38 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 68
pressure-sensitive side sections (Active Edge) are both
still options too.
In terms of brute specs, the Pixel 4 packs a
Snapdragon 855 (not the newer 855+, curiously)
along with just 6GB of RAM and a choice of either
64- or 128GB storage. Bearing in mind that there’s no
microSD card slot and the OS itself takes up 13GB, the
64GB model might be a touch limiting for most – it
only gives you 50GB of actual storage for all of your
apps, music, photos and videos, so you’ll struggle
unless you’re committed to that cloud life.
Then there’s the battery, the single biggest reason
to steer well clear of the Pixel 4.
After reviews of last year’s Pixel 3 criticised the
battery life you’d think Google might try and make
amends, but instead it’s doubled down, actually
fitting an even smaller 2,800mAh battery into the
Pixel 4. While it got a middling result in our battery
benchmark, in real-world usage it’s almost comically
poor, just barely delivering a day’s light usage,
typically managing a little over three hours of screen-
on time before giving up the ghost.
I’m not exaggerating when I say that this is the
worst phone battery I’ve tested in years, and the main
reason I can’t recommend this phone. 2,800mAh
just isn’t good enough, and no amount of Adaptive
Battery software will get around that. I intend to keep
using the phone for a few weeks to see if the Pixel’s
software learns my usage enough to optimise apps
and improve performance, and will update this review
after my testing – though since the battery itself will
also degrade over time, I have very serious concerns
