What’s the big deal about the Google Pixel 4 smartphone?

We’ve known a lot about the Google Pixel 4 for quite some time as Google seemed content to leak all the finer details. We’ve known about the new dual camera unit on the back and we’ve had a solid idea about the front screen and interesting innovations like Google’s Project Soli. Last night though, Google officially launched the Pixel 4 in New York so let’s look at the whole package in greater detail.

Google Pixel 4 features

The new Google dual-camera system pairs a 12-megapixel wide angle camera with a 16-megapixel 2X telephoto camera. On top of the hardware push for the Pixel 4 camera, Google is adding some software chops to the handset’s photography capabilities too. Night Sight has been improved for sharper low-light imagery and there is also a new astrophotography mode that’ll capture defined images of the stars and constellations. Any photographer will tell you that it is not easy to capture good pictures of space, so this is a solid feature for a smartphone to have.

Google Pixel 4 hardware

As well as the extra camera, the Pixel 4 comes with either a 5.7 or 6.3-inch 90Hz OLED screen. Under the hood, the Pixel 4 has a few interesting microchips pulling off some mean feats. There is Google’s new Neural Core chip, which is designed to put Google Assistant’s native abilities inside the phone itself. Speech recognition will work much faster and as it should even without an internet connection, while also offering improved privacy and security due to your voice recordings remaining on your phone.

#pixel4: a new level of hands-free help. #madebygoogle pic.twitter.com/t7Zz4mcUHv

— Made by Google (@madebygoogle) October 16, 2019

The headline grabbing microchip, however, is the Google Soli radar chip, which gives you the chance to control their phones using improved hands-free gestures. These could be simple gestures like skipping music tracks or turning off your alarm with a wave of your hand, but Google will likely add more gestures throughout the Pixel 4’s update cycle.

Google Pixel 4 software

Going back to the camera, Google has worked hard on its much celebrated HDR+ technology that composites nine separate images of a scene into one complete image. The feature now works in real-time, meaning you’ll be able to see what your photos will look like just by pointing your phone at the subject. Another interesting addition works with the Neural Core chip. A new Pixel voice recording app, takes advantage of the increased speech recognition functionality to offer real-time transcription and even the chance to search through recordings for certain words and phrases.

Enter the Pixel Photo Lab to learn what inspired engineer Marc Levoy and the design team when developing the new Google #pixel4 camera. pic.twitter.com/DsaPQnlFVx

— Made by Google (@madebygoogle) October 15, 2019

Google is also promising customers that the Pixel 4 will receive at least three years’ worth of Android updates.

Google Pixel 4 price

The Google Pixel 4’s price starts at $799, which will get you the 5.7-inch screen and 64GB of onboard storage. The “XL” 6.3-inch Pixel 4 will start at $899. This puts the Pixel 4 in a similar price point to the iPhone 11, which starts at $699.

The Pixel 4 is available for pre-order on the Google website now and will begin shipping on October 24.