This article may contain personal views and opinion from the author.

Specs don’t tell the whole story

You can learn many things about phones by looking at their specs, but not quite the whole thing. And it’s in those intangibles that Google excels.  

One thing it is not, however, is as bright as the screen on the latest Galaxy series or iPhones. This is a bit annoying when you look at the screen outdoors, on a bright sunny day, and I hope Google improves this aspect in the future, but apart from this issue, the Pixel 4 XL has a truly amazing display.

Right after the incredible display, the other thing that strikes me about using this phone is just how smooth and quick it is. The quickness is not just about the processor. Again, every flagship phone this year comes with the same Snapdragon 855 chip and while all those phones perform about the same in benchmarks, it doesn’t mean that the actual experience of using those phones is the same. The Pixel brings together the most refined Android gesture navigation system so far with the speed of a 90-hertz screen response, plus a good amount of under the hood optimizations, that combine for a killer performance. In my humble opinion, the Pixel 4 XL sets a new standard for a buttery smooth performance on the Android platform, and others should take notice.

Attention to detail like no other

Then comes the attention to detail: the live wallpapers are absolutely gorgeous and it’s hard to wrap your head around the reason why other companies simply don’t pay that much attention to visual details like these wallpapers. It honestly feels like you are going back in time when you look at the poor selection of wallpapers on other rivals. Of course, this is not a reason why you would buy a phone, but it gives you a deep personal satisfaction to own a device where designers have crafted little details like that as well.

I also have a lot of good words about the loudspeaker quality on the Pixel: I personally listen to a lot of music on Spotify right on my phone, it’s often just easier than to connect to a speaker or headphones, and the loudspeaker here is loud and clear, among the best I have heard on a smartphone.

Last, but not least: it is the Android experience as a whole. There are no heavy, not quite thought custom skins that would slow down the phone, there are no excessive options, there is no clutter.

Final words

Are there things that Google could have done better with the Pixel? Absolutely: for the camera nerd, the lack of an ultra-wide camera is an absurdity (I know it is for me), video quality is lackluster, for the specs obsessed the meager 64 gigs of on board storage are simply not acceptable at the $900 price point, and we’ve already mentioned the battery. And those much talked about radars are an absolute gimmick that I quickly disabled because they actually would skip songs when I unintentionally gestured around the phone.

But as I said in the beginning of the article, those ultimately feel like a footnote to the grand theme of the Pixel 4 XL: this phone is an absolute joy to use in a way that I have found no other Android phone quite matches. And while you should know about its shortcomings, keep that in mind and don’t skip on the new Pixel without trying it first.