A smart camera, a powerful Snapdragon 855 processor, 6 GB of RAM and an OLED display with a refresh rate of 90 Hz — these are the points Google massaged in a press release after the release of the fourth generation.

This time, Google has brought the design of the entire line to a common denominator: both "pixels" differ from each other only in size. As before, metal and glass are used in the manufacture of cases, but the branded glossy insert has disappeared from the back cover, and the square camera block resembles the iPhone 11 Pro camera. Bangs went to the dustbin of history, and the frames around the display became noticeably thinner.

The base Pixel is equipped with a 5.7-inch screen, which is quite suitable for one-handed control, and the enlarged Pixel XL got a 6.3-inch display. An unusual feature of the line was the Soli radar with the Motion Sense contactless gesture control system. However, the thing turned out to be expensive and not so useful, so Google removed it in subsequent smartphones. For the first time in the history of the series, Google abandoned the fingerprint scanner, instead of which a system for authenticating users by face appeared.

Google refused to participate in the arms race until recently, but this time it gave up and released a smartphone with a dual camera. In addition to the additional teleobjective, it stood out due to optical and electronic image stabilization, phase autofocus, advanced software algorithms and a pumped neural processor. For the first time in the series, the Pixel 4 video camera scored more points from experts from DxOMark than the camera.

In addition to the usual "pixels", fat-free models with enlarged displays, simplified hardware and the "a" index in the title flew to the shelves: the basic Pixel 4a with a 5.8-inch display and a slightly more powerful Pixel 4a 5G with a 6.2-inch display and support for 5G networks. As a result, it was the Pixel 4a that turned out to be the only representative of the generation to which the press and buyers had no complaints.