NEWS: Pixel 4 and 4 XL smartphones launched at Google event

Tempest

Having watched and listened to, probably far more details than I should have done about the new Pixel 4.
It seems to be agreed what Google is all about is clever software. If you invest in a Google product you are basically buying their excellence when it comes what they are able to do with their amazing data, machine learning and all of that stuff.
They are not really a hardware company in the same way Apple is.
They even admitted much of is is just off the shelf parts, but mixed with how they can do so much more with it than others.
This is great, and as we all know, hardware is nothing without software.
That said, and this is just me personally saying this, I do really wish, they'd ramp it up a notch or two on the hardware side given how they wish to position their products in the market.
My ideal-ish phone, perhaps would be an iPhone 11 Pro Max, and let Google do the software for it.

The closed eye thing they are going to fix they say.
It was REALLY odd how they actually said many people like a wide angle lens in their presentation when they did not have one. better to just not say anything!
The Soli chip is a bit up in the air, very few features, and even those are very unreliable.
One worry is, Soli used to be a BIG thing when it was demo'd doing amazing stuff years ago, and it's to be seen if shrinking it way down for the Pixel has basically screwed what it's going to be able to do.
Right now, it seems no one is impressed at all, and it's almost (I hope not) got a mood about, it's a gimmic does not work well, and could easy be dropped.
Again, I hope this is wrong.
Soli is supposed to be added into the Google Home devices, which may seem to say would make more sense than having it on the phone.
Yet again, I'm in the place of 'next years phone should be good'
Add the wide angle
Increase the Battery
Ramp up what Soli can do.
Improve the speakers back to what they were previously.

I really want the pixel phone to be the showcase phone.
Just seems to miss the mark each time in many ways which makes me sad.

everett_psycho

I always thought LG and Google was a fantastic partnership back in the nexus days. LG used to offer great hardware at a great price with awful software, then Google stepped up with the nexus 4,5&5X to show what their budget hardware could do with good software running the show. It's a credit to the software how good the pixels have been with the flaws but it does make you wonder if they got an OEM to make some serious hardware what they could achieve.

I picked up a pixel 3XL on O2 refresh and it's great for what we paid, under £400 was a good deal, but the RRP of £800 I just couldn't justify anymore, especially for sub par battery life. I see no reason to upgrade anytime soon so see you all at the pixel 6 launch in a few years

Tempest

I still have my Nexus 6.
It's scary how good it still is, and even more scary how many brand new phones in 2019/2020 are worse than my Nexus which was launched on October 15, 2014 which is exactly FIVE Years ago!

My screen is amazing with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels, 5.96 inch Quad HD AMOLED
I have fast charging AND Wireless charging!
A Headphone jack.
Two front facing Stereo Speakers.
13MP main camera with optical stabilisation, dual-LED flash, support for 4K video at 30fps.

Note, this was/is all from a phone launched five years ago for £499 (32GB); £549 (64GB) at the tip/top launch prices.

It's so sad I look at so many phones today, and they are worse than my 5 year old Nexus which I would like to upgrade from.
The only real single grumble I have is I don't have a fingerprint reader, and that's it basically.

slowpoke

you are buying it for the SW for sure....they leave so much out and you still pay a premium