While the Pixel 4 received a lot of buzz pre-announcement, now that it’s actually available in the market, users have been posting some complaints and issues about it. There have been some battery capacity issues, a face unlock glitch that “works” even with your eyes closed, and now the screen refresh rates that are confusing to everyone using the phone already. Google is aware of the complaints and now they’re promising a software update that should solve or at least clarify some of these issues.
The supposed Smooth Display that comes with the Pixel 4 has not been smooth sailing at all. According to The Verge, some Redditors were seeing the refresh rates of their devices go down to 60Hz when the screen brightness is below 75%. Some who were testing it out also found that the refresh rate may stay up at 90GHz at lower brightness levels if it detects that the ambient lighting in the room isn’t enough.
Google originally said that the phone adjusts the refresh rate depending on what you’re doing on the screen because they want to improve your battery life, especially if you’re mobile. They now explain that they set the refresh rate to 60Hz in some conditions like when you turn on the battery saver mode, when you view certain video content like those shot at 24 or 30 frames per second, and of course various brightness or ambient conditions.
The good news is that they’re now working on an update that should enable the refresh rate of 90Hz in more brightness conditions. This update should be arriving “in the coming weeks”. Pixel 4 owners would be grateful for that if only they didn’t even need an update in the first place and Google should have just fixed that before the device hit the market.
And speaking of fixing things that should not have been broken, Pixel 4 owners should also expect an update in the next months or so that will require you to have your eyes open when unlocking your device. We’re not sure whose brilliant idea it was to still have your device unlock even when your eyes are closed but we hope they’ve learned their lesson.
