The Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL are a pair of
Android smartphone
A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...
s designed, developed, and marketed by
Google
Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
as part of the
Google Pixel
Google Pixel is a brand of portable Consumer electronics, consumer electronic devices developed by Google that run either ChromeOS or the Pixel version of the Android (operating system), Android operating system. The main line of Pixel products ...
product line. They collectively serve as the successors to the
Pixel 3
The Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL are a pair of Android smartphones designed, developed, and marketed by Google as part of the Google Pixel product line. They collectively serve as the successors to the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. They were officially ann ...
and
Pixel 3 XL
The Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL are a pair of Android (operating system), Android smartphones designed, developed, and marketed by Google as part of the Google Pixel product line. They collectively serve as the successors to the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 X ...
. They were officially announced on October 15, 2019 at the
Made by Google event and released in the United States on October 24, 2019. On September 30, 2020, they were succeeded by the
Pixel 5
The Pixel 5 is an Android smartphone designed, developed, and marketed by Google as part of the Google Pixel product line. It serves as the successor to the Pixel 4. It was officially announced on September 30, 2020 at the " Launch Night In" ...
.
History
Google confirmed the device's design in June 2019 after renders of it were leaked online.
In the United States, the Pixel 4 is the first Pixel phone to be offered for sale by all major wireless carriers at launch. Previous flagship Pixel models had launched as exclusives to
Verizon
Verizon Communications Inc. ( ), is an American telecommunications company headquartered in New York City. It is the world's second-largest telecommunications company by revenue and its mobile network is the largest wireless carrier in the ...
and
Google Fi
Google Fi Wireless (pronounced ), formerly Project Fi and Google Fi, is an American MVNO telecommunications service by Google that provides telephone calls, SMS, and mobile broadband using cellular networks and Wi-Fi. Google Fi uses the T-Mob ...
; the midrange
Pixel 3a
The Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL are a pair of Android (operating system), Android smartphones designed, developed, and marketed by Google as part of the Google Pixel product line. They collectively serve as mid-range variants of the Pixel 3 and Pixel ...
was additionally available from
Sprint
Sprint may refer to:
Aerospace
* Spring WS202 Sprint, a Canadian aircraft design
*Sprint (missile), an anti-ballistic missile
Automobiles
*Alfa Romeo Sprint, automobile produced by Alfa Romeo between 1976 and 1989
*Chevrolet Sprint, a rebadged v ...
and
T-Mobile T-Mobile is the brand of telecommunications by Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telec ...
, but not
AT&T
AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...
, at its launch. As with all other Pixel releases, Google is offering
unlocked U.S. versions through its website.
The phones were officially announced on October 15, 2019 and released in the United States on October 24, 2019. On January 10, 2020, Pixel 4 price dropped below the Black Friday prices. They were discontinued in August 2020.
Specifications
Design and hardware

The Pixel 4 and 4 XL are constructed using an aluminum frame and
Gorilla Glass 5
Gorilla Glass is a brand of chemically strengthened glass developed and manufactured by Corning Inc. Currently in its ninth generation, it is designed to be thin, light, and damage-resistant. Its surface strength and crack-resistance are achieved ...
. The devices are available in Just Black, Clearly White, and Oh So Orange colors, with the white and orange models having a matte, "soft touch" glass finish, and the black model having a glossy finish.
The frame is painted black on all models, while the power button is accented and made from
plastic
Plastics are a wide range of synthetic polymers, synthetic or Semisynthesis, semisynthetic materials composed primarily of Polymer, polymers. Their defining characteristic, Plasticity (physics), plasticity, allows them to be Injection moulding ...
.
The
USB-C
USB-C, or USB Type-C, is a 24-pin reversible Electrical connector, connector (not a Communication protocol, protocol) that supersedes previous USB hardware#Connectors, USB connectors (also supersedes Mini DisplayPort and Lightning (connector) ...
connector at the bottom of the device is used for charging and audio output, though neither USB-C headphones nor a USB-C to 3.5mm jack adapter are included in the box.
Both have stereo speakers, but unlike the Pixel 3, only one of the speakers is front-firing, with the other speaker located to the right of the USB-C port. Neither model includes a fingerprint reader;
facial recognition Facial recognition or face recognition may refer to:
*Face detection, often a step done before facial recognition
*Face perception, the process by which the human brain understands and interprets the face
*Pareidolia, which involves, in part, seein ...
(using a dot projector, infrared emitters and cameras along the top bezel of the device) is the only biometric authentication method offered by the Pixel 4.
Both models use the
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 system-on-chip (consisting of eight
Kryo 485 CPU cores, an
Adreno 640 GPU and a
Hexagon 690 DSP
DSP may refer to:
Computing
* Digital signal processing, the mathematical manipulation of an information signal
* Digital signal processor, a microprocessor designed for digital signal processing
* Dynamic Reconfiguration port
* Yamaha DSP-1 ...
), with 6GB of
LPDDR4X
Low-Power Double Data Rate (LPDDR), also known as LPDDR SDRAM, is a type of synchronous dynamic random-access memory (SDRAM) that consumes less power than other random access memory designs and is thus targeted for mobile computing devices such ...
RAM. Models are available with 64 or 128GB of non-expandable internal storage.
Battery sizes differ, with the Pixel 4 using a 2800mAh cell and the Pixel 4 XL using a 3700mAh cell. Both are capable of fast-charging at up to 18W, and support
Qi wireless charging
Inductive charging (also known as wireless charging or cordless charging) is a type of wireless power transfer. It uses electromagnetic induction to provide electricity to portable devices. Inductive charging is also used in vehicles, power tool ...
. Like their predecessors, the phones have a water protection rating of
IPX8 under
IEC
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC; ) is an international standards organization that prepares and publishes international standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies. IEC standards cover a vast range of ...
standard 60529.
The Pixel 4 also features the Pixel Neural Core and Knowles 8508A audio processor. The Pixel Neural Core is the successor to the
Pixel Visual Core
The Pixel Visual Core (PVC) is a series of ARM architecture, ARM-based System in package, system in package (SiP) image processors designed by Google. The PVC is a fully programmable Image processor, image, Vision processing unit, vision and AI acc ...
; it, too, uses the
Edge TPU architecture.
The Pixel 4 features an
OLED
An organic light-emitting diode (OLED), also known as organic electroluminescent (organic EL) diode, is a type of light-emitting diode (LED) in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is an organic compound film that emits light in respon ...
display manufactured by Samsung with
HDR support, that operates at a
refresh rate
The refresh rate, also known as vertical refresh rate, vertical scan rate or vertical frequency in reference to terminology originating with the cathode-ray tubes (CRTs), is the number of times per second that a raster-based display device displa ...
of up to 90
Hz; it dynamically adjusts depending on content to preserve battery life.
Both models use a wider 19:9
aspect ratio
The aspect ratio of a geometry, geometric shape is the ratio of its sizes in different dimensions. For example, the aspect ratio of a rectangle is the ratio of its longer side to its shorter side—the ratio of width to height, when the rectangl ...
, with the Pixel 4 using a
1080p
1080p (1920 × 1080 progressively displayed pixels; also known as Full HD or FHD, and BT.709) is a set of HDTV high-definition video modes characterized by 1,920 pixels displayed across the screen horizontally and 1,080 pixels down the sc ...
panel, and the 4 XL using a
1440p
1440p is a family of video display resolutions that have a resolution of 1440 pixels on one side. In a display with a landscape orientation, 1440p refers to the vertical resolution. The ''p'' stands for progressive scan, i.e. non-interlaced. The ...
panel. Unlike the Pixel 3 XL, the Pixel 4 XL's display does not contain a cutout, or notch.
The Pixel 4 includes dual rear-facing cameras located within a raised square module. It houses a wide 28mm 77° 1.7 lens with the same Sony Exmor IMX363 12.2-megapixel sensor as on the Pixel 3 and 3a, and a second telephoto 48mm 2.4 lens with a 16-megapixel sensor.
Both are capable of recording video at 4K resolution, but can only do so at 30fps whereas most competitors support 60fps as well. In a tweet, Google stated that "We find that the majority of users stick with 1080p, so we focus our energy on improving our quality in this mode, versus enabling a 4k 60fps mode that could use up to half a gigabyte of storage every minute". Google claims the Pixel 4 can capture 8x zoom at near-optical quality. Additionally, it uses
Google Camera 7.1 with software enhancements, including
Live HDR+ with dual exposure controls, improved
Night Sight
A night-vision device (NVD), also known as a night optical/observation device (NOD) or night-vision goggle (NVG), is an optoelectronic device that allows visualization of images in low levels of light, improving the user's night vision.
The ...
with
Astrophotography mode and improved
Portrait Mode
Page orientation is the way in which a rectangular page is oriented for normal viewing. The two most common types of orientation are ''portrait'' and ''landscape''. The term "portrait orientation" comes from visual art terminology and describe ...
with more realistic
Bokeh
In photography, bokeh ( or ; ) is the aesthetic quality of the blur produced in out-of-focus parts of an image, whether foreground or background or both. It is created by using a wide aperture lens.
Some photographers incorrectly restr ...
. It includes a single ultra wide (90°) front-facing camera with an 8-megapixel sensor, unlike the Pixel 3 which included ultra wide (97°) and wide (75°) front-facing cameras, both of which also had 8-megapixel sensors. The Pixel 4's astrophotography mode is able to
stack together 16 exposures, each with an exposure time of 15 seconds.
Motion Sense
The Pixel 4 marks the introduction of Motion Sense, a
radar
Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...
-based
gesture recognition
Gesture recognition is an area of research and development in computer science and language technology concerned with the recognition and interpretation of human gestures. A subdiscipline of computer vision, it employs mathematical algorithms to ...
system. It is based on the
Project Soli technology developed by
Google ATAP
Google's Advanced Technology and Projects group (ATAP) is a skunkworks team and in-house technology incubator, created by former DARPA director Regina Dugan. ATAP is similar to X, but works on projects, granting project leaders time—previou ...
as an alternative to light-based systems such as infrared. Motion Sense can be used for detecting a user's proximity to the device to activate the always-on display or power the screen on, and waving gestures that can be used in supported apps (such as skipping tracks in the music player, and an interactive ''
Pokémon
is a Japanese media franchise consisting of List of Pokémon video games, video games, Pokémon (TV series), animated series and List of Pokémon films, films, Pokémon Trading Card Game, a trading card game, and other related media. The fran ...
'' demo app).
Due to its use of 60GHz frequency bands, Google was required to obtain specific regulatory approval for the radar system in all countries that the Pixel 4 is being sold. As such, the feature is
geoblocked if the device is detected to be in an unsupported country. On launch, Google stated that support for the feature was currently limited to Australia, Canada, "most European countries", Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States, but that Japan was "coming soon". Google stated that it had no plans to sell the Pixel 4 in
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
, with the company officially stating a preference to continue marketing the Pixel 3a in the region; media outlets noted that civilian use of the 60GHz frequency is prohibited in India, unlike in the U.S. and some other countries, where it is considered
unlicensed spectrum
Spectrum management is the process of regulating the use of radio frequencies to promote efficient use and gain a net social benefit.Martin Cave, Chris Doyle, William Webb, ''Modern Spectrum Management'', Cambridge University Press, 2007 The ter ...
.
Software
The Pixel 4 ships with
Android 10
Android 10 (code name, codenamed Android Q during development) is the Android version history, tenth major release and the 17th version of the Android (operating system), Android mobile operating system. It was first released as a developer pre ...
and
Google Camera 7.1. The devices feature several features powered by their Pixel Neural Core (the successor to the
Pixel Visual Core
The Pixel Visual Core (PVC) is a series of ARM architecture, ARM-based System in package, system in package (SiP) image processors designed by Google. The PVC is a fully programmable Image processor, image, Vision processing unit, vision and AI acc ...
) and Knowles 8508A audio processor. In addition to its existing use for
computational photography
Computational photography refers to digital image capture and processing techniques that use digital computation instead of optical processes. Computational photography can improve the capabilities of a camera, or introduce features that were no ...
image processing
An image or picture is a visual representation. An image can be two-dimensional, such as a drawing, painting, or photograph, or three-dimensional, such as a carving or sculpture. Images may be displayed through other media, including a pr ...
, they are used by the new Recorder and Live Transcribe apps. Recorder is a voice recorder with live transcription, classification and searchable sounds. Also the "new"
Google Assistant
Google Assistant is a virtual assistant software application developed by Google that is primarily available on home automation and mobile devices. Based on artificial intelligence, Google Assistant can engage in two-way conversations, unlike ...
, which contains enhancements to allow for increased client-side recognition of commands that are local to the device (rather than querying Google servers).
After Google demonstrated
astrophotography
Astrophotography, also known as astronomical imaging, is the photography or imaging of astronomical objects, celestial events, or areas of the night sky. The first photograph of an astronomical object (the Moon) was taken in 1839, but it was no ...
sample photos, a scene of
San Francisco
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
with the Moon blown out and the woods
underexposed was shown.
Marc Levoy
Marc Stewart Levoy is a computer graphics researcher and Professor Emeritus of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, a vice president and Fellow at Adobe Inc., and (until 2020) a Distinguished Engineer at Google. He ...
explained that the difference in light between the Moon and woods was too significant, requiring 19 stops of
dynamic range
Dynamics (from Greek δυναμικός ''dynamikos'' "powerful", from δύναμις ''dynamis'' " power") or dynamic may refer to:
Physics and engineering
* Dynamics (mechanics), the study of forces and their effect on motion
Brands and ent ...
which no phone or
DSLR camera was currently capable of performing. He reaffirmed Google's commitment to improving the camera with software updates (a signature of the Pixel line) and said to stay tuned.
Reception
The Pixel 4 received an overall score of 112 from
DXOMARK, a 10-point improvement over its predecessor. It had a photo score of 117, a video score of 101, and a selfie score of 92. The camera was particularly praised for its performance in low light situations.
The Pixel 4 and 4 XL were praised by critics for their photography capabilities, the move to 6GB of RAM from 4GB, and the 90Hz refresh rate screen. They were criticized for their poor battery life (especially on the smaller Pixel 4), the low amount of non-expandable storage, the lack of an ultra-wide angle camera lens, the removal of the fingerprint sensor in favor of the secure Face Unlock, the lack of 4K 60fps video recording, the lack of headphones or an adapter in the box, the Motion Sense system's poor detection, and the high price compared to other flagship smartphones. Google was also criticized for not providing unlimited uncompressed photo and video cloud storage like its Pixel predecessors had.
''
Ars Technica
''Ars Technica'' is a website covering news and opinions in technology, science, politics, and society, created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews, and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, sci ...
'' gave the device a mixed pre-release review, noting that the etched finish of the orange and white models felt stronger than that of the Pixel 3 without compromising its "soft" and "grippy" feel, but that the screen bezels looked "lopsided". The Motion Sense system was panned for its reliance on hand waving gestures that were "so big that it's a cumbersome, tiring, annoying thing to do." This was contrasted with early demonstrations of the technology being able to detect "sub-millimeter motions at high speed and accuracy", noting that Google's admitted need to downsize the radar chip in order to fit into a smartphone may have compromised its capabilities.
Ars Technica's in-depth review concluded that "This year, the Pixel 4 feels like a bunch of software decisions designed to prop up hardware that has been cost-cut to death".
Issues
Fixed issues
* Videos recorded with third-party apps like Instagram and Snapchat have odd clicking noises in the background.
*The Pixel 4 did not require eye contact with the phone when using facial recognition to unlock the device, raising privacy concerns since the device could be unlocked even if the user's eyes were closed. Google released an update in April 2020 that added the option for eyes open requirement in face unlock.
*The Pixel 4 automatically lowers the display's refresh rate to 60Hz if the screen brightness is set below 75 percent. Google released a fix for this in the November 2019 update.
*In certain lighting conditions, the Pixel 4's white balance "fix" could result in photos with inaccurate color representation. Google released a fix in the November 2019 update.
References
External links
*
{{Google Pixel
Android (operating system) devices
Discontinued flagship smartphones
Foxconn
Google hardware
Google Pixel
Mobile phones introduced in 2019
Mobile phones with 4K video recording
Mobile phones with multiple rear cameras