SpecEagle review · Google

Pixel 4 XL review: The Pixel with face-unlock radar — and a famously small battery.

SpecEagle Editorial·Oct 2019·$899
Overall
70/100
Class rank
#133 of 167
Tier
Flagship
Buy?
At the right price
The verdict, up front

A great camera let down by a famously poor battery.

The Pixel 4 XL took superb photos and added radar face unlock, but its small battery defined the reviews. A 2019 legacy device today.

01Display

82/100

82/100 — right at the average for flagship phones of 2019.

TypeOLED, 90 Hz, HDR
Size6.3 inches
Resolution3,040 × 1,440 px (537 ppi)
ProtectionGorilla Glass 5

02Camera

84/100

At 84/100 this is one of the strongest camera showings among flagship phones of 2019 — 7 points above the cohort average.

Main12.2 MP, f/1.7, OIS
Telephoto16 MP, f/2.4, 2× optical
Selfie8 MP, f/2.0
Video4K @ 30 fps

03Performance

70/100

70/100 is one of the weaker performance results among flagship phones of 2019 — 9 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.

ChipsetSnapdragon 855 (7 nm)
CPU8 cores
GPUAdreno 640
RAM6 GB
Storage64 GB / 128 GB

04Battery

62/100

62/100 is one of the weaker battery results among flagship phones of 2019 — 13 points under the average. Check the rows below before buying for this.

Capacity3,700 mAh
Wired18 W
WirelessYes (Qi)

05Build

82/100

82/100 — right at the average for flagship phones of 2019.

06Value

64/100

64/100 trails the 68-point cohort average for flagship phones of 2019.

What works
  • Excellent computational photography for 2019.
  • Smooth 90 Hz OLED.
  • Soli radar face unlock and Motion Sense gestures.
  • Clean Pixel software.
What doesn't
  • Small 3,700 mAh battery — poor endurance.
  • No 5G; ultrawide camera missing.
  • Software ended at Android 13.
  • Discontinued.
Cross-shop it against
Galaxy Note 10+
$1099 · score 90/100

How this review is built: every section score, spec row and comparison on this page comes from SpecEagle's tracked catalogue — scores weight measured specs against the 167-phone cohort of flagship devices released around the same time. We don't publish invented lab anecdotes. Spot an error? .