on the home bar.

Since there's no longer a fingerprint scanner to pull down the notification shade, you can now swipe down from any part of any home screen will pull the notification shade down, so there's no longer a need to reach up to the top edge. Not that having a fingerprint reader in itself meant the swipe on homescreen action couldn't be implemented, but never mind.

The homescreens are what we've come to expect from a Pixel. Swiping up gets you to the app drawer with the top-most row dedicated to the five frequently used apps.

Home screen • Google Feed • App drawer • Notification shade • Quick settings

Apart from wallpapers, the Pixel launcher now allows for more customization in the settings. The Style tab in the wallpapers menu lets you change the shape and color scheme of both app and quick setting icons. You can also set a system-wide accent color and font.

There is a new category of live wallpapers labeled "Come Alive," and they all subtly respond to hand gestures over the Motion Sense detector. There's even a Pokemon wallpaper designed to promote Nintendo's Pokemon Sword and Shield game titles.

Custom Styles • Come Alive wallpapers

When Project Soli was first announced back in 2015, it was presented as a breakthrough in motion-sensing technology with the ability to detect and interpret precise hand motions like sliding a finger and thumb to scroll through settings and then tapping the fingers together to select.

Motion Sense is Google's first implementation of Project Soli in a major consumer product and the result feels both half-baked and gimmicky.

There are only a handful of useful things you can do with Motion Sense. Several music apps are supported to skip back and forward between tracks, even when music is playing in the background or if the display is turned off. You can also snooze alarms or silence timers and incoming calls by waving over the screen. That's about it for useful features and nothing like the initial promo video for Project Soli.

Motion sense can detect when you're reaching for the phone and fire up the Face unlock hardware to swiftly detect the user's face and unlock the phone. We noticed it often triggers when its placed on a computer desk, in proximity to someone actively working with a mouse and keyboard. If you decide to turn this feature off (you might save some battery by doing so), you can still double-tap the display to quickly glance at the time and notifications, and you can still 'lift to wake' it.

By default, you'll skip seeing the lockscreen entirely if you enable Face unlock, but there is an option to disable that so you can glance at your notifications and manually swipe in.

The Always On Display feature is enabled by default. This screen will display icons for missed notifications, a small weather widget, the time, battery percentage left, and a couple of lines are dedicated to contextual information such as anticipated traffic or upcoming calendar events.

Motion Sense quick gestures • Always on display

With Android 10, both permissions and notifications offer finer and more transparent control. Starting with Notifications, the pull-down shade's order is priority-based. For example, if you receive notifications from a messaging app, they are a high priority, and a little bell icon appears. Otherwise, when you get notifications from less important apps like games or persistent app notifications, they'll show up as "Silent notifications" and take up less space.

Android 10 now shows you an average of the daily and weekly number of times an app triggers notifications in a dedicated Notifications menu. This gives users the information needed to decide which apps are inundating them with useless pings and prioritize more important notifications.

Android 10 brings the much-hyped "Dark theme," and it can be accessed from the Display settings. It darkens all menus, pop-up windows, Google Assistant, and even the Google Search Bar. Some apps will also automatically switch to their respective dark scheme, as long as the app supports following the system-wide setting.

Notification priority • Recent notifications • App notification settings • Dark theme

Two new applications are debuting on Pixel 4. The first one is the Safety app that organizes the emergency features of the new Pixels. The app lets you organize and fill out your medical information and assign emergency contacts in an emergency.

Safety app

Finally, thanks to Google's new transcription app, it enabled a new voice recorder app from Google that can transcribe voice notes in real-time, and it doesn't require an internet connection. This app debuts on the Pixel 4 and 4 XL, and it enables a new way to keep track of voice recordings.

The app can transcribe your voice notes as you record them, making it much easier to search through recorded meetings or lectures.

Voice recorder

Synthetic benchmarks

The Pixel 4 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, a chip that was hot when it launched but that was in early Spring. Most of the Fall releases have at least opted for the slightly higher-clocked 855+, but not the Pixels. There's the added concern that a new chipset is coming in a few months, but after all, with Google and Qualcomm's release schedules arranged like that, the Pixels are always going to be in a less than ideal position in terms of silicon. That's not to say the Snapdragon 855 isn't powerful enough; it's more of a sour feeling that you're paying top-dollar and superior hardware is around the corner.

The Pixel 4 comes with just 6GB of RAM, and there are no other options when it comes to that. Android flagships typically have at least 8GB these days, though the Galaxy S10e does come with 6 gigs in its base trim (8GB version is still available, though). The Pixel's 64GB base storage is too little in our option and so is the 128GB maximum if you decide you do want to spend extra to have more.

There's another peculiarity when it comes to Pixels, and it's that they tend to perform a notch below competitors for the given hardware. That's mostly the case with the Pixel 4 as well. It's towards the bottom of the pack under both single-core and multi-core loads in GeekBench 5, with a Note being the only phone on this shortlist to fall behind the Pixel in multi-core, and the Realme X2 Pro oddly dropping the ball in single-core applications despite having the superior S855+ inside.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11 Pro
  3497
• Apple iPhone 11
  3462
• OnePlus 7T
  2932
• Sony Xperia 5
  2806
• LG G8X ThinQ
  2763
• Oppo Reno Ace
  2745
• Realme X2 Pro
  2602
• Google Pixel 4 XL
  2514
• Google Pixel 4
  2447
• Samsung Galaxy Note10
  2259

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11 Pro
  1334
• Apple iPhone 11
  1333
• Samsung Galaxy Note10
  837
• OnePlus 7T
  788
• Sony Xperia 5
  751
• LG G8X ThinQ
  746
• Oppo Reno Ace
  637
• Google Pixel 4 XL
  628
• Google Pixel 4
  624
• Realme X2 Pro
  589

The Pixel 4 is not doing a whole lot better in Antutu, placing behind most current high-end phones. And that's with a score it couldn't sustain past the first run too, dropping to about 340K after several iterations.

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• Realme X2 Pro
  467653
• Oppo Reno Ace
  434063
• Sony Xperia 5
  416601
• LG G8X ThinQ
  411980
• Google Pixel 4 XL
  403267
• Google Pixel 4
  395351

It'll then come as no surprise that the Pixel doesn't benchmark splendidly in the graphics department either, though it does save face in 3DMark.

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11
  121
• Apple iPhone 11 Pro
  118
• OnePlus 7T
  79
• Realme X2 Pro
  78
• Oppo Reno Ace
  72
• LG G8X ThinQ
  70
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  70
• Sony Xperia 5
  69
• Google Pixel 4 XL
  69
• Samsung Galaxy S10
  68
• Samsung Galaxy S10e
  67
• Google Pixel 4
  62
• Samsung Galaxy Note10
  59
• Google Pixel 3
  57
• Google Pixel 3a XL
  20

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11 Pro
  60
• Apple iPhone 11
  60
• OnePlus 7T
  59
• LG G8X ThinQ
  58
• Realme X2 Pro
  57
• Samsung Galaxy S10e
  57
• Oppo Reno Ace
  56
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  56
• Google Pixel 4
  55
• Samsung Galaxy Note10
  55
• Google Pixel 3
  55
• Sony Xperia 5
  52
• Samsung Galaxy S10
  37
• Google Pixel 4 XL
  34
• Google Pixel 3a XL
  19

GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11
  76
• Apple iPhone 11 Pro
  66
• OnePlus 7T
  48
• Realme X2 Pro
  47
• Oppo Reno Ace
  44
• Samsung Galaxy S10
  43
• LG G8X ThinQ
  42
• Samsung Galaxy S10e
  42
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  42
• Google Pixel 4 XL
  41
• Sony Xperia 5
  40
• Google Pixel 4
  39
• Google Pixel 3
  35
• Samsung Galaxy Note10
  28
• Google Pixel 3a XL
  11

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 11
  60
• Apple iPhone 11 Pro
  57
• OnePlus 7T
  41
• Samsung Galaxy S10e
  40
• LG G8X ThinQ
  38
• Realme X2 Pro
  37
• Oppo Reno Ace
  35
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  35
• Sony Xperia 5
  33
• Google Pixel 3
  33
• Google Pixel 4
  31
• Samsung Galaxy Note10
  28
• Samsung Galaxy S10
  23
• Google Pixel 4 XL
  21
• Google Pixel 3a XL
  11

3DMark SSE 3.1 Unlimited

Higher is better

• Google Pixel 4 XL
  6441
• Google Pixel 4
  6171
• Apple iPhone 11
  6162
• Apple iPhone 11 Pro
  6091
• Oppo Reno Ace
  5847
• Xiaomi Mi 9
  5816
• LG G8X ThinQ
  5808
• Realme X2 Pro
  5792
• Sony Xperia 5
  5592
• Samsung Galaxy Note10
  5269
• Samsung Galaxy S10
  4550
• Samsung Galaxy S10e
  4545
• Google Pixel 3
  3647
• Google Pixel 3a XL
  1748

To wrap this section up, let's say that the Pixel is reasonably powerful, but it's bested by most other high-end phones in both peak and sustained performance. If you want a phone for heavy gaming, this is not it but it should do just just fine for most every day scenarios.