ISSUE 68 • ANDROID ADVISOR 49Features: In my testing, Motion Sense worked well,
but it’s limited to switching music tracks, snoozing
alarms, dismissing timers, and silencing calls. That’s a
pretty small feature set, but there is a lot of potential
going forward. Whether the Pixel 4 actually realizes it
is another story. Face unlock also works well, though
Google warns that someone could use your face to
unlock your phone even if your eyes are closed (in
other words, you’re sleeping). Granted, a bad actor
could also use your finger to unlock your phone
when you’re not fully conscious, but facial unlock is
supposed to be virtually impenetrable. So this is a big
hole – and one that’s not present on the iPhone.
What’s coming to older Pixels
Google has announced that ‘a version of’ Night
Sight’s new astral photography feature (that lets you
snap pictures of stars) will make an appearance on
the Pixel 3 and 3a. However, the new Neural Core
on the Pixel 4 likely means the feature won’t be as
good on older phones. Presumably the new Google
Assistant and Recorder app will also be making their
way to older Android phones, but Google hasn’t
announced their arrival yet.
Verdict
If you have to have the latest of everything, this is the
phone to buy. However, with a very high price tag,
few groundbreaking features, and a couple of curious
deficiencies, you might also want to consider the
discounted Pixel 3 – or possibly wait to see what the
Pixel 4a brings next year.