Google Pixel 4 XL: Half Great, Half‑Baked

Google has packed its newest handset with an array of cutting-edge tech, but it falls frustratingly short of being a great phone.

- Michael Simon

The Google Pixel 4 XL can lay claim to the only real smartphone breakthrough of the year: a shrunken radar chip that’s so advanced it can detect when you reach for your phone so you’ll never have to stare at a blank screen.

It’s a delightful feature that makes phones with ambient or always-on displays feel like they’re stuck in the past. Combined with Face unlock, the Pixel 4’s Motion Sense technology makes me feel like the phone anticipates all my moves, and this truly saves time by limiting how often I need to tap the screen. Before you even unlock it, the Pixel 4 XL exudes futurity and sets you up for an experience unlike anything you’ll find on a Galaxy or iPhone.

Unfortunately, the rest of the Pixel 4’s innovations are still several software updates away. Once you get past the lock screen, the Pixel 4 XL is basically an iterative upgrade over the Pixel 3 (go.pcworld. com/gpx3)—which is still for sale, and for hundreds of dollars less. The new model introduces features that need more time to bake, a few shortcomings that should have been fixed before launch, and a camera that isn’t impressive when compared to the competition. Google may have delivered its most ambitious phone with the Pixel 4 XL, but it falls well short of nailing a top-tier phone experience.

DESIGN: TAKING THE FUN OUT OF FUNCTIONAL

Like the Google and Nexus phones that came before it, the Pixel 4 XL is a bland, perfunctory handset that looks downright ugly next to the Galaxy Note 10+ (go.pcworld.com/nt10) or iPhone 11 Pro (go.pcworld.com/11pr). While other phone makers are racing to be the first with a 100 percent screen-to-body ratio, the Pixel 4 is nearly 20 percent bezel and extremely top-heavy to boot.