The Google Pixel 4 is the worst value phone in 2019
Google’s Pixel 4 and 4 XL fail to entice and don’t offer consumers any justifiable reasons to drop $799 or more. With not enough storage, a redundant telephoto camera, and a misunderstood identity, the Pixel 4 will probably struggle to succeed.
Battery life to last you till… 3 o’clock?
64GB of base storage for $799… and no original Google Photos backup
Okay, here’s the real kicker: not only do the most affordable versions of the Pixel 4 and 4 XL come with just 64GB of storage on deck, but Google has also removed the unlimited original quality backup to Google Photos. To be completely fair, the free high-quality backup option in Photos is just fine and doesn’t incur any noticeable downgrades in terms of image quality. However, if your whole marketing strategy is centered around the camera of your device, you probably don’t want to half-bake the whole photo experience.
What’s the point of having a killer camera if you’re going to have a measly 64GB or less of storage at your disposal?
With the Pixels, Google is making one step ahead and two steps backwards
No ultra wide-angle, but a redundant telephoto camera…
To be really competitive with all the new iPhones and Galaxies, Google should have really thrown in a ultra wide-angle camera instead of a telephoto one. I feel that Google is very wrong in its strong conviction that telephoto is more useful than a proper ultra wide-angle one. The reason is simple – Google’s Super Res Zoom was already doing a good job even with a single camera and so was the portrait mode, as evident on the Pixel 3/3a. Thus, the telephoto camera is adding some additional hardware prowess to both of these features, but is kind of redundant as software was already doing a decent enough job. Meanwhile, you can’t simulate the field of view of a ultra wide-angle camera with software, and no, taking a few steps back doesn’t always do the trick.
I am very curious to see how Google will backtrack and justify putting a ultra wide-angle camera on any of its future flagships once it inevitably does, because let’s be real, Google will have to add a ultra wide-angle camera if it wants to stay relevant next year.
No dongle or earbuds in the box
Does Google really want to sell phones?
Does Google really want to be a recognizable force in industry? Does it really want to sell phones? I believe it does, but why is it making its devices such a hard sell? Why have all Pixels since the second one dropped the ball in most of the important areas save for the camera? Why the first Pixel was used to figuratively rub its headphone jack in the face of Apple? Why did the second one ditched the jack? Why did stock Android initially had its own gesture navigation but was later on changed to very closely resemble the iOS’ way of interacting with the interface? Why was a 3D face unlock system employed on the Pixel 4 instead of an in-display fingerprint scanner?
The Pixel 4 makes a strong case for buying an iPhone
How long before Google gets bored and the Pixels go the way of the Nexus?