Pixel 4 is nearing end of life after three years of service

The Pixel 4 is officially ending this month after three short years of service. Sometimes we see these dead Google phones get another final update before Google cuts the cord, but the October 2022 Android update is the end of the line.

The Pixel 4 was the first and only Google phone to integrate “Project Soli”, Google’s tiny radar chip that can detect motion. Lab versions of Soli promised that the technology could capture “submillimeter movements of your fingers,”but the commercial implementation in the Pixel 4 could (sometimes) capture giant hand movements. Soli continues to work in Google Smart Displays for sleep tracking, but the phone version is dead. Add to that the very high prices of two device sizes ($800 and $900) and very small batteries (2800mAh and 3700mAh) and you have a very poor device.

We have to give the Pixel 4 the title of “worst pixel ever”for having a few dubious differences. It only sold for nine and a half months before being discontinued, making it the shortest-lived pixel ever and creating two months of dead space between the Pixel 4’s discontinuation and the Pixel 5’s launch. Google Hardware President Rick Osterlo held a general meeting and told his employees that he “doesn’t agree with some of the decisions made about the phone”and that “in particular, he’s disappointed with its battery.”force.”The meeting, which Osterlo called “a rare internal criticism,”led to two of Pixel’s top executives – general manager Mario Queiroz and chief cameraman Mark Levoy – leaving the team.

Three years is not enough for telephone support. The iPhone gets around six years of support, while Samsung supports its phones for four years of major Android updates and one additional year of security updates. Even Google’s current Pixel 6 plan is worse than Samsung’s; it only offers three years of major OS updates and an additional two years of security updates.