Google Pixel 4XL Review - 6 Months Later

It's been six months since we got our Google pixel four XL .

So you know what that means .

We're going to do our in depth six months later review of the device .

Now in this review , I'm going to go over the main features of the device paying special attention to the features that did and did not have a significant impact on my day to day use with this device .

I'm also going to go over how well the device is held up over the past six months , answer some questions from our subscribers and then ultimately give you my recommendations when it comes to the Google pixel four and four XL .

Let's dive in .

I've been waiting patiently to do a long term review of the Google pixel four XL that Google gave us in October .

So much was said about this phone at its launch and people kind of went nuts over it and not necessarily in a good way , I've been using it as my personal main phone every single day for the past six months .

And overall , I really like using the Google pixel four XL as my main phone .

Now , while Google did give us this device for free , they did not pay for us to produce the video .

So all the thoughts and reactions you're going to hear from me towards the pixel four and four XL are completely my own .

All right , with that disclaimer out of the way , let's go ahead and dive into the main features that had a significant impact on my day to day use with this device when you first pick up the phone and use it , there are two features that immediately stand out as an improvement over the previous pixel devices that I've used .

One is the 90 Hertz display which makes everything feel silky smooth on this phone , like gestures and navigating the U I .

The second thing that immediately stands out as an improvement is face unlock , it's blazing fast and for me , much more convenient than unlocking my phone with a fingerprint sensor .

In almost every scenario , it even works when you're wearing glasses and sunglasses , which you know is pretty cool .

Now , the only scenario where this feature doesn't work that well for me is when I'm laying in bed at night and I have my face stuffed into a pillow .

Speaking of trying to unlock your phone while you're in bed , one part of this feature that people really freaked out about was you could actually at launch at least unlock this phone with your eyes closed .

Now , as of this recording , that part of the feature has been fixed with a software update .

Now as I started to use the phone , more some other features immediately stood out as useful .

First , the camera is really good for still photos and for videos , it's pretty good as well .

I still think Apple's video quality is better than the pixels , but by no means is Google's terrible or anything like that .

Now , the night mode for still photos is quite good and having a zoom lens has also been nice .

I'm also a fan of the selfie camera which presents great looking detailed images in general .

The photos you take with this pixel capture a lot of detail and two things that make it much more usable than other smartphone cameras I've used are the manual exposure and shadow controls that the pixel gives you as well as the live H D R preview .

You can make the image look exactly how you want before you take the photo , which is better than trying to edit the image , especially in H D R image after you've already taken the photo .

Now , thankfully , the pixel can shoot in raw , which is of course the file format you want to use if you're going to edit photos in any way .

Another big feature of this phone that I thought was more of a gimmick at first , but I've actually grown to really like is the Google pixel feature drops just like my Tesla .

My Google pixel four XL will get periodic software updates .

That contain some major features over the past six months .

We've gotten several new features like dark the scheduling which allows you to schedule your phone to transition to dark theme at a specific time .

A short cut to your credit and debit cards and passes in Google Wallet by long pressing the power button .

And my absolute favorite feature call screen , which is a feature that separates the pixel from almost any other phone out there .

Call screen utilizes the onboard Google assistant , which we'll talk about in a second to pick up an incoming call that the assistant doesn't recognize and screen the call on the device .

If the person calling says something to the assistant , your phone will then ring and a notification will appear with what the person told the assistant giving you the context .

You need to decide if you want to pick up the call or not .

If the person calling doesn't say anything , your phone will not ring and the assistant will end the call .

This feature has basically eliminated all spam calls from ringing my phone .

Yes , I know it is paradise .

It , it is , it is great .

You , you could get , you could get there too if you have a pixel .

Um And , and the reason for that is I I I've set this feature so that anyone in my Google contacts can actually call , call me directly .

But if you're trying to ring my phone and you're not in my Google contacts , you are going to get screened by the Google assistant and my phone is not going to ring right away .

The Google Assistant on the pixel four is unique because it lives on the device itself .

For certain requests like for opening up an app or turning on the flashlight , it doesn't need to be connected to the internet to perform those tasks , meaning those tasks are wicked fast to perform .

Also , I love this squeeze to trigger the assistant functionality on the phone .

And that's something I actually use quite often .

One other thing that surprised me about this phone is how good Google's keyboard is on it .

Now , you can get keyboard on other phones , even your iphone .

But the way it works on the pixel seems more seamless .

I find that it's autocorrect and swift typing is way more accurate and less frustrating than Apple's default keyboard .

And each time you hit a key on the keyboard on the pixel , you get this little haptic click , which I absolutely love .

I also love that you can search for specific emojis or Jif images right from within the keyboard .

And overall , it's just a simple design and it's why I prefer using Google's keyboard on the pixel versus any other keyboard I've used on any other phone .

Moving on screen attention is another feature that I found so useful these past six months .

Now , I read a lot of news articles and one thing that has always frustrated me with previous phones is that I would have to keep tapping on the screen to make sure that the screen wouldn't turn off while I was still reading an article .

Screen attention allows the phone's camera to look and see if you're still looking at the screen .

And if you are , it won't turn off the screen .

It's been one of those features that once you get used to it , you don't want to use a phone that doesn't have it .

Now , the last feature of this phone that has made a big impact on my day to day life is actually Android 10 , specifically Google's version of Android 10 that you can only get on the pixel devices .

Now , I've dabbled with Android phones before in the past and as an I OS user and somebody who owned every single Apple product like on the planet , they always felt incredibly foreign and just uh it just didn't feel quite right .

Uh It didn't feel snappy .

They just , I don't know , I , I didn't like the experience this version of Android , however , feels very close to the current version of I OS and it gets so many little details , right ?

I actually found that I prefer it over the current version of I OS .

Now , of course , there are some things I still miss about my iphone like airdrop .

Can't believe there is not a comparable built in feature into Android like Airdrop .

I also miss getting phone calls and text messages on my Apple watch .

I also just miss getting customized notification vibrations .

So like two vibrations for a text message versus one vibration for a tweet .

So what your phone's in your pocket , you can kind of tell as the notifications come in what they are and on Android .

There's no , it's not a default feature within the OS overall though .

I don't actually miss my iphone as much as I thought I would .

Which kind of shocked me .

The pixel version of Android is just a joy to use .

I love Google's overall Android layout , its gesture navigations , nice design , better notification management , simple interface and it just gets so many of the little details , right ?

For example , if you open a private browser tab , when you scroll down your notifications , a reminder notification automatically appears for you to close your private browsing tabs or swipe down on a notification to view more information about it or the favorite apps store , which uses machine learning to guess which app you want to open at a particular time or smart lock , which keeps your phone unlocked when it's connected to certain Bluetooth devices like your car or your headphones or if your phone is in a specific location like at your house .

All right .

Well , that's what I've liked about the phone and in the six months I've had it , I'm happy to report that I haven't noticed any slowdowns in this phone's performance in fact , thanks to those feature drops .

All I can say is that the experience has actually gotten better over time .

Not worse .

All right .

Now let's dive into some of the downsides first battery life .

The battery life on my Google pixel four XL is worse than the battery life I experienced on my iphone eight plus the XL typically lasts me about a day .

But keep in mind on most days when I'm at my desk , there's a charger there for the phone .

And when I'm in my car , the phone also has a charger .

So I'm not really running down the battery a lot during most days , normal day to day use compared to my iphone though , with my iphone eight plus at the end of the day , when I put it on the wireless charger , its battery would be around 30% somewhere in the 30% range with the Google pixel four XL its battery percentage .

At the end of the day , when I put it on the charger , it's somewhere in the 20% range .

Now , the phone is usually gonna last you the entire day .

It's just maybe gonna cut it a little closer than you make one .

And the quick charge feature helps in case you need some extra juice fast .

Since Google does include an 18 watt fast charger with every pixel .

Another downside to the phone is clicking on notifications .

I run into this issue on occasion where I'll click on a notification and it'll either never actually bring me into the app that set the notification or it'll just take a long time to actually load the app , which has been kind of frustrating .

Another frustration we've had with this phone has been trying to find a solution to wirelessly get files off of the phone to my Mac .

Now , there are some apps out there that can do this , but they're much more clunky than the airdrop functionality .

I'm used to coming over from I os .

Another slight disappointment with this phone has been with the video recording capabilities .

You can't do four K at 60 frames per second .

I've also found that the colors don't look quite as good as what I'm used to with Apple's four K video recording capabilities .

However , the stabilization for the video is quite good .

All right .

So those were some of the things that I don't like about the phone .

Now , let's move into some of the things that I think were really overblown with this phone when it first came out .

And first let's talk about build quality .

The build quality is fine for a phone of this price .

And in my opinion , most people are gonna look at the build quality right when they open the phone and then after a couple of minutes , they're gonna put a case on it anyways .

Another part of the build quality people overreacted to is the top chin .

It's fine .

You're not gonna notice it any more than you notice an ugly notch protruding in on your screen space as you can tell , I dislike notches .

Now there's a reason for the chin , it's there to house the face unlock sensors as well as the solely radar chip which assists in the sheer speed of Google's face unlock .

Now , the last overreaction that will lead into some of my recommendations about this device has to do with pricing .

People freaked out over the pricing of this phone .

See when they were doing spec by spec comparisons between the pixel and other flagship phones out there .

And I think it's important to remember not all Android phones and not all flagships are created equal .

The experience of the pixel is heavily reliant on software and that just isn't reflected in the specs sheet comparison between flagships .

So you have to take that into consideration when you compare the pixel four with its competition .

However , in a world where Google successful pixel three , a phone and upcoming pixel four A tells people that they don't need to spend $1000 on a phone and can get a $400 phone that meets most of their needs .

It does beg the question , why have a pixel flagship at all ?

That's a valid argument .

However , I'd argue that .

Well , yes , the magic of the pixel is with its software .

There are just some things that you want to do in software that require cutting edge hardware like the solely radar chip for unlock or a specific processor that enables the Google assistant to run locally on the machine .

So I think there is definitely room for a flagship pixel phone that serves as the cutting edge vision for what Google thinks a phone should be showcasing new features and allowing Google to test things out that will eventually make it down to phones that don't cost as much .

So in wrapping up this review , my recommendation would be if you want the latest tech in a pixel phone , go with the pixel four XL , you'll get better battery life than the pixel four .

And compared to a mid-range pixel , you'll get face unlock the new Google assistant , a better screen , faster performance , wireless charging and a waterproof enclosure .

Now , if you don't care as much about those cutting edge features and you just want a good phone with a good camera at a reasonable price , then my advice would be to wait for the Google pixel four A to drop , which should have a similar camera set up to the pixel four .

All right .

Well , that will do it for our six months later review of the Google pixel four and four XL .

If you like this video , make sure to hit that thumbs up button below and subscribe to the channel to see more Google and product review videos like this one for six months later .

I'm Josh Tedder .

Thanks for watching