- It's Pixel 4 time.

You know the drill.

Two sizes, three colors, two storage options,

a million leaks, Google software, a really good camera,

the whole Pixel deal.

It's high expectations, in other words.

The Pixel 4 is the flagship.

It's what Google says Android should be.

It also wants it to be like the default Android phone.

Plus, this is the first year that Google is selling it

on all four major US carriers.

So, we expect it to be good enough

to really start selling in big volume.

But it's not selling in India.

I guess I didn't expect that.

Anyway, the point is, the Pixel is all about expectations.

You knew what to expect because everything leaked.

But now that it's here, can it live up to those expectations

especially when it starts at $799 and goes up to 1,000?

Let's get into it.

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If we're talking about design,

we just have to say it out loud at the start.

The Pixel 4 and the iPhone 11 look kinda the same.

It's not just funny, it's almost uncanny.

They both have matte glass on some models

and glossy on other models.

They both have the square camera bump.

They have some weird stuff at the top of their screens.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I see the differences.

Which one looks better to you is a matter of taste.

The Pixel has these really obvious matte rails on the side.

It's not trying to hide them or polish them away.

They're a main part of the look of this phone.

The matte rails make it easier to grip too.

So far, I think the whole thing

is a little bit less scratch-prone than the Pixel 3 was.

Whatever.

I still love the color pop on the power button.

I still think the black one is the most boring one.

But you know what, they all look the same

when you put 'em in a case anyway.

But before you put 'em in a case,

take a second to appreciate

that this is the best build quality

Google has ever done on a phone.

Okay.

Let's talk about the forehead.

It's there.

It's funny-looking, and it's not symmetrical.

Samsung's hole-punch probably looks a little bit better

or a Notch would give you just a little bit more screen

to put status bar stuff, but the Notch kinda looks doofy.

Can we just stop having these arguments?

Unless you want stuff popping out of the top of your phone

with motors, maybe you do, there's gonna be stuff

at the top of your screen.

I think this looks okay.

I've gotten used to it.

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Face unlock on the Pixel 4 uses infrared projectors

just like the iPhone.

Just like on the iPhone, it looks super wild

when you point a real infrared camera at it.

It has a decent field of view,

but it's maybe not quite as wide as the iPhone 11's.

The infrared means that it works in the dark,

and the system is designed to detect depth,

so I wasn't able to trick it

with a video or a photo of myself.

Maybe it could be tricked with a mask though.

I don't know.

But if you're worried about somebody making a life-like mask

of you, maybe you should look at other things

that's going on with your life.

One thing you should know is that it doesn't do

the extra security step of making sure

that you're looking at it.

That means if you're asleep, someone could just point it

at you and unlock it because it works with your eyes closed.

So, only sleep around people you trust?

I mean, I don't know.

That's just good life advice.

Anyway, once it's set up,

it just works like you would expect it to.

It unlocks the phone,

and it can also authenticate Google Pay

or bank apps or whatever.

You just point your face at it, and it unlocks.

It's fast, like really fast.

It's at least as fast as the iPhone.

I wanna talk about why it feels so fast.

But before I get there, let's talk about radar.

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You've heard it, right?

The Pixel 4 has a radar chip up top.

It's a Project Soli chip,

but the feature is called motion sense.

It's the thing that I'm sure everybody is going to say

is a little flaky because it is a little flaky.

You can wave your hand left or right to go back or forward

if you use like a podcast are playing.

You can also wave your hand to dismiss phone calls

or snooze alarms.

It's the most prominent,

most engaging feature of motion sense.

That's why it's a bummer that it's the most flaky part.

There are times where it works every time.

I don't even have to think about it.

I'm just keeping my eyes on my computer or whatever

and I'm flicking away songs that I don't want.

But then it doesn't work and I'm like what, also why.

There have been gestures on phones before,

and nobody used them.

I think these gestures are gonna fare slightly better

because they don't hit your battery life

and you can just be a little bit more flippant

with your gestures when you use them.

But you know what, feel free to be annoyed with them

or just ignore them completely.

It's cool.

It's cool because even if Google just took those gestures

away entirely, I would still be glad

that Soli is on this phone

because of the other two things that it does.

The first is it detects your presence.

It just knows if you're nearby.

When you walk away, the always on screen turns off.

That's cool.

It actually works really well.

The other thing that works really well is reach.

The phone knows if you're reaching for it,

and it can do stuff when that happens.

So, if a ringtone or alarm is blaring,

it quiets down when your hand gets near it,

so you can look at the phone

and then decide what you wanna do, wave it away or whatever.

And if the screen is off and you reach for it,

it lights up the face unlock cameras

and starts looking for you.

That is part of the reason why face unlock feels so fast.

It is a split second faster than the accelerometer method

that the iPhone uses.

Google also defaults to going straight into the phone

instead of unlocking to the lock screen,

which makes it feel even faster yet.

Oh by the way, if you want, you can keep the lock screen

and then have to swipe up to get into the phone.

That's helpful if you use your phone

mainly through notifications like I do.

Oh (laughs) also, there's Pokemon.

Yes, there's Pokemon wallpaper.

It is very cute.

It's also useful because you can show weather conditions

on top of the Pokemon.

You can wave them or you can pet at them.

Look, I have seen people say that they would prefer

an in-screen fingerprint sensor,

and I am saying that face unlock is unequivocally better.

Maybe in a year or two, they'll do both the fingerprint

and face unlock, but I'm not asking for it.

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Okay.

It's camera time, and I know what you're here for.

You wanna know whether or not the Pixel 4

took the best smartphone camera crown

back from the iPhone 11 Pro.

Let me tell you why that's complicated.

Do you remember Nilay's review of the iPhone 11 Pro?

He had to say that this phone right here,

the Pixel 4 was right around the corner

when he was judging that camera.

Now I'm reviewing the Pixel, and I have to say

that Apple's Deep Fusion's sweater mode software upgrade

is right around the corner.

So, I have to mention it.

It's practically diabolical, and it means that I can't make

a definitive judgment right now.

Look, if you force me to pick one right now,

I have to admit that the iPhone 11 Pro

gives you much more versatility.

It has an ultra wide camera for taking more phone photos,

and it's way better at video.

But when it comes to still photo photography

and night mode and all of that,

I do think there are a lot of useful things to talk about

with these two cameras.

Plus, the Pixel has a few new features

that we need to talk about,

especially now that it has a second telephoto lens.

Let's just look at some photos.

Here's a shot of Will, our creative director.

It's in very dim light.

This kind of tells the whole story.

The iPhone still trends towards yellow tones

while the Pixel is a little bit bluer.

The Pixel has a look.

Even though it's slightly warmer and less contrasty

than the last Pixel, it's still much more dramatic

than the iPhone.

Apple does sharpen a little bit more,

and it does maintain a little bit more detail too,

and more detail is good, but look, the color balance

on the Pixel is smarter.

Google is analyzing the actual things in the image

and guessing what the white balance should be

based on what it sees where Apple is treating white balance

a little bit more like a traditional camera would.

All right.

Next, let's talk about telephoto.

You see, Google chose a telephoto lens

instead of an ultra wide lens

or, you know, just giving us both for some reason.

But the main reason is, Google thinks that it can use

its super zoom tech along with that second 2X lens

to make zoom way better.

You know what?

It's way better.

Look at the zoom on our video producer Maria.

This is an 8X zoom.

The iPhone, it looks like it's a cropped, it's noisy as hell

while the Pixel is much more natural.

I mean, look at her jacket.

There's just so much more detail here.

So, what have we learned?

The Pixel wins on zoom.

The iPhone gets detail better sometimes,

but it is a little bit yellower.

The Pixel gets color balance better on the whole though,

and it is more opinionated.

The Pixel has a look, and it consistently gets that look.

What about night mode?

You can kind of get either one to make a better photo.

It's a little bit of a crap shoot.

The iPhone's multiple frames use longer exposure,

so it can get a little bit more detail on still objects,

but it messes up moving ones.

Just look at the cloud here on this photo.

The Pixel though, it just keeps on doing its look.

In dim light, I think they're a little bit closer

to each other, but the Pixel can get more detail.

It's the exposure time thing again.

The Pixel does more short exposures with more math.

So, that means it's more forgiving of shaky hands.

All right.

What about portrait mode?