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Google Announces Pixel 4
- johnmaguire2013 7y agoThe star tracking feature of the astrophotography mode definitely has me interested. I'm disappointed to see the continued lack of battery capacity on the smaller phone though. While I'd love a larger battery, I'm one of the unfortunate ones whose small hands can already barely reach across my Pixel 2's phone screen -- much less the top section. I'm also incredibly excited about the face unlocking feature -- I owned a Pixel Xs for about a week before returning it, and face unlock was my absolute favorite feature. It's very seamless especially compared to fingerprint unlock. As an aside, Marc Levoy, who spoke at the Google event today is a Professor Emeritus at Stanford, and has a great series titled "Lectures on Digital Photography" available for free on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7HrM-fk_Rc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7HrM-fk_Rc
- akersten 7y agoThe motion tracking / hand gestures / radar thing seems cool, but it also screams "3D Touch" to me. It'll be really interesting to see if apps successfully leverage it, or if it will fade away and disappear by the time Pixel 5 comes around.
- inlined 7y agoI wonder if the OS could do some of the heavy lifting automatically, such as translating a swipe in the air to a swipe across the screen.
- chrisjc 7y agoPerhaps they're just using the Pixel 4's Soli as a test-bed for their future headset?
- albeec13 7y agoFrankly I'm shocked at how anemic the radar chip demonstration and marketing materials are compared to what they demoed about the chip a few years ago. Google had video showing how they could differentiate individual finger motion and motions like rolling 2 fingers together to adjust volume up and down. What they're shipping with Pixel 4 seems to have exactly one gesture: swiping a few inches above the screen to skip songs back and forth or silence alarms and calls. You know what else had this feature? The 2013 Moto X. And it didn't use a radar sensor, just a group of 4 light sensors, one at each corner of the face of the phone. Granted, if what they demoed a while back is accurate, the radar chip is much more capable than a few light sensors, but what they're shipping and marketing is not that. Either they were not able to make the proof of concept work in a shipping device, or the final product is not as capable as it seemed.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- dhd415 7y agoFingerprint sensors are so convenient that they have become must-have features on my phones. Removing it from the Pixel 4 is an unfortunate step backward in terms of everyday usability.
- fetus8 7y agoHow is the removal of a fingerprint sensor a step back in usability? The facial unlock is less intrusive and requires the user to do less to interface securely (minus any privacy concerns) with the phone.
- heavyset_go 7y agoBecause it's easier to just put your finger on a sensor to unlock it.
- dhd415 7y agoYep, plus works in the dark, works when you're not able to look at the phone, generally works faster than facial unlock.
- kmlx 7y ago"plus works in the dark" the iphone has no problems in the dark
- angry_octet 7y agoFingerprint also works with a mask on. Think cold places and big polluted cities. Almost everyone wears a mask in Shanghai if they can.
- krzyk 7y agoFace unlock works with gloves on, think winter :) Oh, and it works when your hands a slightly wet, or when they are very dry.
- rrggrr 7y agoNot impressed at all this iteration. I may have to wait for Pixel 5, or I'm tempted to return to the iPhone solely so I can take advantage of the Apple Watch. I had hoped for better specs, better phone design, and most importantly - I'd have liked the fingerprint reader to have remained. I really don't want to be a voluntary part of facial recognition.
- x0x0 7y agoI'm pretty happy with the 3aXL. It has a fingerprint reader, a headphone jack (yes I use it -- particularly on flights which I unfortunately take a lot of), a 2-3 day battery for my use case, and a reasonable price. When you consider eg skipping the warranty because it's $400 not $700+, it's a great buy. Also... standard cables (that aren't fragile as shit) and the high speed charger you want is included in the box, rather than used to juice accessory revenue!
- make3 7y agothe 90 Hz screen and camera are pretty cool I think
- Hamuko 7y agoI'm currently also tempted to switch over to the iPhone for the first time since 2012. Even though there's a pretty large number of Android phones, I'm not sure if I'd want to buy anything other than a Google or a Nokia phone. And unfortunately, neither of those has any offerings that I find appealing. With other Android manufacturers I just can't trust them to deliver software updates on time or for a prolonged period of time.
- postalrat 7y agoI haven't owned an apple phone for years and I would have to say there has never been a better time to switch.
- chrisjc 7y agoI've been on Android since the G1 (G1, Nexus One, Nexus Galaxy, Nexus 5, Nexus 6p, Moto Z2 Force) and recently made the switch to the iphone 11. It's been a little difficult making the transition, but nothing compared to the hell that I've experienced with the last couple of devices I've owned. The Lenovo and Huawei were just disasters. 6p's hardware was utterly unreliable, and Google couldn't care less. Motorola just gave up supporting the device, eventually canceling the planned upgrade to 8.1. Zero security updates for 8 months. Looking back on this Android journey I have to say that in addition the usual diatribe about what's wrong with Android, I've grown concerned about the disposable nature of Android devices. You effectively get 2 years of use out of an Android if you're lucky. And once their time is up, it's off to the landfill. That doesn't take into consideration all of the replacement devices (3 Nexus 6P's) they sent you due to the quality issues abound. I see family and friends still using their iphone 5s!!! And even if you upgrade your iphone sooner, rest assured that that phone will end up the used phone market or overseas. When I bought the iphone 11, they offered me $23 for my Motorola. (btw, I was thinking oh well i'll just keep it and use it with my Amazon Alexa moto-mod, but it refuses to work without a SIM card in the phone. More E-waste!!!) I honestly feel a little better owning an iphone, not just because it's around a better phone, but because my e-waste footprint will be a little less. (sorry about the rant)
- shujito 7y agoI'm not from the US, the store page redirects me to my region Appending a locale parameter to the url works well [1] [1] https://store.google.com/us/product/pixel_4?hl=en-US https://store.google.com/us/product/pixel_4?hl=en-US
- baby 7y agoWhat are the odds that the camera block would look like the iPhone 11 pro! Edit: a lot of sarcastic answers down there :D
- thrill 7y agoWhat are the odds that designing and engineering in a small volume for desired capabilities would end up with similar looks?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- dannyr 7y agoWhat are the odds that Google designed the Pixel 4 after the iPhone 11 Pro was announced?
- xeroxeri 7y agoWhat are the odds that all phones are a black rectangle? Seriously, though, some problems just have one solution.
- dkonofalski 7y agoWhat a weird thing to say considering that the whole "rounded corners" thing became so overblown that it's a meme at this point... Look at Android phones prior to the iPhone and then post-iPhone. There are definitely more solutions to phone designs than just a black rectangle.
- rpmisms 7y agoAnother maintenance release from another manufacturer. Are we just in a stagnation cycle until 5g comes around?
- darkstar999 7y ago5g is already here. They are behind.
- dharma1 7y agoI loved Marc Levoy's presentation. I wonder why no video improvements though - dynamic range is so important in a camera, why limit it to just photos? 10bit h265 would be nice, perhaps with some of that hdr+ tonemapping. Would have been nice to see a wide angle lens too. The radar thing feels gimmicky.
- vicarrion 7y agoThe photo improvements are a result of taking multiple pictures and processing them into one image which you can't do with video.
- dharma1 7y agoYou can, Red Epic does it with what they call HDRx, Magic Lantern does it with Dual ISO, zcam E2 do it with WDR - all more or less the same things - you take two exposures for every frame. Doesn't always work for fast action, but for some shots it really helps. This is a really good blog post on the topic - https://medium.com/@jasonzhang_22759/wdr-of-e2-369a12d39a7f https://medium.com/@jasonzhang_22759/wdr-of-e2-369a12d39a7f Also, if your image bit depth is high enough, you can create "virtual" multiple exposures from a single image and do exposure fusion. Google already do this with HDR+ on stills. The bit depth stored from the sensor could be a lot higher than the current 8bits most mobile phones use for video, if you have full control of the ISP. Cinema cameras can process and store 12-16bit video (Red, Blackmagic, Arri). Even Apple does this to some degree with their "extended dynamic range" video on newer iPhones, though the saved files are still 8bit.
- sudosteph 7y agoI want a decent 5" screen phone again. I have the pixel 3, and I swear I'm getting hand cramps because it's too big to use with one-hand. Miss the old Nexus 5.
- silon42 7y agoNexus 5 was the best... There were considerable regressions since (HW and SW), ... at least Pixel 3A still has the headphone jack.
- jedimastert 7y agoYou could look into Essential's Project Gem. Super thin and long screen.
- sunstone 7y agoI also have a pixel 3 and find I work it pretty well one handed. The pixel 2 though was a little wide.
- sudosteph 7y agoHow big are your hands? Do you have a special technique? I've got the one-hand keyboard setting enabled and I still can't type with one hand. My hands aren't big enough to hold it between my palm and finger tips with any sort of stability while using my thumb. It works better if I stretch out my pinky and rest the phone on top of it (not even touching the palm so the thumb has more reach and mobility), but it still falls a lot like that so I end up always reverting to two-hand use. And that's just for typing, I can't do light browsing or anything else with one hand like I did on the Nexus 5 To give a hand size comparison, the length from the very bottom of my palm to the top of my index finger is nearly equal to the height of the pixel 3. My index finger is maybe .25" longer. I'm an average height adult woman (5'5”), with hands proportional to that. I can play a standard size guitar just fine (ok, some bar chords are hard), but I haven't been able to buy an ergonomically comfortable flagship Android device in years now.
- sunstone 7y ago
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- nwah1 7y agoThe better processor is appreciated, but I would prefer that it had 5G and Gorilla Glass 6
- jtokoph 7y ago> 3 years of security and OS updates will keep your phone performing at its best. I’m still using an iPhone 6s which has gotten its last major iOS update after owning the device for 5 years. It will continue getting security fixes for another year until iOS 14 is released. iPhones last twice as long as Pixel devices, which is a big plus when you must have a secure phone.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- cvhashim 7y agoSame still have my 6s although I might just upgrade soon.
- bestouff 7y agoOn the other hand I'm using an LG G4 running LineageOS (16) since more than 4 years, and it will probably continue getting updates for as long as it doesn't break. Only Android devices allow this.
- clircle 7y ago* Only Android devices that are compatible with Lineage OS allow this.
- lebrad 7y agoI'm using Google/Motorola's Nexus 6 with LineageOS, which was released a year before your iPhone 6s and it still gets the latest updates. Meanwhile, my mid-2011 Mac Mini was cut off from getting macOS updates after High Sierra last year. But because it allows the installation of other operating systems it still can dual-boot the latest Windows 10 and the latest Debian Bullseye just fine. The only way for any general computing device to last is if it gives the user freedom to control the software that runs on the device. All iPhones suppress this freedom which means game over for longevity.
- jeron 7y ago
- meerita 7y agoI'm going back to iPhone soon for privacy support and better features. I had all Pixel/Google phones until Pixel 2 and they all died within a year and half (Google returned me the money).
- linuxftw 7y ago> Quick Gestures uses radar to sense motion WTF. I don't want more EMR coming from a phone. I just want a phone. All this extra technology literally noone asked for adding to the price of a phone, same with fingerprint readers, same with face scan. Ultra-privacy intruding phones.
- jorgemf 7y agoI miss my Moto X (2gen) with the infrared sensors to detect your hand and other stuff. It seems pretty similar to the hand gestures. Moreover I could personalize the external materials.
- me_me_me 7y agoPixel 4 2800 mAh Ughh... why can't they make a phone with bigger battery? XL model has a decent size battery but it is way to cumbersome to use as mobile device and 2800 mAh is barely enough to last day (not to mention degradation over time). Is it that i am in a filter bobble? But most of my friends and family complains about low battery or agrees with me that they would love a phone that last more then a day.
- dabernathy89 7y agoTotally agree. I finally went "small" with the Pixel 3 after years of big phones, and the battery life is dismal. I can't see how 2800 is going to keep up with the 90hz refresh rate. If I upgrade I'll probably begrudgingly have to go big again.
- angry_octet 7y agoMoto G7 Power is great -- 5000mAh, and many features which consume less power and happen to be cheaper (lower res, slower clock). Not the latest and greatest but if you're away from power for a long time it's a good compromise.
- me_me_me 7y agoThanks for recommendation, I am actually looking for a replacement (or at least a reason to get newer phone :D ).
- neogodless 7y agoWe have some contradictions in our lives. For example, think about computer releases. As someone who likes to build a PC and install my own operating system, I love how these two things are somewhat decoupled (albeit imperfectly.) So I was excited about individual component releases, of course the CPU and GPU in particular, not to mention the rapid advancement of storage technology! And I was happy to try out a whole new version of Windows. (I particularly like 2000 and 7.) Computers, on the other hand - well I've all but ignored desktops and announcements about them my whole life. Laptops were more interesting, because I was excited when they started to have decent internal components, nice screens and usable battery life. (I've been less impressed with increasingly closed systems with fewer options for upgrades.) So back to the point at hand? I'd like to think that new phones should be focused on performance, and in my dream world, decoupling from software. I don't want "new gadgets" to be a thing on a phone. If I want to use it a certain way, i.e. hand waving away my song tracks, I have to now rely on a specific manufacturer running a specific operating system on at least the minimum version. No real options there, though. I'm still not sure "modular" can work for phones, or maybe it can but we're not there yet, or there hasn't been enough market success to push manufacturers to go that way. But even that feels mostly unnecessary. I haven't had any complaints about my phone hardware, except for batteries wearing out, and being difficult to replace. Cameras have been "good enough" for my needs for several years now. Storage and computing performance has been fine, too. (Of course, new features are compute-intensive and will require hardware to keep up.) If I have a point, it's that this is a boring phone release to me, but I kind of wish all phone releases were boring at this point. I'm sure some of the imaginative features coming out will become important, but right now, I feel like I don't need them. What I would prefer would be an improvement in decoupling between phone hardware and software.
- MattyMc 7y agoI was so ready to jump into a Pixel (long time iPhone user). I thought on-board voice recognition would be a game changer. This had to be the most lacklustre event I've seen: - Nothing on video. - No details on the processor (or most hardware specs). - Nothing on the forward-facing camera. - Nothing on battery life. It honestly felt like Google watched Apple's presentation and then cut 2/3 of what they had planned. Moreover, and this is purely a marketing-spin thing, the event had no energy. There were some super cool demos, and they were received with pure silence from the crowd. It was very weird.
- Hamuko 7y agoMaybe they assumed that you had already read about all of those things from the months of leaks that lead the event.
- MattyMc 7y agoMaybe. I don't recall seeing leaks on picture/video specs or battery life. When you build an event like this, I think you put your best foot forward. Google did, it just wasn't terribly impressive IMO.
- dkonofalski 7y agoLet's be realistic, though... the type of thing that would be a game-changer and make a big buzz at an event like this just doesn't exist right now. Phones have gotten so advanced that the "next big thing" needs to be paradigm-shifting and completely redefining in order to get a sizable reaction. Everything else right now is just iterative.
- MattyMc 7y agoI really thought on-board voice would be a game changer. Not having to do the round-trip to the cloud to determine intent, and providing a conversational interface (i.e. "now send this to Pam") I thought would generate that buzz. It sure seemed to when Google announced that they had reduced this ML model to ~500mb so it could run locally. In contrast, Apple's A13 chip's contribution to extend battery power is incredibly impressive to me.
- tecleandor 7y agoSeems like Motion Sense is not working in some countries, specifically, Japan: "²Not functional in Japan and may not be functional in other Pixel countries. Motion Sense is functional in the US, Canada, Singapore, Taiwan and most European countries." "Check that you’re in a country where Motion Sense is approved. Currently, Motion Sense will work in the US, Canada, Singapore, Australia, Taiwan, and most European countries. If you travel to a country where it’s not approved, it won’t work." What's up with that? Is there any regulation against moving your hands in front of the phone? The only thing I can think of is the "kind of" mandatory shutter noise when using the camera on Japanese phones, to avoid up-skirt photos and the like. An I say "kind of", because depending on who I've talked to, some say it's a mandatory law, some others say it's a good faith agreement between manufacturers. Anyway, maybe, if the hand waving stuff is detected using the camera, might be problematic on some countries as in Japan.
- ojhughes 7y agoiOS has UX so well executed compared to Android in my opinion. Android may have better specs and features on paper but falls far short when it comes to a satisfying user journey where everything "Just Works".
- madez 7y agoI bought the original Nexus S and the Galaxy Nexus when they were released, and I was excited about the device and Android. Since Snowden, the ever increasing reliance on Google of many people and institutions via its cloud services, and the encroachment into our private lives via constant listening devices like Googles Nest, I want to get Google as far from my life as possible. In the German version of this announcement, the first thing written under the title is that you if you order soon enough, you'll get a free Google Nest Hub with the phone. Well, uhm, no, please don't. Further down, Google praises itself with "Stets an deiner Seite: Google Assistant ...", which means "Always at your side: Google Assistant ...". This is just creepy to me now. I'm astounded by how much my perspective of Google has changed since a couple of years ago. Their marketing is off-putting to me now.
- mehdix 7y agoThanks to Soli now it can track your moves even if you cover the screen and camera.
- armandososa 7y agoThat page will not show you the Pixel 4 if it's not available in your country (I'm in Mexico, for example), but if you're still curious here's the blogpost: https://blog.google/products/pixel/pixel-4/ https://blog.google/products/pixel/pixel-4/
- imagiko 7y agoLooks like the lovechild of Galaxy S9 and iPhone 11. It's good to see project Soli graduating out of Google ATAP!
- cbolton 7y agoThe radar chip is especially interesting. I remember being intrigued when it was presented by the ATAP team years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QNiZfSsPc0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QNiZfSsPc0 The team showed an impressive amount of cool stuff back then, it's nice to see one of these projects shipping on a flagship product. There's more info here on how it's used: https://www.blog.google/products/pixel/new-features-pixel4/ https://www.blog.google/products/pixel/new-features-pixel4/ EDIT: found the original presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpbWQbkl8_g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpbWQbkl8_g . I think the touch sensitive cloth project also made it into a few products.
- imagiko 7y agoIt is project Soli that graduated from ATAP!
- lern_too_spel 7y agoAnd the best device that Google has remains the Pixel 3a XL. They continue to remove features that people actually use and add things that nobody wants.
- dopamean 7y agoI'm pretty sure I'm going to end up with my first iphone when my op6 kicks the bucket (no sign of that anywhere in sight). I've just been so underwhelmed with every Android phone release that now the main thing that matters to me is the years of updates that the iphones get. I never thought I'd care about that but it looks great now.
- markdog12 7y agoLove to see more devices using higher refresh rate.