PC World - USA (2019-12)

DECEMBER 2019 PCWorld 69

rear of the phone, marrying a 16MP telephoto
lens with the 12.2MP standard wide lens.
And perhaps Google was right all along.
Since previous Pixels have been able to
achieve such incredible results with just one
lens, the addition of a second lens brings
expected rather than exceptional results.
Maybe it’s because of the pressure Google
has put on the rest of the industry, but the
Pixel 4’s camera improvements are largely
incremental and not nearly as impressive as
previous models. New features such as astral
photography mode and dual exposure are
fun to experiment with, but ultimately won’t
be used all that often, and live HDR is more
overdue than revolutionary.
That’s not to say it doesn’t take great pics.
But so did the Pixel 3. And so do the Galaxy
S10 and the iPhone 11. In some tests, the Pixel

4 XL bested its competition and in others, it

performed on a par. In some, it missed the

mark. Take the photo of the knife above. The

Pixel 3 XL got the floor color right, while the

iPhone excelled at capturing the rainbow

pattern in the blade. The Pixel 4 XL’s shot is on

the dull side, muting the colors throughout

and stripping away the character. The same is

true of the skull below, though the Pixel 4 was

the only one of the three to maintain the

proper color of the wall.

In other photos, the Pixel 4 was too

aggressive with white balance. In the shot of

the Halloween wreath below, only the iPhone

was able to capture the true color of the wall

without dulling the orange and gold balls.

Both the Pixel 3 and the Pixel 4 shifted the

balance to purer white, with the Pixel 4

dulling the color and the sheen as a result.

In this image of a rainbow-tinted knife, the Pixel 4 (left) mutes the colors of both the floor and the blade,
while the iPhone 11 (center) and Pixel 3 XL (right) handle them properly.