Google has finally answered persistent queries from Pixel 4 buyers as to why the device lacks support for 4K video recording at 60fps. The company, on Sunday, said it opted to optimize 1080p recording because most users choose that option over 4K anyway.
According to a tweet from the official Google account, the company’s engineers felt it was better to spend their time on something that most people use rather than on a niche feature that would just eat up storage. “We find that the majority of users stick with 1080p, so we focus our energy on improving our quality in this mode, versus enabling a 4k 60fps mode that could use up to half a gigabyte of storage every minute”, said the company.
Hi, Pixel 4 supports 4k video recording on the rear camera at 30fps. We find that the majority of users stick with 1080p, so we focus our energy on improving our quality in this mode, versus enabling a 4k 60fps mode that could use up to half a gigabyte of storage every minute.
— Made By Google (@madebygoogle) October 20, 2019
While that rationale makes perfect sense for consumer devices, many people are pointing out that the Pixel lineup is not meant for regular users anyways, and are meant to be a testament to what power users can really do with pure Android. That being the case, it is a little hard to fathom as to why the company would leave out a feature that has become almost de rigueur in flagship smartphones these days.
Another thing many users are pointing out is the measly 64GB of storage in the base model of the Pixel 4, and that too, without microSD card support. At a time when some flagship Android phones are offering 128GB models as standard, it would have been better on all levels had the company offered that on the Pixel 4 as well. Either way, given that this particular feature can, in theory, be enabled via a software update, it will be interesting to see if that will happen in the future.
