Notebookcheck Logo

Oh So Slow: Google Pixel 4 XL shown to be a laggy mess

The Pixel 4 XL. (Source: BGR)
The Pixel 4 XL. (Source: BGR)
Artem Russakovskii of Android Police has posted a video showing his Pixel 4 XL taking ages to open the Settings and Spotify apps. Video recording on the phones also appears to be less than stellar, with obvious stutters at the start of the video. So much for being the smoothest Android device.

Google's Pixel phones are marketed—and widely regarded—as the purest, smoothest Android devices in the world. As such, it's always a tad amusing when the devices are found wanting in that regard. Both the Pixel 2 and Pixel 3 were slammed for performance issues, and the Pixel 4 has now followed suit.

In a tweet by Artem Russakovskii, founder of Android Police, a Pixel 4 XL was shown being a complete laggy mess—taking over five seconds to open the Settings app. Opening the Spotify posed similar problems, as the phone took an awfully long time to load up the app's homescreen. In juxtaposition, the OnePlus 7 Pro beside it opened the same apps much faster, highlighting the issues on the Pixel.

That isn't as bad as it gets either. When shooting in 4K30, the Pixel 4 XL displayed noticeable stuttering at the start of the videos. The Pixel 3 was plagued with a similar issue last year, although it was more severe then. It's a bit interesting that this same issue has made its way into the Pixel 4, and one has to wonder if that played any part in Google refusing to include 4K60 video recording on the new flagship. If 4K30 already has issues, wouldn't 4K60 be even worse?

This isn't the first time Artem Russakovskii has noted and publicized issues pertaining to the performance of Google's Pixel phones. Last year, after seeing similar problems with the Pixel 2 XLGoogle actually sent down engineers in a bid to figure out what could be wrong.

Some believe the issue to be peculiar to this particular source, perhaps due to problems with user data—data transferred over to every device. However, as previously stated, the source's OnePlus 7 Pro had no such problems, even though the same user data was loaded on both phones. There's also the fact that multiple Pixel 4 users on the Reddit thread have now claimed to be facing the same issues.

Could it be an issue with failing hardware? Quality Control? Or a more software-oriented problem?

We'll be sure to keep you updated on this.

Read all 20 comments / answer
static version load dynamic
Loading Comments
Comment on this article
Please share our article, every link counts!
Mail Logo
> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2019 10 > Oh So Slow: Google Pixel 4 XL shown to be a laggy mess
Ricci Rox, 2019-10-27 (Update: 2024-09- 9)