Google Pixel 4 XL review: Plans | Pricing | Specs

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Google has long argued that phone hardware is something of a commodity item, and that the experience that you get out of its in-house Pixel phones is more about the experience that the software can bring. There's a fair argument there, but it's also one that's led Google to fall behind its competitors in terms of camera flexibility, storage expansion and battery capacity.

Google has addressed some of those issues with the Google Pixel 4 XL – although far from all of them – and even added some unique technology with the use of radar-led motion sensing technology.

However, what it's left with is a phone that's perfectly fine within the flagship phone space without really standing out.

Design

• Single-tone colour finishes, except for the power button
• 90Hz 6.3 inch display is sharp
• Large jutting forehead bezel
• No storage expansion

• Read our full review of the Google Pixel 4 XL's design

  Most smartphone manufacturers have by now settled down with an easily identifiable design motif for their flagship phones, but it seems that Google still has some wriggle room left to get creative.

  Gone are the two-tone designs found on previous generations, with instead a single hue on the rear casing in either "Just Black", "Clearly White" or "Oh So Orange". The latter of those is apparently a "limited edition" model, although it's not at all clear quite how "limited" that really is.

  The new Pixel 4/Pixel 4 XL finish gives it a little more grip than you'll find on many competing phones, which is great for those of us who fumble our phones from time to time.

  There's still plenty of classic Pixel DNA at play here, however. The Pixel 4 XL has squeezable sides that only work to engage Google Assistant. There's no headphone jack, and the power button is a distinct shade different to the rear of the case.

  For the Oh So Orange model I tested, it's a lighter orange that really irks me. I'd very much prefer it matched the back, but your taste could naturally vary.

  At the front you'll find a 6.3 inch AMOLED display that stands out thanks to its 90Hz refresh rate, which means video and game playback is silky-smooth, as well as the lack of a notch, hole punch or pop-up camera module. Instead, Google has gone quite old school, opting for a seriously jutting forehead bezel to cover up the front facing camera and motion gesture radar sensors.

  Your taste on notches or their lack may vary – they've never fussed me that much – but the Pixel 4's front display does feel a little old fashioned as a result. It seems likely that once the radar array and front facing camera were in place there just wasn't any room left for notching. Still, it stands out if only because it's out of scale with the bottom bezel quite markedly.

  Google still wants you to store everything in the Google Cloud, so the Pixel 4 XL is limited to only its onboard storage, with 64GB and 128GB models available.

  That's only true of the Just Black and Clearly White models as well. The one "limited" part of the Oh So Orange finish that we can identify is that you can't get it in the larger 128GB variant; it ships with just 64GB of onboard storage.

Camera

• Dual cameras deliver pleasing photos
• Night Sight is still great, but it's not the best
• No wide-angle selfies from the front
• Unlimited photo storage is no more

• See sample photos and read our full review of the Google Pixel 4 XL's camera

  Ever since it launched the Pixel line of phones, Google has been adamant that a single lens camera should be all anyone could need.

  Well, except for last year's Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, which featured dual front lenses to enable wide angled group selfies. But hey, it's allowed one exception, right?

  It turns out that what everyone else has been doing for some time is an idea that Google has finally cottoned on to. At the back of the Google Pixel 4 XL you'll find dual rear cameras. There's a primary 12.2MP f/1.7 lens, alongside a 16MP f/2.4 2x optical zoom lens.

  Here my experiences have been distinctly mixed. There's some very neat technology in play that allows you to adjust contrast and brightness on the fly if you're after a specific effect in your shot before you take it. Frankly, the Pixel 4 XL's AI is generally very good here at picking the right levels, but if you do want to fine tune, you can do so.

  Google also picks up the idea of hybrid zoom in the Pixel 4 XL, with what it calls "Super Res Zoom" at up to 8x level.

  While it's only combining those two lenses, the overall results are generally very good indeed with less of the washed out pixellated look that we've seen from other hybrid zoom efforts.

  Here's a standard shot of the Sydney CBD taken with the Pixel 4 XL:

  

  And then the same shot at 8x Super Res Zoom:

  

  Last year's Pixel 3's claim to fame was its exceptional night mode, and it's been expanded in the Pixel 4 XL.

  Google claims that the Pixel 4 XL can now take credible images of the stars, although you do need a reasonably clear sky (which means most city locations are out) to get workable shots.

  Sadly my own time to turn around the review didn't afford me a country road trip, but I decided to put the Pixel 4 XL to the test, heading to a local park to capture what I could amidst the terrible light pollution that Sydney emits.

  To engage astrophotography mode you'll need a tripod and some time, because it takes a four-minute exposure if it detects that it's still enough and dark enough to justify it. After four minutes in the cold and dark, it produced this shot:

  

  That's not a shooting star, by the way, but a plane coming in to land at Sydney airport.

  Being as I was already out and about, I also used the opportunity to put the Pixel 4 XL's "Night Sight" shooting mode to the test taking park shots using the same tripod to minimise any vibrations.

  It's a test that I've run on many flagships previously, so I started with Samsung's Galaxy Note10+, typically not a great low light performer within the premium pack:

  

  There's not a lot of detail there, and I was sure I could get better. Here's how last year's Google Pixel 3 XL captured the scene with its own low light mode:

  

  Then there's the Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max. Here I started with a three-second night shot, as you'd also be able to do in handheld mode:

  

  The use of a tripod meant I could also dial up the shot time to 28 seconds to get an even better shot:

  

  I also tested with the Huawei P30 Pro, which features its own highly capable regular sensor for taking shots:

  

  As well as its own dedicated night shooting mode:

  

  So how did the Google Pixel 4 XL compare?

  First of all, here's its Night Sight shot:

  

  It's an OK shot, but it's not much improved on last year's Night Sight despite the presence of that second rear camera.

  However, because I had the tripod there, I could also engage the Astrophotography mode for an even longer exposure. After four minutes, and politely asking a lady walking a dog late at night if she wouldn't mind walking behind the tripod, the Google Pixel 4 XL produced this shot:

  

  The Pixel 4 XL is an entirely capable camera for both still and video shooting in most situations, and like prior models, it is geared towards taking good photos relatively simple. There are a few catches to be aware of, however.

  Firstly, the dual lenses on the front of the Pixel 3/Pixel 3 XL are gone, replaced with a single 8MP f/2.0 sensor. It feels like an odd step backwards to lose that ability that made the Pixel 3 stand out nicely.

  

  If you want fancy angles on your selfies, you'll need to get mirrors involved.

  Secondly, Google used to offer unlimited storage of photos from Pixel phones at full resolution, excluding the cheaper Google Pixel 3a. It was a great inclusion given the limited storage space of Pixel phones, because photos are so often what we fill up our phones with.

  That seemed like a fair enough restriction for the budget Pixel, but sadly it was a sign of things to come, because you don't get that unlimited full resolution backup feature with the Google Pixel 4 XL either.

  You can upload in "high" resolution, but if you want the best version of your shots stored to the cloud, you'll have to pay Google for the cloud space to do so. That makes the limited storage space, and especially the 64GB model, quite problematic. This is a fun phone to shoot photos with, but you'll need to move your photos off it relatively frequently to avoid running out of space.

  Is the Google Pixel 4 XL a good camera phone? For the most part yes, and like competitor Apple, it keeps things pretty simple to ensure that it's fun to use it as your primary camera. However, in the premium space, the fact that Google is only now begrudgingly coming into the multi-lens space means that it's still lagging behind its competitors in the flexibility stakes.

  Google Pixel 4 XL sample photos

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Performance

• Runs much the same as every other Android flagship
• Voice transcription is surprisingly good
• Face unlocking needs work
• Motion gestures work, except in Japan
• Sobble is a fun companion, but a battery hog

• View test results and read our full review of the Google Pixel 4 XL's performance

  You can very much see Google's position on hardware being a commodity item when you look at the internals of the Google Pixel 4 XL. It's running a Snapdragon 855, the same as just about every other flagship phone this year, alongside 6GB of RAM and either 64GB or 128GB of onboard storage. It's a recipe for solid performance, but it's nothing that's going to catapult the Google Pixel 4 XL above its contemporaries in a straight line benchmark sense.

  Indeed, that's exactly what we got out of the Google Pixel 4 XL using Geekbench 5:

  Although it fared better comparatively using 3DMark Slingshot Extreme:

  The Pixel 4 XL sells itself as different in a couple of particular ways. That large front bezel is due to the presence of radar sensors that enable the new "Motion Gestures" feature. This lets you wave your hand in front of the phone to enable track skipping or easy muting of the phone, at least in theory.

  It's not a unique idea, given that we've seen similar features on phones such as the LG G8s ThinQ and the Samsung Galaxy Note10, but Google's use of radar to detect your hand gestures is quite different.

  I was pretty cynical about its chances of success, because frankly it's been a bit of an unworkable gimmick on other phones.

  To Google's credit, it works most of the time for simple actions like silencing your phone or skipping music tracks with the wave of a hand. There's no biometric authentication on board, so anyone swiping near your phone can kick it into gear, although the odds of this happening accidentally are pretty low.

  While Motion Gestures do work, I can't help but feel that there's not enough to them to make them a must-buy proposition of their own accord. The instances where you won't want to touch your phone are relatively limited. I can see scope for some incredible work for folks with limited mobility with this kind of technology, but right now it's rather undercooked.

  It's also weirdly worth noting that Motion Gestures won't work in Japan at all. Google tells me that if you do fly into Japan with a Motion-Gesture enabled Pixel 4 XL, it'll stop working when you're in the country, presumably due to some kind of radar regulation there.

  The same sensors and front-facing camera that enable Motion Gestures are also behind the Pixel 4 XL's facial unlocking feature. There's no fingerprint sensor any more, with Google going down the same path as Apple when it comes to unlocking and authentication via your image.

  it's not as good as Apple's FaceID, and not by a short margin.

  The problem here is that it's not as good as Apple's FaceID, and not by a short margin.

  I had to re-enroll my face a couple of times before I got an image that it was happy to unlock for most of the time, for a start. To be fair to Google, I was testing on an early phone unit, so that could well improve.

  At the same time, there's the well-reported issue that the Pixel 4 XL will unlock when your eyes are closed. Yes, I've checked this, and yes, it does indeed unlock that way.

  That might not be a huge issue for a basic unlock, but it raises some serious concerns around security if you linked it to Google Pay for authentication purposes.

  Where Google can innovate and make the Pixel 4 XL stand out is in software experiences. Being a Pixel phone, you get a mostly-clean Android experience and the promise of at least 3 year's worth of Android updates, so it should be good until at least Android 13 rolls around.

  Google has gone for some unusual software perks for Pixel owners. There's a live Pokémon wallpaper that lets you drop Pikachu, Evee and the new Pokémon Sword and Shield starters in as virtual wallpaper pets. They're interactive with motion sense in a limited way. Having Sobble as your desktop buddy is fun, but only really for a short period of time. He's also a serious battery drain, so you'd have to quiet the Pokéfan to keep them running all the time.

  Google is promising improvements to Google Assistant with an update due to hit Australia "this summer", but that wasn't enabled on the review unit I had just yet.

  What was enabled was the new voice recorder, which comes with an automatic transcription service that Google says is performed on the phone. It will only handle US English for now, but it's actually quite impressive for a first attempt.

  I regularly use Otter.ai for my transcription purposes, and it tends to get around 90-95% of the words right.

  Google's voice recorder was more around 80-85% correct, and I can't help but think that an Australian English setting might help there, but for a service with no app or data charges, that's pretty impressive.

Battery life

• 3700mAh battery gives a single day's battery life, but that's about it
• Wired or wireless charging

• View test results and read our full review of the Google Pixel 4 XL's battery life

  Google doesn't weigh the Pixel 4 XL down with a lot of battery sucking apps, and it's even increased the battery capacity of the Pixel 4 XL relative to last year's Pixel XL handset.

  As such, and against the context of some real battery heavyweight flagships like the Huawei P30 Pro and Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max, I was keen to see how the Google Pixel 4 XL would compare.

  The recent update to Geekbench 5 came with the loss of its battery benchmarking function, so we've switched to using a simple streaming test to get an indicative (but far from exhaustive) measure of phone battery performance.

  Here's how the Google Pixel 4 XL compared against a range of 2019 flagship phones running a YouTube video full screen with maximum brightness and moderate volume for an hour with a fully charged battery:

  The Google Pixel 4 XL didn't do quite as badly as Samsung's flagship 2019 phones, but it was still enough to give me pause for thought.

  The issue there is that unless you're very gentle, Samsung's 2019 phones will generally require charging before the day is out, which is not what you should see out of a 2019 flagship handset.

  The Pixel 4 XL does a little better, but not by much. On days when I've used it moderately it's made it into a second day before conking out, but on heavier usage days it's started to hit that worrying area below 20% a little earlier in the evening than I'd really like.

  It's nowhere near as aggressive with app management as flagship phones from Huawei or Oppo are, so there's some scope for Google to improve its performance over time. Hopefully it does, because otherwise you're looking at a phone you'll have to carefully manage to avoid it going flat. Thankfully you can charge it up via either USB C or Qi wireless charging pretty easily.

Should you buy the Google Pixel 4 XL?

• A good update for Pixel or Pixel 2 owners
• A little bland against competing Android flagships

The Pixel 4 XL is a solid premium flagship, and it certainly hits all the features that you're likely to want out of a 2019 flagship phone. The camera is mostly very good, general app performance is right up there, and unlike many of its Android competitors, you're assured of updates for years to come.

It's even a little cheaper than last year's Pixel 3 XL.

However, you've got to weigh that against what you're updating from. I can't see the sense in upgrading from a Pixel 3 XL to it, for example, but if you're dead keen on Google phones specifically and you're still using an original Pixel XL or Pixel 2 XL, you'll see much more of a performance and feature bump.

Again, though, the Pixel 4 XL feels like the vanilla cousin to some more genuinely interesting flagship phones that rock even more flexible and fun cameras, or better battery life, or more engaging designs.

The Pixel 4 XL is a fine phone but it's one that really struggles to truly stand out.

Pricing and availability

• Price: RRP from $1279
• Where to buy: Amazon Australia | eBay | Kogan | JB Hi-Fi | Harvey Norman | Officeworks

Compare Google Pixel 4 XL plans

Alternatives

If you wanted to keep matters in-house with Google, you could consider the cheaper and smaller Google Pixel 4 instead. Although it has an even smaller battery, which doesn't give us confidence in its battery prowess.

If you're after a flagship phone with guaranteed Android updates, there's essentially only one in the market right now, and that's the Android One-based Nokia 9 Pureview.

In battery and camera terms, the Huawei P30 Pro is still a top contender, but Huawei's recent issues with the US government put its Android future in some doubt.

You could opt for the Oppo Reno 5G if you wanted great battery life and good camera quality alongside 5G for futureproofing.

Samsung's offerings in the premium space are also worth considering, including phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G or Samsung Galaxy Note10+.

If you're happy to jump ship in operating system terms, there's also the Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max to consider, although that's a considerably more expensive handset.

Google Pixel 4 XL specs

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