Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL are the best argument that specs don’t tell you everything you need to know about a phone — because the experience of using a Pixel 4 is better than any other Android phone.
There is a nuanced difference between saying “specs don’t tell you the whole story” and “specs don’t matter,” because they absolutely do — if only because the wrong ones can ruin the whole thing. There are a few places where Google could have done better, especially with battery life. But overall the Pixel 4 hits enough of the marks to pass, and it’s a few new features from Google that push the experience ahead of the pack.
The Pixel 4 starts at $799 for the smaller 5.7-inch screen version with 64GB of storage. I suspect many users will pay the $100 for the XL version with the bigger screen, the $100 more for 128GB of storage, or both. I am sympathetic to arguments that the specs don’t quite justify those prices, but only to a point. With the Pixel 4, the cost isn’t about the hardware — it’s about Google’s software, camera, and those new features.
Most new phones try to layer on one or two new features year over year. But the Pixel 4 has at least five major new hardware-based features: face unlock, Motion Sense, the new Google Assistant, the new 90Hz display, and a second telephoto camera lens. It’s also available on all four major US carriers for the first time.
It’s a lot — but is it enough?