People were counting days until Google Pixel 4 went on sale, and forums were flooded with debates over the potentialities of this device. The Pixel series is populous for the bunch of problems it has faced right after launch.

The new Pixel 4 and XL users have already reported various issues from clicking noises to miserable battery life. Pixel 4 has some cutting-edge features that make it impressive, but it has a terrible battery. Although the Pixel 4 XL provides a little more stamina, still the battery doesn’t last for a longer time.

Not only the battery performance is weak, but users have reported several other issues in Pixel 4 and XL in various forums. Here in this guide, you will get a detailed review of 5 problems in Pixel 4, including camera issues and a low battery.

Problem #1: Poor battery life

Battery life is probably the most usual problem with the new Pixel 4, and you are not alone for having a phone with lousy battery life. To say that Pixel has a weak battery might be a drastic understatement. But leaving the phone as it is and running the phone typically will not make it last a day long with a single charge.

Yes, it’s really annoying to change your habits about using the device or tweaking a few things so that it can get a whole day charge. However, it is still possible to adjust things to extend the battery life of Pixel 4.

Possible solutions

Make sure to turn on the Adaptive Battery

This tweak is as easy as it gets with every Pixel 4 owner must ensure that the Adaptive Battery mode is turned on. Go into the phone and head on to the settings by tapping. Select battery, and there you will find the adaptive battery mode. Make sure the toggle is on; if not, then activate it.

The adaptive battery makes an in-depth study about how you use the phone and monitors the inactive or less used apps. Then it limits those less frequently used apps running in the background. The company says this system only gets better over time. It will permanently sleep those apps you are not using for a prolonged time and lists them on this setting screen.

Turn on battery saver mode

Your phone will make several battery saving changes as soon as you toggle it on from the notification area. This mode will turn off location services when the display is off, limits apps from refreshing in the background, “OK Google” is turned off, and the dark theme is activated.

Uninstall the unused apps

Android 10 restricts apps you don’t use often. Still, you can make that even better by uninstalling them completely. Remember that you can always install whenever you feel the need for it.

Restrict location access

Android 10 allows you to give access to locations to other apps, and it can help to reduce battery life. Open Settings, Privacy, then Permission Manager, and lastly Location, where you can find each app that has access to a location. Restrict the ones you don’t need. You can also turn off the location completely in case if you have a very little battery remaining and you don’t have a charger with you.

Motion Sense can be turned off

You can do this, but your phone will not be able to sense and get a little slow to respond.

Change ambient display setting

You can turn this thing off by toggling every option in Display and Lock Screen Display.

Turn off 90Hz refresh

The phone’s display is great, but that requires an extra 50 percent battery usage than other phones. Get into the phones Settings, Display and then Smooth Display, toggle it, and you are done.

Problem #2: Motion Sense gestures do not work

No matter how good your gestures are, the Motion Sense isn’t going to have a 100 percent acceptance rate. You need to know the right way of holding up your hand and swiping.

Possible solutions

You may find it natural to wave your palm facing the display screen, but Motion Sense will accept only if you put your palm in a perpendicular direction. Just wave your hand casually over the display without rotating the wrist so that the phone can read your gesture at an exact angle.

Also, try not to raise your palm above the top bezel of the phone. Although the phone doesn’t expect such accuracy, it is good not to go beyond the top bezel area. You are not alone to find Motion Sense clumsy. After many rehearse, only a few have maneuvered these gestures perfectly but nowhere near the hundred percent mark.

If you are still finding that this thing isn’t working, make sure that Motion Sense function is enabled on the device. Get into Settings, System, and then Motion Sense. This is the area where you can make sure the individual settings for various gestures are turned on.

Problem #3: Face unlock doesn’t work

Google’s new face unlock technique is really amazing because it can identify anyone’s face in different lighting conditions. It can even perform smoothly if you are wearing glasses, a scarf, a hat, or having different hairstyles or even having your eyes closed. It’s a pretty robust system. Therefore if you are facing problems with the face unlock system, that’s not expected.

Possible solutions

The easiest and simplest way of overcoming this issue is by un-enrolling and re-enrolling your face data. Exactly like using the fingerprint sensor, the next time you want to enroll your face data, it will be a bit more measured and methodical. The phone will take care of the situation that has failed in taking a proper means of registering your face the first time.

Reach out for Settings, Security, and then Face Unlock and tap Delete face data and start all over again. It is important to give your phone the best-scanned image of your face. Perform this action when you are not in a rush by taking a few moments in a room that has a good light. Don’t put your glasses or hat either. Follow the on-screen prompts as it will guide you on how to position your head by tilting in a correct posture.

Problem #4: The camera got serious white balance issues

The company has been putting a lot of effort into photo processing on its phones since the beginning. In the latest Pixel 4 and XL, Google has added many intelligent camera features to produce natural-looking images in any conditions.

This problem is going to impact many users. According to reports from various forums, the camera in Pixel 4 has serious issues with colored lights. It seems that the camera is trying to shoot with extreme colors but ends up in a complete color tone, which is also inaccurate. Many are asking for the return of manual white balance control.

Possible solutions:

At present, there is no fix for this, but the company might make adjustments with future updates. That being said, the issue surrounding inaccurate coloring can be tweaked after a detailed observation. The same issue of discoloration is not present in the RAW image files.

Therefore if you need to dodge this issue until the latest system updates arrive, a simple tweak is required. Open the camera app and enter the settings, then tap on Advanced and turn on RAW+JPEG control. Enabling this setting will save your RAW file images separately, which you can later export and work on the PC. You can also use a compatible app in Pixel 4 for processing those images.

Problem #5: The smooth display does not remain on all the time

You have probably noticed that the 90Hz refresh rate Pixel smooth display isn’t activated all the time. More specifically, when the ambient light conditions are not bright, or screen brightness is set to low. The company has reduced the refresh rate in certain conditions. The screens are not employing the said refresh rate so as to help in reducing the battery drain and to save your eyes.

By default, the highest refresh rate only turns on when the screen brightness is above 75%. The company said that it would release an update soon that will enable a 90Hz refresh rate so that it can work with different brightness levels. Although it is not clear what that might look like.

Possible solutions:

You can overcome this issue by tweaking some settings in Developer Options and force 90Hz all the time. It is recommended to stay away from Developer Options, but you should proceed carefully. Open the Settings, About phone, then scroll down to the Build Number and tap seven times on it.

Now go back to System, Advanced, and then Developer options. Search for “force 90Hz refresh rate”, turn it on. It will affect battery life alongside other problems.

In conclusion:

Do not allow these problems to hamper you from buying one of the greatest Android smartphones available. These are all software related issues and will be fixed in due course of time.