While Google is one of those companies known to produce the best Android smartphones, it doesn't necessarily mean the Pixel lineup comes without flaws. In fact, one of the many complaints about the current flagship is its poor battery life. And yet, here's another one: both the Pixel 3 and Pixel 4 apparently have disappointing USB transfer speeds.
The flaw was discovered by Android Authority, which, in an experiment revealed that the Pixel 3 and Pixel 4 were two times slower than the competition in terms of USB transfer speeds. What's even more surprising is the fact that the original Pixel and the Pixel 2 appear to be faster than the latest iterations as well.
The results were achieved using a USB-C 3.1 port that allows 10Gbps speeds on a Windows PC, which was used to transfer a video file of 10.8GB. Both the Honor View 20 and the Samsung Galaxy S10e completed the transfer in around 60 seconds, while the Pixel 4 topped at 84 seconds and Pixel 3 at a disappointing 107 seconds.
The difference is even magnified in phones that use faster UFS 3.1 storage, such as the OnePlus 7T Pro and the Mate 30 Pro, both completing the transfer in under 40 seconds. This makes both phones two times faster than the Pixel 3 and Pixel 4.
As for the original Pixel smartphone and the Pixel 2, the former was slightly faster than the newest Pixel phones, while the latter topped at 55 seconds, making the Pixel 3 and Pixel 4 two times slower. What is causing this issue?
Google has not addressed the issue as of writing, so the question as to why the Pixel 3 and Pixel 4 exhibit abnormally slow USB transfer speeds despite using similar hardware is hanging on midair without a proper answer. According to the testers, it could be an issue in the newer Pixel phone's firmware or software, something that can be patched up by Google should the company acknowledge the flaw.
That being said, poor USB transfer speeds shouldn't be a concern to the average Pixel 4 owner. After all, it's not often that a user transfers 10GB worth of data. Should a need to transfer data that huge arrives, however, spending a few more seconds to wait isn't that big of a deal. Except, of course, if you're really bothered with the Pixel smartphones' premium price tag. Of course, you'd want to get what you paid for.
