I have had the Google Pixel, Pixel 2 XL, and now upgraded to the Pixel 4 XL. I think it is a great phone with a pure Android experience. The camera's night shot is even more amazing than the Pixel 2 XL, the 2x optical zoom is great and keeps the pictures very clear at full zoom. I love the 90Hz display - I have set it to always be on via Developer Options. The animations are SUPER SMOOTH. Games on it are amazing. If you are thinking to upgrade from the Pixel 3, id say stick with the Pixel 3, its not that big of a jump in my opinion as my wife has the 3. Both are awesome devices on which ever you decided to upgrade to, but I am sure you wont be disappointed with the experience you will have using this new device. I would recommend this to everyone just because I love Google Pixel line since the beginning.

I have been a loyal Samsung Galaxy user for years. With the constant improvement of the pixels the time was right for me to switch. I love the phone. I wish it included a fingerprint scanner as well as the face unlock. Sometimes I find myself unlocking my phone incidentally... It's fast. I also miss the smart view where I could throw my phone up on the TV. If they would add expandable storage I would truly never look back. All that being said it's super fast, looks beautiful and I'm glad I made the switch.

Great phone, upgraded from Pixel 2 I don't put a lot of demands on my phones, but this was on sale so I went for the XL. Seems quick, nice photos, nice clear display. Unfortunately, did not realize that most apps don't use face recognition, very inconvenient. Hopefully the apps will be updated soon to accept facial recognition

I had the Pixel 1 XL, 3XL and now the 4 XL. The phone is awesome and love the color - it gives you the pure Android experience. Google is getting there and becoming like iOS, where everything is integrated and standardized, but they don't close us in a walled garden like Apple. Standardized with the freedom to choose. The hardware is a little outdated and isn't as innovate as Samsung but the software experience makes up for that. The camera takes great pictures and the faster display refresh rate now makes regular displays slow.

If you're a phone geek, by now you've probably either seen the new Pixel in person or read about it online. I've been using a Pixel 4 XL with 128gb for several weeks now and wanted to give some feedback on my experience with the phone since the early reviews almost scared me away. However, Black Friday pricing convinced me it was worth taking a shot to see how the phone was in real life. At full price, I think the Pixel 4 XL might still be a stretch for many folks, although it'd still be my pick in the Android world. At 30-40% off, it was a terrific deal. I will say upfront that if you want the best overall phone out there, this year I believe that would be the iPhone 11 Pro or Pro Max. In the Android world, Samsung probably makes what most would consider the best phone; however, there are valid reasons to consider OnePlus and the Pixel. Despite the Samsung and OnePlus having better specs in many ways, I would chose the Pixel over them every day because of the Pixel software and Google features. However, I seriously considered switching back to an iPhone this year, but I'm glad I didn't. The walled garden issue with Apple remains a barrier for me. For instance, with an Android, I can text via any computer. With an iPhone, I can only text via a Mac. Guess who doesn't own a Mac.... me. So I'd actually be giving up the ability to text via computer to switch to an iPhone. I'd also give up the ability to name any text group because iOS only allows you to name text groups if all participates own, you guessed it, an iPhone. My other issue with iPhones is the anachronistic menu system that feels like something from the DOS era. The best photo features of iPhone only work if you save the pictures in HEIC format, but then they can only be viewed with an iOS device unless you run them through a jpg converter program on a computer. But if you have a Mac and if everyone you know has an iPhone, then it really makes great sense, and despite my complaints, the 11 Pro is a stellar all-around phone. Although the Pixel was my eventual choice, there are also some things I'd like to change about the Pixel. It'd be nice if the phone had a wide-angle lens. It'd be nice if it offered more than 128gb of memory. I wish it had expandable storage. I'm very disappointed Google killed the free unlimited full-size photo cloud storage (but they do offer free unlimited storage for reduced-size images). I wish it had more than 6gb RAM. I wish it had a bigger battery and that charging speed was faster for wired and wireless charging. I wish it had the fingerprint sensor in addition to Face ID. I wish the screen could get brighter. I wish it recorded 4k video at 60fps. I guess it'd even be nice to have a headphone jack, although I've never used the one I had on my prior phone. Plus, if you're not to have a headphone jack, then it'd be nice to include the conversion dongle. But do any of those things really affect daily use? Not for me, other than maybe the wide-angle lens issue. The phone runs super smoothly through every task I throw at it. I tend to use it a lot through the day, but I've never come close to running out of juice on a daily basis. Face ID works very quickly, and I don't even think about the lack of a fingerprint sensor now. So, I'm here to tell you the Pixel 4 XL is greater than the sum of it's parts. Note, I have not tried the standard Pixel 4. I have only used the XL. My prior phone was a regular size prior gen Pixel, so I am very familiar with what to expect when using a Pixel. With a Pixel, you know you're going to have larger bezels. Honestly, I don't mind at all. I agree the edge-to-edge screens are prettier, but they come with compromises that I'm happy to avoid. The screen itself on the 4 XL is very nice. The 90mhz smooth motion is terrific, but the screen just generally looks and feels great. Color reproduction has been spot on. The images are deep. Touch response is fantastic. The camera is awesome. Google does amazing work with it's photo algorithms. I still believe it is the best camera for still photos. The portrait effect is great and is able to capture portraits of my black dog when iPhones can't lock onto him as the focal point. Night sight still leads the class. The astrophotography thing is cool, but it's more of a geeky thing than something actually useful unless you just happen to want to take pictures of the night sky and are in an area without a lot of man-made light sources. Speaking of geeky, the Soli radar is more useful than most reviews seem to give it credit for. It's true that it has limited use in terms of touchless control, but it works perfectly fine with things it can be used for, like switching songs and silencing alarms. But the bigger thing it does is recognize when you are reaching for the phone, so it gets ready to scan your face. This makes Face ID a much smoother, faster experience and should not be undersold. It simply makes the phone easier to use and makes it feel a lot faster. Face ID works well even in very dark conditions. It also doesn't care if you're wearing glasses or a hat. It just recognizes you. I haven't any false recognition with someone else or any failures to recognize with me. Some people are very angsty about it working with your eyes closed. From my perspective, this is much ado about nothing. In fact, as someone who recently suffered a significant eye issue that made it painful to open one eye for several weeks, I actually am glad it is able to work with eyes closed. I know larger phones are everywhere these days, but I had held onto the smaller form factor until this phone. I have to admit, I like the size far more than I anticipated. It does not feel too big. I can use it with one hand. It fits in my pockets with no problem. And the back and sides are attractive and grippy (I have the white version). I have never damaged a phone by dropping it, so I feel comfortable with a minimalist phone case that adds virtually no bulk at all. I like the look of the rear camera array. I find the phone itself generally attractive. The new Google Assistant is quick and responds well. I have a variety of Google Home products and other products that work with Google Assistant, so I'm accustomed to using it multiple times per day. This version is fast and accurate. The speakers on the Pixel 4 XL are also quite good. Google removed them from the bottom chin and put them on the bottom edge, so now they are downfiring. They sound pretty loud and very clear. General sound quality on calls is very high. But I think that should be a given on any decent new phone these days. There are a number of "Pixel first" features that aren't available in standard Android. For instance, the transcription app and the screen captioning function. I use the screen captioning feature frequently, and it works well. Of course, it's not perfect, but it's very good. Google just recently added a translation feature, which is pretty neat. It can live translate for you so you and someone else can hold a conversation in two languages. Right now it will translate 40 languages. It took me very little time to adapt to Android 10 gesture controls. To my surprise, I prefer gesture control to the old menu buttons. It's also pretty cool that Android 10 allows you to have universal control for fonts and icon appearance. It makes the phone feel just a little more customized to my tastes. Universal dark mode is greatly appreciated, and I also really enjoy the live wallpaper options available in standard settings. I've also regularly made use of the call screening feature since Google rolled it out prior to the Pixel 4. There are other thoughtful little things that just make the phone easier to use. Flip to silence is nice. Google is also rolling out a new plan for quarterly "feature drops" to update Pixels through the year. The first drop this month included the ability to convert any existing photo to a portrait style photo with blurred background. It also added automatic screening for robocalls, which has already blocked some robocalls for me this past week. I don't use Duo for video calling, but the recent feature drop adds some nice automatic features, like centering on your face and then zooming back when someone else enters the frame. They also added some features to enhance accessing memory more quickly. So, yes, other phones are physically faster; but the Pixel 4 XL actually feels faster in regular use because of all the thoughtful features Google includes. Now, if you are a heavy gamer, you will be better served with a different phone. I play some games but nothing that requires intensive memory or a high frame rate. If that's what you're into, then I would have to think other options would be better, although I believe the Pixel 4 XL would be better than you might anticipate. At the end of the day, almost any "nice" phone is going to provide a very good user experience. Early reviews made me question whether the new Pixel was up to the challenge when there are so many strong options out there. I took a leap of faith when I ordered the Pixel, and I have to admit the Pixel 4 XL has vastly exceeded my expectations. The specs are good enough for Google to have created a device that punches above it's weight class. I do wish they'd just use top-end specs across the board and then use their enhancement wizardry to make a phone that truly blows other stuff out of the water. A lot of reviews seem to focus on what the Pixel could have been, and I get that to a degree. It certainly could be even better with an enhanced Snapdragon 855 Plus processor and 12gb of ram and 256gb storage. It could have been better with a wide angle lens, a higher mp primary shooter, and 120fps in 4k. It could have been better with a bigger battery. But something can always be better; that shouldn't detract from the fact this phone simply rocks.