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(light music)
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- It's Pixel 4 time.
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You know the drill.
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Two sizes, three colors, two storage options,
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a million leaks, Google software, a really good camera,
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the whole Pixel deal.
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It's high expectations, in other words.
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The Pixel 4 is the flagship.
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It's what Google says Android should be.
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It also wants it to be like the default Android phone.
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Plus, this is the first year that Google is selling it
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on all four major US carriers.
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So, we expect it to be good enough
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to really start selling in big volume.
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But it's not selling in India.
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I guess I didn't expect that.
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Anyway, the point is, the Pixel is all about expectations.
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You knew what to expect because everything leaked.
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But now that it's here, can it live up to those expectations
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especially when it starts at $799 and goes up to 1,000?
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Let's get into it.
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(light music)
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If we're talking about design,
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we just have to say it out loud at the start.
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The Pixel 4 and the iPhone 11 look kinda the same.
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It's not just funny, it's almost uncanny.
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They both have matte glass on some models
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and glossy on other models.
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They both have the square camera bump.
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They have some weird stuff at the top of their screens.
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I mean, don't get me wrong, I see the differences.
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Which one looks better to you is a matter of taste.
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The Pixel has these really obvious matte rails on the side.
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It's not trying to hide them or polish them away.
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They're a main part of the look of this phone.
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The matte rails make it easier to grip too.
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So far, I think the whole thing
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is a little bit less scratch-prone than the Pixel 3 was.
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Whatever.
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I still love the color pop on the power button.
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I still think the black one is the most boring one.
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But you know what, they all look the same
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when you put 'em in a case anyway.
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But before you put 'em in a case,
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take a second to appreciate
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that this is the best build quality
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Google has ever done on a phone.
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Okay.
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Let's talk about the forehead.
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It's there.
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It's funny-looking, and it's not symmetrical.
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Samsung's hole-punch probably looks a little bit better
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or a Notch would give you just a little bit more screen
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to put status bar stuff, but the Notch kinda looks doofy.
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Can we just stop having these arguments?
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Unless you want stuff popping out of the top of your phone
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with motors, maybe you do, there's gonna be stuff
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at the top of your screen.
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I think this looks okay.
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I've gotten used to it.
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(light music)
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Face unlock on the Pixel 4 uses infrared projectors
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just like the iPhone.
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Just like on the iPhone, it looks super wild
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when you point a real infrared camera at it.
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It has a decent field of view,
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but it's maybe not quite as wide as the iPhone 11's.
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The infrared means that it works in the dark,
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and the system is designed to detect depth,
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so I wasn't able to trick it
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with a video or a photo of myself.
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Maybe it could be tricked with a mask though.
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I don't know.
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But if you're worried about somebody making a life-like mask
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of you, maybe you should look at other things
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that's going on with your life.
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One thing you should know is that it doesn't do
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the extra security step of making sure
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that you're looking at it.
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That means if you're asleep, someone could just point it
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at you and unlock it because it works with your eyes closed.
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So, only sleep around people you trust?
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I mean, I don't know.
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That's just good life advice.
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Anyway, once it's set up,
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it just works like you would expect it to.
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It unlocks the phone,
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and it can also authenticate Google Pay
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or bank apps or whatever.
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You just point your face at it, and it unlocks.
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It's fast, like really fast.
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It's at least as fast as the iPhone.
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I wanna talk about why it feels so fast.
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But before I get there, let's talk about radar.
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(light music)
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You've heard it, right?
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The Pixel 4 has a radar chip up top.
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It's a Project Soli chip,
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but the feature is called motion sense.
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It's the thing that I'm sure everybody is going to say
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is a little flaky because it is a little flaky.
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You can wave your hand left or right to go back or forward
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if you use like a podcast are playing.
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You can also wave your hand to dismiss phone calls
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or snooze alarms.
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It's the most prominent,
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most engaging feature of motion sense.
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That's why it's a bummer that it's the most flaky part.
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There are times where it works every time.
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I don't even have to think about it.
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I'm just keeping my eyes on my computer or whatever
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and I'm flicking away songs that I don't want.
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But then it doesn't work and I'm like what, also why.
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There have been gestures on phones before,
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and nobody used them.
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I think these gestures are gonna fare slightly better
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because they don't hit your battery life
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and you can just be a little bit more flippant
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with your gestures when you use them.
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But you know what, feel free to be annoyed with them
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or just ignore them completely.
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It's cool.
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It's cool because even if Google just took those gestures
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away entirely, I would still be glad
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that Soli is on this phone
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because of the other two things that it does.
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The first is it detects your presence.
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It just knows if you're nearby.
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When you walk away, the always on screen turns off.
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That's cool.
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It actually works really well.
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The other thing that works really well is reach.
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The phone knows if you're reaching for it,
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and it can do stuff when that happens.
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So, if a ringtone or alarm is blaring,
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it quiets down when your hand gets near it,
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so you can look at the phone
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and then decide what you wanna do, wave it away or whatever.
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And if the screen is off and you reach for it,
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it lights up the face unlock cameras
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and starts looking for you.
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That is part of the reason why face unlock feels so fast.
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It is a split second faster than the accelerometer method
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that the iPhone uses.
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Google also defaults to going straight into the phone
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instead of unlocking to the lock screen,
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which makes it feel even faster yet.
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Oh by the way, if you want, you can keep the lock screen
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and then have to swipe up to get into the phone.
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That's helpful if you use your phone
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mainly through notifications like I do.
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Oh (laughs) also, there's Pokemon.
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Yes, there's Pokemon wallpaper.
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It is very cute.
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It's also useful because you can show weather conditions
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on top of the Pokemon.
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You can wave them or you can pet at them.
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Look, I have seen people say that they would prefer
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an in-screen fingerprint sensor,
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and I am saying that face unlock is unequivocally better.
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Maybe in a year or two, they'll do both the fingerprint
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and face unlock, but I'm not asking for it.
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(light music)
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Okay.
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It's camera time, and I know what you're here for.
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You wanna know whether or not the Pixel 4
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took the best smartphone camera crown
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back from the iPhone 11 Pro.
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Let me tell you why that's complicated.
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Do you remember Nilay's review of the iPhone 11 Pro?
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He had to say that this phone right here,
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the Pixel 4 was right around the corner
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when he was judging that camera.
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Now I'm reviewing the Pixel, and I have to say
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that Apple's Deep Fusion's sweater mode software upgrade
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is right around the corner.
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So, I have to mention it.
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It's practically diabolical, and it means that I can't make
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a definitive judgment right now.
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Look, if you force me to pick one right now,
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I have to admit that the iPhone 11 Pro
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gives you much more versatility.
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It has an ultra wide camera for taking more phone photos,
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and it's way better at video.
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But when it comes to still photo photography
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and night mode and all of that,
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I do think there are a lot of useful things to talk about
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with these two cameras.
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Plus, the Pixel has a few new features
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that we need to talk about,
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especially now that it has a second telephoto lens.
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Let's just look at some photos.
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Here's a shot of Will, our creative director.
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It's in very dim light.
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This kind of tells the whole story.
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The iPhone still trends towards yellow tones
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while the Pixel is a little bit bluer.
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The Pixel has a look.
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Even though it's slightly warmer and less contrasty
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than the last Pixel, it's still much more dramatic
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than the iPhone.
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Apple does sharpen a little bit more,
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and it does maintain a little bit more detail too,
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and more detail is good, but look, the color balance
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on the Pixel is smarter.
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Google is analyzing the actual things in the image
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and guessing what the white balance should be
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based on what it sees where Apple is treating white balance
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a little bit more like a traditional camera would.
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All right.
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Next, let's talk about telephoto.
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You see, Google chose a telephoto lens
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instead of an ultra wide lens
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or, you know, just giving us both for some reason.
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But the main reason is, Google thinks that it can use
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its super zoom tech along with that second 2X lens
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to make zoom way better.
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You know what?
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It's way better.
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Look at the zoom on our video producer Maria.
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This is an 8X zoom.
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The iPhone, it looks like it's a cropped, it's noisy as hell
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while the Pixel is much more natural.
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I mean, look at her jacket.
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There's just so much more detail here.
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So, what have we learned?
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The Pixel wins on zoom.
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The iPhone gets detail better sometimes,
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but it is a little bit yellower.
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The Pixel gets color balance better on the whole though,
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and it is more opinionated.
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The Pixel has a look, and it consistently gets that look.
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What about night mode?
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You can kind of get either one to make a better photo.
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It's a little bit of a crap shoot.
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The iPhone's multiple frames use longer exposure,
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so it can get a little bit more detail on still objects,
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but it messes up moving ones.
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Just look at the cloud here on this photo.
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The Pixel though, it just keeps on doing its look.
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In dim light, I think they're a little bit closer
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to each other, but the Pixel can get more detail.
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It's the exposure time thing again.
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The Pixel does more short exposures with more math.
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So, that means it's more forgiving of shaky hands.
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All right.
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What about portrait mode?
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The Pixel uses the second telephoto lens
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to improve portrait mode, and it is better