I have the white pixel 4xl 64gb on sprint and purchased through sprint. I am coming from the pixel 3a.
The pixel 3a was my first ever pixel phone and I used it for a month. I did try the note 10+ for a few days but had a less than desirable experience. I picked up the 3a knowing I would be getting the pixel 4. I experienced the budget offerings from google which made me even more excited to try the premium offerings from google. I never got a pixel before mainly because of the design I didn't really like how they looked and they always felt a bit outdated to me. I know people have complained about the big forehead on the pixel 4 but considering what is in the forehead makes it a fair compromise IMO.
That brings me to the best feature IMO of the pixel 4 and that is the face unlock. Oh how I missed being able to just pick up my phone and have it unlocked by the time I am looking at it. I have read on here about a few people having to tap the screen or press the power button to get the phone to start the unlock process. That was also true of the iPhone X when Face ID was first launched. Didn't work flawlessly out the gate but improved with updates as time went on.
In my day to day usage of the device, the soli sensor and motion control just doesn't fit. When I am driving I use android auto and the buttons on my steering wheel to control music. I have yet to set an alarm due to it being the weekend so I don't need to be up at a certain time. Tomorrow I will try out the alarm gesture with motion sense and see how well it works. What I did notice when I got a call earlier, is that when I reached for the phone and before I could even touch it the ringer volume decreased. I am sure as time goes on more features will be added for use with soli.
I really enjoy the new google assistant and how quick it works. If it involves something strictly based in the phone it is damn hear instant. I set timers when I am cooking and before there would be a prompt saying ok setting time for x amount of time before starting it. Now it just starts the timer with no added phrases, making phone calls and texts is vastly improved in my opinion. Everything else I do with assistant is the same, I have noticed less feedback from assistant and more just doing what you ask.
The screen is beautiful and I love the 90hz refresh rate. For the first day I didn't force the 90hz just to try out the whole automatic switching and all of that. I don't like to have my screen very bright, usually below 50% at all times. I enabled the forced 90hz and disabled all animations. Holy crap does that make everything that much snappier. I might enable animations again I kind of miss them. I feel like they add to the whole experience of the device and software. I haven't really noticed a hit to the battery life with the forced 90hz. Then again I have only had the device since Friday evening.
That brings me to the most controversial aspect of this phone according to paid reviewers. The battery life (sinister music in background). So far I have only charged this phone on an actual charger to 100% when I got it Friday and my battery is currently at 36%. When ever I go any where, I plug my phone into android auto. So a few times a day both yesterday and today my phone has gotten 15-45 minute charge each day and that is it. With how I use a phone and my day to day activities, I have 7 hours of SOT the last full charge was 32 hours ago. 32 hours because it topped off yesterday morning when I went to get breakfast. That's because between Friday night and Saturday morning the phone use 5% battery and was at 90%. Its safe to say that the battery in this phone more than good enough for my usage.
Another big gripe by reviewers is storage, because I went through sprint. They only have 128 in the black for some weird reason. I didn't want another plain black phone, so I went with the white 64. I have a few more items to setup at work tomorrow, but I am currently at 34% used and I did transfer everything from the 3a to 4. I also pay for 200gb of google drive storage as well. I stream my music and I don't take a lot of pictures or record videos very often. 64 gigs is plenty of storage for myself and my usage so I am completely happy with that.
When it comes to the camera in a phone, I could honestly care less if it even had one. It is my least important feature in a phone. I could care less that it doesn't have a wide angle lens. When I get a chance to get outside of the giant city I live in. I do want to try out the astro-photography. Maybe see what kind of images I can get through my telescope. Its not something that I am rushing to go try at all.
The only issue I have had so far is due to sprint. The pixel phones use the esim on sprint which is nice but I ran into a small issue with texting and calling. That's because you need to erase the esim on your old phone. While this phone was activated and connected to sprint. My 3a was still saying it was in service but not connected and I believe that was causing the issue with calls and text. Because the sprint service had 2 devices active on one line. All I did was called sprint, erased the esim on my 3a and had sprint refresh everything in their system so that it only recognized the one device. I have had zero issues since then and everything works perfectly.
So far I am more than happy with the device it has met and exceeded my expectations thus far. I new it was going to be a great experience based off of the pixel 3a. The jump in hardware specs from the 3a to the 4 is night and day when it comes to the feel of android 10. While people do focus on specs and the latest and greatest of everything. I focus on the user experience of the device as a whole. Thus far the user experience has been very pleasant for myself. Sprint now has a 30 day return on all phones, it also includes when upgrading. I don't foresee myself returning this phone, but its nice to have 30 days encase some random glaring issue does arise.
Is this phone going to be right for everyone, absolutely not. Everyone uses phones differently. That is the best thing about android phones in general. With so many manufactures we have the ability to choose a phone that meets our needs a user.
The pixel 3a was my first ever pixel phone and I used it for a month. I did try the note 10+ for a few days but had a less than desirable experience. I picked up the 3a knowing I would be getting the pixel 4. I experienced the budget offerings from google which made me even more excited to try the premium offerings from google. I never got a pixel before mainly because of the design I didn't really like how they looked and they always felt a bit outdated to me. I know people have complained about the big forehead on the pixel 4 but considering what is in the forehead makes it a fair compromise IMO.
That brings me to the best feature IMO of the pixel 4 and that is the face unlock. Oh how I missed being able to just pick up my phone and have it unlocked by the time I am looking at it. I have read on here about a few people having to tap the screen or press the power button to get the phone to start the unlock process. That was also true of the iPhone X when Face ID was first launched. Didn't work flawlessly out the gate but improved with updates as time went on.
In my day to day usage of the device, the soli sensor and motion control just doesn't fit. When I am driving I use android auto and the buttons on my steering wheel to control music. I have yet to set an alarm due to it being the weekend so I don't need to be up at a certain time. Tomorrow I will try out the alarm gesture with motion sense and see how well it works. What I did notice when I got a call earlier, is that when I reached for the phone and before I could even touch it the ringer volume decreased. I am sure as time goes on more features will be added for use with soli.
I really enjoy the new google assistant and how quick it works. If it involves something strictly based in the phone it is damn hear instant. I set timers when I am cooking and before there would be a prompt saying ok setting time for x amount of time before starting it. Now it just starts the timer with no added phrases, making phone calls and texts is vastly improved in my opinion. Everything else I do with assistant is the same, I have noticed less feedback from assistant and more just doing what you ask.
The screen is beautiful and I love the 90hz refresh rate. For the first day I didn't force the 90hz just to try out the whole automatic switching and all of that. I don't like to have my screen very bright, usually below 50% at all times. I enabled the forced 90hz and disabled all animations. Holy crap does that make everything that much snappier. I might enable animations again I kind of miss them. I feel like they add to the whole experience of the device and software. I haven't really noticed a hit to the battery life with the forced 90hz. Then again I have only had the device since Friday evening.
That brings me to the most controversial aspect of this phone according to paid reviewers. The battery life (sinister music in background). So far I have only charged this phone on an actual charger to 100% when I got it Friday and my battery is currently at 36%. When ever I go any where, I plug my phone into android auto. So a few times a day both yesterday and today my phone has gotten 15-45 minute charge each day and that is it. With how I use a phone and my day to day activities, I have 7 hours of SOT the last full charge was 32 hours ago. 32 hours because it topped off yesterday morning when I went to get breakfast. That's because between Friday night and Saturday morning the phone use 5% battery and was at 90%. Its safe to say that the battery in this phone more than good enough for my usage.
Another big gripe by reviewers is storage, because I went through sprint. They only have 128 in the black for some weird reason. I didn't want another plain black phone, so I went with the white 64. I have a few more items to setup at work tomorrow, but I am currently at 34% used and I did transfer everything from the 3a to 4. I also pay for 200gb of google drive storage as well. I stream my music and I don't take a lot of pictures or record videos very often. 64 gigs is plenty of storage for myself and my usage so I am completely happy with that.
When it comes to the camera in a phone, I could honestly care less if it even had one. It is my least important feature in a phone. I could care less that it doesn't have a wide angle lens. When I get a chance to get outside of the giant city I live in. I do want to try out the astro-photography. Maybe see what kind of images I can get through my telescope. Its not something that I am rushing to go try at all.
The only issue I have had so far is due to sprint. The pixel phones use the esim on sprint which is nice but I ran into a small issue with texting and calling. That's because you need to erase the esim on your old phone. While this phone was activated and connected to sprint. My 3a was still saying it was in service but not connected and I believe that was causing the issue with calls and text. Because the sprint service had 2 devices active on one line. All I did was called sprint, erased the esim on my 3a and had sprint refresh everything in their system so that it only recognized the one device. I have had zero issues since then and everything works perfectly.
So far I am more than happy with the device it has met and exceeded my expectations thus far. I new it was going to be a great experience based off of the pixel 3a. The jump in hardware specs from the 3a to the 4 is night and day when it comes to the feel of android 10. While people do focus on specs and the latest and greatest of everything. I focus on the user experience of the device as a whole. Thus far the user experience has been very pleasant for myself. Sprint now has a 30 day return on all phones, it also includes when upgrading. I don't foresee myself returning this phone, but its nice to have 30 days encase some random glaring issue does arise.
Is this phone going to be right for everyone, absolutely not. Everyone uses phones differently. That is the best thing about android phones in general. With so many manufactures we have the ability to choose a phone that meets our needs a user.
. You got me. I thought I would miss the fingerprint more but the Face ID is wicked cool. It's kinda like the phone knows what I want.
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