5 Ways the iPhone 11 Pro Still Beats Google’s New Pixel 4

Google this week unveiled its new Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL flagship smartphones, which pack new features like advanced face unlock, a radar chip and a second camera lens. But how does the Pixel 4 stack up against the iPhone 11 Pro?

The two devices are actually fairly similar when it comes to hard specs — which is what you’d expected from tech titan flagships. But there are still a number of areas in which the iPhone 11 Pro edges out or straight up beats the new Google Pixels. Continue reading to learn 5 Ways the iPhone 11 Pro Still Beats Google's New Pixel 4.

Performance

When it comes to smartphone performance, it’s easy enough to declare a winner. The Google Pixel 4 packs Qualcomm’s latest-and-greatest Snapdragon 855 chips. It’s a respectable and powerful piece of silicon, but it’s nowhere near as fast as the Apple A13 Bionic in the iPhone 11 lineup.

Apple continues to make the fastest smartphone chips in the world, according to both benchmarks and in-depth chip reviews. While the Pixel 4 series packs an estimated 2GB more RAM than the iPhones, Apple’s devices have always been able to achieve better performance with lower RAM specs.

Cameras

The Google Pixel series have always been known for their cameras — and, more specifically, for computational photography. But the iPhone 11 Pro upended that and, arguably, stole the crown away from the Pixel to become the device with the best smartphone camera on the market.

By the looks of early comparisons, it’s not clear if the Google Pixel 4 can retake that crown. The Pixel 4 now sports two smartphone lenses (but not three like the iPhone), and yet it still feels like an incremental update. The iPhone 11 Pro’s camera, by comparison, is such a massive improvement over the previous iPhone generation that Apple may have beat finally Google at its own game.

Design

Design and aesthetics are largely subjective, but that doesn’t mean they’re still not worth comparing. And when it comes to design decisions, the Pixel 4 and iPhone 11 Pro actually look fairly similar from the rear with glass backs and squarish camera bumps. The chassis on the Pixel 4 is aluminum, while Apple uses stainless steel.

When you flip the phone over, it becomes a different story. The iPhone 11 Pro retains the signature notch (which has become much less controversial since its debut). The Pixel 4, by comparison, actually sports a fairly prominent and somewhat outdated “forehead” bezel instead. While, again, looks are subjective, many reviewers conclude that the iPhone 11 Pro just “feels” a lot more premium.

Battery Life

Ask the average smartphone user about their list of priorities and it’s likely that battery life is near the top. Both Apple and Google have taken flack for the past few years for relatively subpar battery life. The difference this year, it seems, is that Apple has actually done something about it.

The iPhone 11 Pro models feature significantly enhanced battery life, per specifications and real-world testing. Their batteries are also physically larger than the ones installed in the Google Pixel 4. Unless Google made some power efficiency magic happen in software, it’s likely that the Pixel 4’s battery life will pale in comparison to the newest iPhones.

Displays

Display-wise, the iPhone 11 Pro and the Google Pixel 4 are fairly evenly matched. The iPhone comes in 5.8-and 6.5-inch display sizes, while the Google handset comes in 5.7- and 6.3-inch sizes. Both devices use high-quality OLED panels, so it’s likely that they’ll get similar display performance.

That’s where the similarities end. The Pixel 4 has a 90Hz refresh rate, which is a great feature that Apple should borrow. But Apple’s iPhone 11 Pro models sport much higher contrast ratios than their Google counterparts — two million-to-one compared to just 100,000-to-one.