The Pixel 4 camera system has been hyped up the past few months and now that the new-gen Google phone is here, it’s for us to focus and see for ourselves what the device can really offer. Our friends over at SlashGear got to review the Pixel 4 camera already and said that it is both brilliant and frustrating. It’s flexible but there is still a lot to be improved. It doesn’t have a 4K 60fps video recording capability that most flagship phones have right now. Its Portrait Mode is a bit rough so that’s disappointing.
To review, here are the key camera specs of the Google Pixel 4: 12MP 1/2.55-inch sensor, 27mm-equivalent f/1.7 OIS lens (primary) + 16MP 1/3.6-inch sensor, 50mm-equivalent f/2.4 OIS lens (tele-lens); Dual-LED flash; PDAF autofocus; 4K video at 2160p@30fps; and 1080p full HD (default). DxOMark gave the Pixel 4 a total score of 112 (117 Photo, 101 Video) while Selfie Score is 92. The front-facing camera delivers generally good target exposure, wide depth of field and dynamic range in bright light, plus good color and natural skin tones.
The 112 score brings the Pixel 4 to 6th place in DxOMark’s Mobile Ranking. It’s actually tied with last year’s Huawei Mate 20 Pro so we can say it’s a great camera phone although not as good as the Huawei Mate 30 Pro or the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.
The Pixel 4 camera shows pleasant and vivid colors plus fast and accurate autofocus in bright light. Good exposure is usually shown in all conditions. There’s also good exposure and color in flash-auto mode. Close- and medium-range zoom also shows good details.
When it comes to video recording performance, the Pixel 4 cam offers noise well under control in all conditions, pleasant white balance, and vivid colors. Stabilization is fairly effective while autofocus is accurate, fast, and repeatable. Videos show good target exposure and fairly wide dynamic range, as well as, good detail in both outdoor and indoor recording. It’s not perfect though as there is some noticeable loss of detail and visible noise in all conditions, occasional depth estimation artifacts in bokeh mode, motion in walking videos, lack of fine detail in low light, and some localized loss of acutance, ringing, and moiré patterns in bright light.