[Google Pixel 4 XL Questions & Answers] 5m4r7ph0n36uru:
Don't understand the many negative posts, blog posts as well. We all know that Google is all about software and selling its own services, so anything else would just be a big surprise. Moreover Google paved the way for quite a few things over the last year. Did you know that basically Google pushed F2FS quite heavily with the Pixel 3 XL. F2FS is now available for every OEM to use in Qualcomms CAF-Base on 4.14 devices. I've also been positively surprised that the Pixel 4/4 XL, compared to the Pixel 3/3 XL,have become about 100 Euros cheaper in the entry price - at least in Germany. Moreover, we know from the past three years that Google is not (and probably won't be) the great innovator when it comes to design, let alone hardware.

Sure, there are things that are hard to understand on fisrt sight, such as the storage variants, missing SD card slot, the old UFS2.1 standard, where there is UFS 3, or 6 GB RAM and the like. But there are reasons for some of the decisions made, that can easily be explained. First of all the reason why Google is not going the ext SD-Card route is simple. It's still a hack on top of the linux/android kernel and the Android OS in general. Google is about software excellence and they refuse to put this "hack" in their OS. There also is an argument to go only with 6GB of RAM (aka a single RAM-stick): energy managment. RAM consumes power even when it´s not used. Each RAM stick consumes power, no matter if it's used or not. Nearly every other component an be optimized or regulated in some way. RAM cannot. You build in two RAM-Sticks instead of one, you double the amount of consumed battery power. Quite simple, ins't it. The point that max 128GB is not state of the art in 2019 remains intact, no discussion about that.

Another point, Google put in a lot of effort over the last year, is in optimizing the built in userspace LMK instead of the kernel lowmemorykiller - which is what 99% of devices use. And it isn't easy to get this right, as there are so many apps, and users using their device differently, which ends up in a ton of variatons. Not to say that there are for sure many not so well coded apps on the playstore introducing stuff like memory leaks and such. With respect to storage type sequential speeds do not really matter in standard day to day usage scenario because it will only show if you copy/move large files like videos etc. It's more conveniant to take a look at the random and the sqlite performance. This is another perfect example of where excellent hardware with mediocre software gets slaughtered by good hardware with an excellent software backend. Look at the right androbench to see how the Pixel 3 XL runs an androbench versus an Androbench from the OnePlus 7 Pro UFS 3.0 with EXT4 - and I'd guess this holds true form the new Pixel 4/4 XL as well. The benchmarks show it's not all about hardware (scroll down to the androbench screenshots):

Pixel 3 XL: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Some-G....412255.0.html

OnePlus 7: https://www.xda-developers.com/oneplus-7-pro-review/2/

Finally, at a time when everyone is moving from a revolution to an evolution of technology, and the market is saturated, other factors are beginning to play a major role, such as: does the device have the features I really need and want, is the service and support state-of-the-art, etc.? Or more personally: can I use the device for more than three years without missing any functions, because I have decided to live more sustainably. It's about a very personal decision, wether you strive for the best of the best when it comes to high-end hardware, or if you value software and sustainability/longevity? I am aware of the fact that there are also manufacturers in the field of sustainability who are certainly already much further along. But at least when it comes to software, I think we have to admit that Google is playing a leading role.