Google promises update to enable 90Hz on Pixel 4 in below <75% brightness + more fixes in "coming months"

[RedRound2]

Source: https://www.gsmarena.com/google_promises_update_to_enable_90hz_on_pixel_4_in_more_brightness_conditions-news-39796.php

 

Okay, this is getting ridiculous. Pixel 4, a phone from such a huge company like Google seems to have tons of no brainer issues like this. I came to know about the aggressive ratcheting after MKBHD's review, but in a news that hit a day back (I think), it was reported that the 90 Hz screen was only enabled above 75%+ screen brightness

 

Quote

Fans quickly discovered that one of the best features on the Pixel 4 and 4 XL – the 90Hz mode for the screen – only works when the brightness is at 75% or higher. 

 

In the same statement the company clarified the situations when the Pixel 4 screen reverts back to 60Hz. It does it when the battery saver is on and when viewing video). Those make a lot of sense - 90Hz requires more power and most video is shot at 30fps (or 60fps at most).

The third situation is in “various brightness and ambient conditions” without giving more explanation what that means (e.g. how do ambient conditions affect the decision to fall back to 60Hz, is it about more than just brightness?).

Google promises to update, but there doesn't seem to be a clear timeline and they haven't mentioned "how much more brightness conditions", they're going to enable that it. My theory is, as Marques said in his review, that force enabling 90 Hz absolutely obliterates the already weak battery life of the Pixel 4, so unless they can magically increase the capacity of the abttery via update, the user experience is still going to be a nightmare

 

In other news, Google also promises to update the "feature" where Pixel 4 would happily also unlock the phone (and process payments, open bank accounts, whatnot) when your eyes are close (aka asleep or passed out or knocked out, etc), in coming months, after initially denying to ever fix it as it "passed all their biometric security requirements" (with flying colours I presume)

 

Source: https://www.gsmarena.com/pixel_4_eye_detection_fix_for_face_unlock_on_the_way_says_google-news-39722.php

 

Now, my question is, what the fuck was up with LTTs review of the Pixel 4? Linus never mentions anything about the battery life, and for a pixel peeper and refresh rate sensitive guy, I would've expected him to notice the 90-60 Hz shift all the time. Or if his screen brightness was always above 75%, it would imply the Pixel has extremely poor screen brightness, meaning it couldn't possibly be HDR certified, like most of today's flagships. And were they not aware of the face unlock issue or something that pretty much all other reviewers covered in their respective reviews.

 

If you only saw Linus's review, I'm sorry, it was quite frankly pathetic and almost all other reviewers have pretty much lukewarm to exact opposite of the conclusions he came up with. I used to like Linus's phone reviews in the beginning because he gave a fresh perspective and more nitty gritty look, but recently all his reviews seems to be very superficial and under researched. 

 

I'd recommend pretty much any other review of the Pixel 4, links below

 

TL;DW: Battery life is atrocious, especially with 90 Hz always on (but somehow OnePlus was able to pull it off quite well with 7T), camera got better, but competition is really close and a lot of reviewers prefer iPhone's Night Mode, Soli is pure gimmick (and the concept video is definitely fake, if they couldn't figure out in 4 years time anything remotely similar), Face Unlock is fast but super insecure (as of now), video is nowhere near as good as iPhones (exactly opposite to Linus's conclusion) lacking 4K60, software seems unrefined. Overall a very undercooked phone.

 

And the pricing and storage is idiotic compared to the extremely strong 2019 lineup that consists of the iPhone 11 (with better battery, versatile camera) and OnePlus 7T for $200 cheaper on android side of things that pretty much matches or beats Pixels in all ways except cameras (and maybe 2nd to software updates). And it's official guys, iPhone this time is cheaper than the Pixel. In fact 64GB Pixel 4 (non XL) is more expensive than the 128GB iPhone 11.

 

 

 

 

 

Most pathetic phone of 2019? iPhone 11 lineup were received better than even Apple expected, and if we ignore OnePlus extremely convoluted lineup, the OnePlus 7T is actually a pretty great phone. And if Samsung hadn't botched up the fingerprint scanner the S10 and the Note10 would've also been up there

[mxk]

im actually liking the iphone 11 more than the pixel 4, and thats never happened..

[Morgan MLGman]

14 minutes ago, RedRound2 said:

OnePlus 7T for $200 cheaper on android side of things that pretty much matches or beats Pixels in all ways except cameras

I somehow doubt that

[RejZoR]

1 hour ago, mxk said:

im actually liking the iphone 11 more than the pixel 4, and thats never happened..

I'm still on iPhone XR and I still don't feel like I'm missing out anything compared to Pixel 4...

[mxk]

17 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

I'm still on iPhone XR and I still don't feel like I'm missing out anything compared to Pixel 4...

I've never had iphones as my preference, since I like being able to move around my files and manage my phone. The pixel 4 is a joke to me. I'll probably stay on android for my next phone but if apple continues to put out better phones i'd consider switching.

[yolosnail]

A new Pixel phone, with software problems...

 

It can't be true, I'm calling fake news on this!

[RejZoR]

11 minutes ago, mxk said:

I've never had iphones as my preference, since I like being able to move around my files and manage my phone. The pixel 4 is a joke to me. I'll probably stay on android for my next phone but if apple continues to put out better phones i'd consider switching.

I've been on Android since HTC Wildfire, that thing was running Android Eiclar and ditched it with Android Pie. iOS isn't as bad as people portray it to be. I switched to it basically over night and I'm liking it a lot actually. Got the hang of it quite quickly actually and I think I'm gonna stick with it because I like it so much. Knowing Apple has my back with updates for years to come I don't have to worry about switching phones just to have latest OS. Something I absolutely hate about Android.

[mxk]

17 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

I've been on Android since HTC Wildfire, that thing was running Android Eiclar and ditched it with Android Pie. iOS isn't as bad as people portray it to be. I switched to it basically over night and I'm liking it a lot actually. Got the hang of it quite quickly actually and I think I'm gonna stick with it because I like it so much. Knowing Apple has my back with updates for years to come I don't have to worry about switching phones just to have latest OS. Something I absolutely hate about Android.

Yeah I feel that. I'm sure I would get the hang of iphones too, and I'm sure the ecosystem would also be really nice its just that there are things on android I can't give up. One of the biggest things I love about android is the equalizer for the music. All that apple has is a setting called "bass booster" thats weak as hell compared to what I can do on android.

[Blademaster91]

1 hour ago, mxk said:

I've never had iphones as my preference, since I like being able to move around my files and manage my phone. The pixel 4 is a joke to me. I'll probably stay on android for my next phone but if apple continues to put out better phones i'd consider switching.

The iphones might be objectively better than the pixel 4, but I'd consider a ton of other phones before switching, even something like a cheap Nokia 7.2 cuz it would still have everything I need in a phone with stock Android, I couldn't give up the easier to use file management, or a headphone jack which most people meme on nowadays but I honestly still use the 3.5mm jack quite often. And iphones still have the chunk of the screen taken up by a notch, lightning is worse than USB-C imo, and having the option to choose what browser I want should be a basic feature.

 

[mxk]

6 minutes ago, Blademaster91 said:

The iphones might be objectively better than the pixel 4, but I'd consider a ton of other phones before switching, even something like a cheap Nokia 7.2 cuz it would still have everything I need in a phone with stock Android, I couldn't give up the easier to use file management, or a headphone jack which most people meme on nowadays but I honestly still use the 3.5mm jack quite often. And iphones still have the chunk of the screen taken up by a notch, lightning is worse than USB-C imo, and having the option to choose what browser I want should be a basic feature.

 

yeah I'd also consider a lot of different android phones because I'm so attached. I don't really care about the notch anymore since it seems to be a given and as long as its symmetrical it doesn't really annoy me.

 

USB C is superior but it does have worse audio than lightning, or at least I've seen things about that. 

 

I'd also rather pick my own browser. I'm just overall more sided with android, but apple is finally making some changes instead of releasing the same phone every year. The 11 is actually a little more different than just a camera change and minor improvements.

 

One thing google seems to be pretty good with is solid post processing for pictures compared to apple. They've spent so much time developing the AI.

[BuckGup]

A company that can make quantum computers can't launch or make a smartphone properly 

[Doobeedoo]

Why do they have to scuff every phone. No ultrawide wide, they think majority want telephoto haha what. Very low battery capacity. Memory, storage, older chipset, 5G are all on top of those main issues. To add, it's very expensive. Disappointing. 

[Suika]

5 hours ago, Morgan MLGman said:

I somehow doubt that

I thought we all agreed to stop believing DxO was a definitive benchmark.

 

The Pixel 4 has just turned out to be the most disappointing phone of the year, and it's really sad, I really wanted to want one. OnePlus has produced an all around better feeling device for significantly cheaper if you don't mind the camera (though it's not a terrible camera, just not a 2019 camera), and Apple has closed the camera gap between the Pixels and themselves by so much that, because of the additional versatility of the iPhone cameras, if I wanted a good camera, I wouldn't consider the Pixel anymore.

 

Like yea, the Pixel still does the best still photography, but... it has the worst performance in ultra-wide (cuz duh), abysmal video performance, even compared to OnePlus, includes absolutely no storage capacity for a premium priced device, such a regression in battery life that it feels like we've gone back to 2014 Android phones while Apple has somehow pushed themselves to the top of the pack, and introduced features that users aren't sure they'll be able to take advantage of because the country they live in or travel to might not allow motion sense, or the battery saving is so aggressive it flat out refuses to move the display to 90Hz.

 

I honestly thought I'd wait a few months and buy a Pixel when it got a $300 discount or something, but it quickly turned into me just buying a 7T. Even if the Pixel 4 XL were the same price as the OnePlus 7T, there are so many compromises to the actual phone part of the Pixel that the camera does not make up for it.

[Fnige]

3 minutes ago, Suika said:

Apple has somehow pushed themselves to the top of the pack

IMO i think apple is changing