I’ve already gone on record proclaiming the V50 as my favorite phone of 2019. As a reviewer and editorialist, I don’t believe there can be “true objectivity” in a review. If you know more about me, how I use my gadgets, and the work I put them through, you will have a better understanding of my analysis. You can apply my experiences which overlap with your needs, and you can disregard the parts of my analysis which don’t apply to you. I made a video on this idea, which you can watch below.

I try to be as fair as I can. I try to examine a gadget based on the claims made by the manufacturer, not my preconceived idea of what the gadget SHOULD be. I try to figure out who the audience might be for EVERY gadget I review.

Every phone I’ve reviewed this year has gotten SOME kind of purchasing recommendation, but obviously some phones have been more broadly recommended than others.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at one of the most brutal comparisons in the premium tier of the Android ecosystem. This is a battle of polar opposites. Two substantially different takes on the idea of an expensive phone. And when the dust settles from this showdown, the songs we will sing of these mighty titans will echo through the halls of history.

Or, we’ll just totally nerd out on two flashy gadgets.

I’m not joking about these phones as “book ends”.

The V50 stands as one of the most hardware feature-packed pocket-slates of 2019. Five cameras, dual speakers, an audiophile headphone jack. There really isn’t much missing. However, where LG’s phone succeeds with a brute force approach to hardware, Google counters with some interesting hardware choices and incredible attention paid to software and optimization. Looking up each phone on various carrier sites, we have two very different ways to spend $1000.

Before we jump into individual categories, I always feel it’s worth repeating, there is a great value proposition in shopping a $1000 phone. These pocket computers are now insanely powerful. For the right consumer, they can easily disrupt a significant amount of laptop or tablet work. I praise this hardware for folks who really are trying to push the limits of what they can do from a single gadget. For me, using a V50 means not traveling with a $300 audiophile media player, my mirrorless camera, my gaming laptop, and still being able to achieve a high quality of work.

Those folks who aren’t likely to push more aggressive use, who are looking at a phone for communication and social media, I find little benefit in recommending expensive phones. A high-quality camera and social media experience can EASILY be found for $400 today. Often less.

The disclaimer is out of the way. Let the games begin!

Display: Pixel 4XL

Both phones offer phenomenal OLEDs. Both phones deliver great Quad HD resolution panels, great contrast, great color. Both phones have flat front screens, which many of us will miss when all manufacturers curve expensive phone displays.

I personally appreciate the more granular customization options for tuning the display on the LG, but I have to give the win to Google for the higher refresh rate. It’s an early glimpse of a feature I’m sure more manufacturers will use in 2020, but Google (alongside OnePlus and a handful of gaming phones) beat the rest of the market to the punch.

Design: LG V50

Glass on glass sandwiches. Google’s matte finished rear plate is a little nicer on my fingers, but all premium phones require a case these days. I need to give a special award to the Pixel for the courage of returning to a (rather large) fivehead bezel, but ultimately LG’s work in smoothing out the rear panel takes a win for me. It’s a subtle and rather unappreciated design.

I don’t hate the square camera module on the Pixel. It’s a design I enjoy in a funky modern sense, and the ‘Commando’ phone cases we’ve seen since the Huawei Mate 20 still crack me up.

But, compared against the nearly featureless and symmetrical back of the V50, the Pixel just doesn’t seem as sleek.

Haptics: LG V50

Both phones utilize terrific haptic motors, but LG incorporates tiny precise “pops” deeper into the user interface. There’s a refreshing pulse when unlocking each phone. Menu selections have a reassuring confirmation. Typing feels great.

Then you fire up LG’s camera app, and every slider you manipulate feels like a clicky dial. The focus icon pulses when you tap, and flutters when it locks, confirming focus with a visual and tactile indicator. You keep your eyes on your subject and your fingers feel the confirmation.

2019 should be well remembered as the year even mid-rangers took basic haptic feedback more seriously, but no Android manufacturer has quite caught up to the thoughtful implementation of LG’s touch feedback.

Audio: LG V50

Both phones utilize dual speakers, not quite true stereo left/right audio sources. All newer Android phones have support for advanced Bluetooth audio codecs.

Drilling deeper though, if you own decent cabled headphones, LG is the only game in town. There’s a profound difference between including any old headphone jack, and including a truly premium, audiophile-grade headphone solution. The V50’s Quad DAC and premium amp shame standalone media players in the $300-$400 range.

The Pixel 4XL doesn’t include a headphone dongle in the box. The newer official Pixel dongle is also lower quality than the dongle which came with the Pixel 2.

Cameras: LG V50

This category is closer than the hardware on paper would indicate.

A camera is more than just the sensor, lens, and the video frame rate. The camera comparison is the easiest place to show how different these two companies are. We’re making completely different arguments, and targeting completely different consumers.

From Pixel 1 to Pixel 4, Google has cut almost all fluff out of their camera app. It’s all or nothing. You push the shutter button, and the phone will analyze the scene, decide on HDR settings, and pump out a juicy vibrant JPG. Or, you can get a RAW file.

Even a Pixel 3A will let you decide on HDR settings. The Pixel 4 will make all of those choices for you.

It’s a stark, but understandable, strategy. A large number of consumers will appreciate as streamlined an approach as possible for producing a “good” photo. Google’s computational image delivery system is top tier. It makes very good decisions in most shooting situations. A lot of people, maybe most people, will be very happy with this output.

But not everyone will be happy with the Pixel 4 out of the box.

From the V30 to the V50, we’ve seen tremendous improvement in LG’s auto mode performance. It’s not as “good” as the Pixel (in that it’s not as effortless to get that juicy HDR), but scene selection, HDR and AI modes close in on the performance we enjoy from the Pixel. You just have to fiddle with a few more settings to get there.

For example, I leave HDR permanently toggled in Auto mode, and if I want HDR disabled, all I have to do is switch over to manual mode. This distinction is faster to operate than any previous Pixel I’ve owned, and is not available on the Pixel 4. Believe it or not, there are still situations where someone might not want a super-color-crushed HDR photo, but I can’t tell the Pixel 4 when to turn that off.

Those LG manual controls extend to video, for the most feature complete camera available on any phone. It’s a busier app. There’s a LOT more going on. Taking a couple minutes to look through some settings though, you can make the imaging experience as easy or as detailed as you want it to be.

Some folks like digging into modes and settings and filters. Most folks likely just want to push a shutter and get on with their day. In terms of complete capability, the V50 covers a wider swath of consumers, of all skill levels, than Google’s harder targeted approach.

Software: Pixel 4XL

I don’t need to explain this point do I? Ok. Here we go.

LG should get a LOT of credit for the background software running the cameras and audio hardware. It takes a TON of development to improve on the systems built into Qualcomm chipsets. If only they’d turn some of that attention to a stagnant UI. We’re seeing teases that LG might be improving their update schedule. Maintenance updates on the V40, G8, and V50 have been phenomenal, but it’s still fair to be skeptical about OS updates in all regions.

Google takes an easy win here.

The Pixel 4 will be getting first party Android support, and already offers one of the smoothest UI experiences in the hand. Individual apps still deliver a “Wow” factor not seen on many other Android handsets, like on-device real-time speech to text across the whole phone. Streaming a video from OneDrive, and seeing subtitles, is jaw dropping.

When Google produces hardware, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the hardware exists solely as a platform to show off some impressive software and design.

Performance – Radios: Tie (with an asterisk)

Both phones deliver fantastic signal connection. Both phones make full use of my cable internet connection on my mesh WiFi router. Around town, LTE performance is within margin of error between the two phones in my less than scientific speed testing.

The LG V50 does get an honorable mention for including a 5G radio at the same price as the Pixel 4XL. Though that will be of limited use through most of 2020 considering the markets likely to get 5G carrier upgrades.

Performance – Apps: Pixel 4XL

By a hair, the Pixel 4 takes this win.

The V50 is a diesel truck of a phone, and utilizing a larger cooling pipe, this is one of the nimblest LG’s I’ve ever reviewed. Seamlessly moving from aggressive sustained workloads like video editing, to graphics intense gaming. It would seem LG isn’t as afraid of thermals as they were during the “bootloop” era of phones (that was five years ago), and are making much better use of current era chipset tech.

Surprisingly, without fancy cooling hardware, the Pixel 4 is just a touch faster.

We shouldn’t be too surprised that the company which makes Android, would know how to optimize that software for a very specific build of hardware. The OS is leaner and meaner than the necessary custom code on the LG. We also see a snappier file system for user data stored on the phone.

The synthetic benchmarks don’t look particularly impressive, but I wouldn’t let that fool you. The Pixel 4 is a screamer in the hand, and like the V50, is giving consumer grade laptops a serious run for their money.

Performance – Battery: LG V50

Another area where the brute force approach works, if you want longer run time out in the field, use a bigger battery.

LG finally got this memo. The V50 packs a larger capacity than Google’s phone, and new Adaptive Battery modes can help extend run time out in the field.

It’s early days yet for the Pixel 4, and we should expect performance to improve as people get used to the phone. However, there are two features which will likely always take a bite out of overall run time. Fully using the higher refresh rate display will obviously sap battery at a much faster rate. Also, engaging the radar for all of the Ambient Display and Motion Gesture support will wake the phone up a lot more often.

Fully using all the features which make a Pixel 4 unique means it’s unlikely the phone will ever be a marathon battery champ. Disabling those features when you NEED better battery is of course NOT a deal breaker.

Security: Pick Your Poison

Both phones only offer one method of “secure” biometric lock. It’s still highly recommended, for folks most concerned about protecting their data, to use a strong password instead of a PIN or Pattern unlock.

Google’s face unlock, paired with the Soli radar, is the most seamless solution yet for unlocking a device and having it in a ready state as you’re looking at the screen.

LG’s rear mounted fingerprint is one of the most ergonomic solutions for unlocking a phone, and having it in a ready state before you’re looking at the screen.

It’s a shame we can’t have both, like we got on the LG G8. There’s no outright winner here, as both are “very good” solutions for protecting your data.

Storage: LG V50

At $1000, both phones offer 128GB of internal storage. That’s your only option for built in space. You can’t go any higher.

The V50 easily wins this fight for including a MicroSD card slot to expand your storage for cheap. A 256GB U3 MicroSD card can EASILY be found for under $40. Those cards are fast enough to keep up with 4K video, so install apps to the built-in storage, and keep media on the card. With a killer headphone jack, you’ll probably want to move your music over to FLAC. Tripling your space for two Andrew Jacksons is a killer deal.

Google has an interest in promoting cloud and streaming solutions, but sometimes you just need a big bucket of storage. The Pixel 4 just doesn’t offer an option to carry around that bigger bucket.

Conclusion: YMMV

It’s going to be exceedingly difficult to find a device that really makes me want to put down the LG V50. I’m a hardware junky, and LG seems to have designed a perfect collection of hardware and specs FOR ME. It really is a dream unicorn phone for mobile content creation and absurdly high-quality multimedia playback.

That said, I keep picking the Pixel 4 up, and it’s easy to appreciate the attention to detail. It’s easy to see where Google is targeting the user experience, and there so many little joyous surprises in how the Pixel interacts with the user. People keep talking about Google “cutting too many corners”. Using the phone for a week, it feels more like sanding down the edges.

I wish Google could include more of the features that appeal to me, but not every gadget needs to be “FOR ME”. I know MANY people in my circles of family and friends that would easily prefer the Pixel experience over the LG.

Premium phones are in a difficult spot. There are tremendously good “daily-driver” options near the $400 tier. The compromises are likely indistinguishable from more expensive handsets when used to browse social media and message with contacts.

Spending above that mid-range level, we should be engaged in more “laptop disrupting” conversations. Our pocket computers can get a tremendous amount of work done.

I’m copping out when I say: “People should buy what they need.”

This battle shows how insanely different the approach can be when building a gadget. Google’s software brains, versus LG’s hardware brawn. I can’t think of any people in my social circles who I would legitimately offer both phones to as a purchasing recommendation.

Which SHOULD be the point. It’s important to have options.