Dieter Bohn’s Pixel 4 Review

Dieter Bohn, writing for The Verge:

The 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.

I’ve always thought, and still think now, that the best description of the Pixel phones is that they’re for people who want to use a Google-centric version of Android on iPhone-like hardware. Even the argument that “specs don’t tell you the whole story” sounds like the lede of an Apple product review.

★ Tuesday, 29 October 2019