14 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 68
anything. That’s simply unacceptable for a major
feature on a thousand-pound phone.
Elsewhere, the Pixel 4 XL serves as a showcase for
Android 10’s newest features, most notably dark mode
and gesture navigation. Pixel users will be somewhat
familiar with Android’s gestures, but it’s a bit different
here, with the pill and back buttons replaced with an
iOS-style action bar. It’s a little and clunky and not
nearly as intuitive as it is on the iPhone, particularly
when it comes to the back gesture. You’re supposed
to be able to swipe from the left or right edge to go
back a screen, but sometimes menus get in the way.
All in all, it still needs work. Dark mode, on the other
hand, is far more refined, with nearly every Google
app and system screen supporting it.
But my favourite feature is Live Caption. When
it’s turned on, any video from any source will
automatically transcribe captions based on what’s
playing, and it’s surprisingly spot on most of the time.
The same goes for the excellent new Recorder app,
which will record and transcribe the words it hears.
Neither is perfect, but they’re both incredibly useful
and sure to improve quickly thanks to a healthy
dose of machine learning and AI smarts. I assume
both of these features will eventually be available on
other Pixel and Android phones, but for now they’re
exclusive to the Pixel 4 XL.
Performance
Strip away the new features, and the Pixel 4 XL trails
its peer a bit on the spec sheet, with the RAM, storage,
and battery all on the skimpy side:
