Pixel 4 review: Google's latest smartphone is very good but not great

Google has never widely been considered the top banana when it comes to smartphones, a designation bestowed instead on Samsung or Apple, depending on whether your loyalties lie with Android or iOS. But the last couple of years, Google's Pixels have presented an awfully strong case: solid Android phones with superb cameras that you can usually get for less than you pay for a top Galaxy or iPhone. So it goes with the Pixel 4 I've been using over the several days. It has a 5.7-inch display and starts at $799 (or $899 for its larger 6.3-inch sibling, the Pixel 4 XL) and for the first time is being embraced by all the U.S. wireless carriers out of the gate; in the past years, Verizon had the exclusive. As with other Pixels, the obedient Google Assistant is readily at hand, summoned through a familiar "Hey, Google" or "OK, Google" command, tapping an icon, and now even by squeezing the sides of the phone.