1/8/2024 0 Comments Tag agencyGoogle’s new Recorder app is also fantastic. Like turn-by-turn directions were for cars, it’s a game changer for walking in a big city, and I hope every phone gets it soon. Like the Pixel 3A, this phone can show augmented-reality walking directions in Google Maps, which lets you hold up your phone and see giant arrows telling you which direction to go as you stroll around. Hopefully Google can make them work better in the future. For now these gesture capabilities, which Google collectively calls Motion Sense, are gimmicks. After several days of testing the phone, I still can’t get these features to work reliably, so I’ve stopped using them. There’s also a Pikachu wallpaper that you can interact with like a Tamagotchi by waving your hands to and fro. The same motion can also silence an alarm. Waving your hand left or right in front of the screen switches music tracks in apps like Spotify. If your hands are slimy from deboning a raw chicken (or worse: chopping tofu!), and you don't want to touch your screen, you can do a swiping motion to control the phone. That radar sensor that powers face unlock has another job too. It all sounds pretty safe-unless you think of Titanic first, but that’s not a very Googley thought. Your face data is stored in a special chip that you just know is secure, because it has a strong name: the Titan M security chip. Together, they authenticate your face locally without sending your mug-or any other data-to Google’s vast cloud. One of the sensors is a miniature radar device that can detect when your hand is reaching for the phone so it knows to prepare to scan your face. Instead, it has a large bezel at the top of the display (the only area on the face with a bezel) that’s loaded with a selfie camera and several other sensors that you can’t really see unless you shine a flashlight on them. For whatever reason, I just can’t.)Īlso gone is the notch cutout that used to be on the top of the Pixel’s gorgeous OLED display. (A PIN isn’t actually a bad way to go if you can handle the minor inconvenience. There is no other way to unlock this phone, aside from a PIN. Instead of relying on a fingerprint sensor as a backup, Google went the same route as Apple, removing the fingerprint reader and going all-in on face scanning. You raise your phone up to look at the screen, and it unlocks almost instantly. I’m sure it will.Īside from apparently unlocking when I’m asleep, the Pixel 4’s face-unlocking feature is the best copy of the iPhone’s Face ID I’ve seen. So when problems come up, like reviewers complaining that the phone’s new face-unlock feature works with your eyes closed, Google can just say that it will issue an update to fix the problem. It keeps its device secure and up to date. It’s a low bar, but by simply doing its job, Google wins a lot of points from reviewers like me and tech-savvy people like you. Security updates often flow to the Pixel handsets earlier as well. Other handsets get it months later, if ever. Google designs a new version of its Android operating system each year, and the Pixels are among a handful of devices that get it as soon as it's released-along with some OnePlus and Nokia models here in the United States. And it has the one thing that really makes a Pixel stand out: While owners of other phones may have to wait for them, you get Android software updates as soon as they're available, directly from Google. It has some great new native apps and (subtle) features. I tried the larger 6.3-inch XL version in Oh So Orange (the standard, non-XL version has a 5.7-inch screen) and came back with a familiar answer for a Pixel review: I like it a lot. That’s why I was excited to get “Googley” with a new Pixel 4 this past week.Īnd so I did. Its cheaper sibling, the Pixel 3A tops our list of the best Android phones this year. It was our favorite Android phone last year. My colleague Lauren Goode loved the Pixel 3. Google’s Pixel phones always seem to top our lists.
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