Do you think the Pixel 4 is a fail?

By Joe Maring
published

Google officially launched the Pixel 4 and 4 XL this past Friday, opening the flood gates for everyone to get their hands on the company's latest and greatest flagships.

There's a lot on offer with the Pixel 4 series, and while both phones are equipped with solid performance and great cameras, weak batteries across the borad causes reason for concern.

Taking a look through the AC forums, here's what our community has to say about the phones.

Bezels aside, as I think this bezel hysteria is just damn stupid, but why did Google knee cap this phone so bad? I mean, at 800 for a base model, you have got to get it right. Pixel fan: WE LOVE THE FINGERPRINT SCANNER! Google: Okay, good, let's just remove the fingerprint scanner and replace it with a controversial face scanner. Pixel fans: We need a bigger battery, thank you for...

slave

2 more from another pixel fan that will stay on Note 10+ this year and see if Google wakes up for Pixel 5. Pixel fan: I have a pixel 3 XL and would like to upgrade to the upcoming pixel. I am a loyal customer and a good trade in value will get me loyal even more and ready to upgrade. Google: we hear you. So here is $260 for your MINT pixel 3 XL. Oh and by the way, we appreciate apple phones...

Lepa79

They've had MANY chances to nail it, and haven't yet, I don't see why the 5 will be any different. I think they're making pixels for fun, and don't actually expect to make a huge profit on tons of phones sold. I suspect it's more of an advertising ploy to get the Google name out there connected with their other products. The pixels a niche phone, always has been and I think it always will...

J Dubbs

My wife has a fairly new 2 XL and I was seriously contemplating getting a Pixel in the not to distant future. That thought quickly went out the window after seeing their Pixel 4 offerings. Definitely won't be spending 1K (CAD) for a measly 64GB , that's a joke.

slivy58

What about you? Do you think the Pixel 4 is a fail?

Join the conversation in the forums!

Joe Maring
Joe Maring

Joe Maring was a Senior Editor for Android Central between 2017 and 2021. You can reach him on Twitter at @JoeMaring1.

28 Comments
  • I'll save my judgement until after I've seen it in real life and/or have heard actual customer feedback.
    I think it's way too early to make a informed decision at this point.
  • Just stop. You are being way too rational.
  • It's hard to know how 'success' is defined for pixel devices (it doesn't seem to be sales). But yeah, despite knowing how great pixel cameras are, that battery life puts me off ever wanting to own a pixel 4. I'd now be more tempted to save money and get a pixel 3 xl.
  • The failure with these phones is with the following; -overpriced
    -small battery on regular Pixel 4
    -back fingerprint sensor removed
  • And lack of apps that work with their face unlock
  • As a Pixel 3 user, the 4 does not do enough to make me want to upgrade, but that's by no means a failure. Pixel phones have offered the best experience on Android for me and I know the 4 will do much of the same. If I had a Pixel 1 or 2, the 4 looks like a worthwhile upgrade.
  • I don't think it's worth upgrading *any* phone every year, I see it as always a waste of money for marginal improvements, that's why I went from the Pixel XL to the Pixel 3. I'll be keeping my Pixel 3 over the Pixel 4 mainly because the battery is smaller and guaranteed to yield worse results with that display, and because it did away with the unlimited storage, which I utilize extensively.
  • That post by J Dubbs is spot on. That is all Google cares about. They don't care about providing quality products or even quality services. They only care about hooking you into their ecosystem to push adverts to you and to sell your info. Ultimately, advertising is where Google's business is. The more info you give them the more money they make off you, and the best part is most people won't even realize it. They can make money off you without having to charge you a dime. That is why they release, rebrand, and retire so many services and products so often, Services like Google Drive, and YT Music are just bait for you to give them your info and open a Google account. They don't care if you actually use the service or pay for a subscription they'll make more money pushing ads to you about your favorite band that that they pulled from your search history in YT Music than they ever would from a monthly subscription.
  • Well said! People just don't care as long as their toys work.
  • You are both free to pay for G Suite and remove all the ads from 75% of all their services. So stop spreading your FUD. You're the worst kind of leech - biting the hands that feed it.
  • I kind of want to link to your own reviews... Doesn't matter how good a phone it is if it turns into a paperweight halfway through the day.
  • I'll save my opinion when all the reviews are in. Especially the battery tests? Plus the starting price of 799.00 bucks has me wondering!
  • Given that the items I'm most interested are coming to other phones (astrophotography, new Assistant), I'm still happy with my 3a.
  • Oh, there are probably enough suckers to buy it to keep it from being a total disaster, but it is a mere incremental update over prior models, and in this environment of keeping phones longer it is unquestionably a disappointment and underpowered. Since Google is committed to no expandable memory, a second generation device limited to 128g internally is an unqualified #FAIL. Compounding it by doing away with full-size upload pretty much makes the device untenable to anyone who is a Pixel fan, and, admittedly, I am decidedly NOT one of those.
  • I am definitely a Pixel fan, and some of the reasons I'm a Pixel fan are why I won't upgrade my 3 to a 4. Front facing speakers, unlimited storage, ultrawide front camera, back fingerprint scanner (for notification gestures), and, to nitpick, the two toned back. I get good enough battery life on my Pixel 3, but it's not "great", the Pixel 4 is guaranteed to yield worse battery life with it's larger, 90hz display.
  • The Pixel 3 sold less than all previous Pixels put together. Did you guys also forget the 'no full resolution backups' which was a big perk of the Pixels?
  • Perhaps but not the XL.
  • I think it is way overpriced for what it offers and will sell poorly.
  • Completely uninterested. Would rather an iPhone frankly. If you're going to spend silly money on a phone with missing features might as well get one that keeps it's value.
  • I've had every generation of Google phone since the Nexus 5. I won't be giving up my 3 XL for this.
  • I plan to upgrade from the Not Pink 3XL to the Orange 4XL
  • Absolutely a major failure compared to many other offerings for much less money. As someone already stated...it appears as if Google is not too concerned with selling many phones, or making a large profit off of phone sales. They already make more money than they need in other ways. However, they do not appear to be the type of company that will continue to make a product that loses money. They like to kill apps at random...I will be surprised if they don't just kill the Pixel at random...or sell it to another OEM that can do it justice.
  • Fail fail fail fail. Small battery, lack of fingerprint scanner, lack of RAM and internal storage. Lack of external storage. Lack of unlimited picture and video storage. I will either stick with Samsung (with it slow software updates), or switch to an iPhone. Sick of it all.
  • I've got the Pixel 2 XL and haven't seen a reason to upgrade. Two years is the longest I have owned any phone.
  • The fact that TMobile has the 64gb version only, I guess I'm not getting one anytime soon. Will stick with my unlimited baby until next year the 2xl.
  • I will be receiving my 4xl tomorrow. I just learned that new and improved Google assistant will not work properly if you have a Gsuite account in the phone ( even if it is not the main account). This is very disheartening. I have two business class Google accounts that I need to be in contact will at all times. This is unbelievably frustrating that because I work for a living and have domain accounts I'm restricted.
  • I'll wait for the Pixel 4 5G. Maybe it will have a much larger battery. Seems like smaller phones always take a hit on battery life, until Apple changed that recently. Not a larger phone person and was actually going to opt for the smaller pixel 4 but will probably see what Nokia has to offer in the next flagship. Phone doesn't offer enough for the price, especially a lot of features people want.
  • Most definitely the Pixel 4 is a failure, with Chinese OEMs like OnePlus offering more features and the same hardware for a lot less and in the case of OnePlus, Oxygen OS is far superior to Google's own software, I wouldn't trade my new OnePlus 7T for a Pixel, not anymore.