Pixel 4 teardown finds two surprise chips, Soli radar system

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  Just cracking open the Pixel 4, you can see the new motherboard orientation, with all the important chips on the side. [credit: iFixit ]

iFixit has gotten its hands on Google's newest flagship, the Pixel 4 XL, and has torn it apart for our viewing pleasure.

Compared to the Pixel 3 XL that was torn down last year, a lot has changed. The Pixel 4 has an entirely new internal design, with a skinny, tall battery and chips on the side, whereas the Pixel 3 had a fat, short battery with most of the chips in the top of the phone. The reason for the difference is most likely the fingerprint reader: the Pixel 3 XL had a rear fingerprint reader with some stringent placement requirements, and now with no fingerprint reader at all, Google no longer has to design the phone around its location (although an in-screen fingerprint reader would have removed this limitation, too).

iFixit found that the (occasionally) 90Hz OLED display is, to the surprise of no one, made by Samsung. Samsung now makes both the 90Hz display for the Pixel 4 and for OnePlus devices like the 7 Pro and 7T. As iFixit notes in its teardown and as we noted in our Galaxy Note10 coverage, it's really baffling that Samsung is letting its competitors beat it to market with its own 90Hz displays. Maybe the Galaxy S11 will finally see a speedy Samsung display in a Samsung phone.

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