42 ANDROID ADVISOR • ISSUE 68
The display’s refresh
rate is now 90Hz
Pixel 4’s face unlock doesn’t even care if your eyes are
open or closed, meaning someone could unlock your
phone without you even knowing while you’re asleep.
Google says it’s working on a fix to require alertness,
as Apple does, but that could take a while.
Display
There’s one final major upgrade to the hardware: the
display, which jumps up to a 90Hz refresh rate. This
is handled dynamically so that the phone will only
activate 90Hz ‘for some content’, trying to save battery
by running 60Hz the rest of the time, in tech Google
has dubbed ‘Smooth Display’.
The result is...well, smooth. Animations and
graphics feel more fluid, with the result that the phone
as a whole just feels faster to use. The Pixel 4 isn’t the
first phone to use 90Hz – OnePlus included it in the 7
Pro and the more recent 7T, while it’s been in gaming
