The Pixel 4 follows on from prior models in this way, with a flat coloured body and chunky camera bump around back, and a reduced lower bezel and big forehead at the front. There is a new black band around the edges that gives a nice pop to the white and limited edition orange models, and makes for a really nice grip if you're using it sans case.

There’s no display notch at all this time, just that big upper bezel, and that’s partly because there’s a lot of tech hiding up there alongside the selfie camera.

Face unlock is very fast

First and foremost in that upper array is a bunch of gear to power an iPhone-style face unlock. From my demo, the most notable thing here seems to be that it is much faster than Apple’s solution.

When you pick up and look at the phone, the screen turns on and you’re staring at whatever you were doing with it last. There’s no lock screen, no swiping, no tapping; it’s on and ready before you have a chance to put your thumb near the glass.

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Google’s clearly confident in this system, as it’s removed the fingerprint sensor and left face unlock as the only biometric authentication. It seems very impressive in Google's ideal testing situation, so hopefully it will remain so with proper real-world testing.

Radar lets the phone know when you're near

Google has been working on its Project Soli radar tech for years and now it's going to be available in a consumer-facing form. Alongside the cameras for face unlock at the top of the screen, special spatial awareness equipment creates a motion detecting radar field around 60 centimetres out from the phone. This means the Pixel 4 knows when you're reaching for it, and can interpret simple hand gestures performed nearby.

Google has somehow wrangled a deal with The Pokemon Company to get Pikachu standing in as the defacto mascot for this tech, which is almost as impressive as the feature itself. With the adorable electric mouse set as your wallpaper, you can wave to him and he'll wave back, or give him a little tickle to elicit some hearts and giggles.

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But aside from prodding pocket monsters, the best use of the radar is simply that the phone can get ready for you without you touching it. When you're nearby it begins the face unlock procedure, which is how the phone manages to open so instantly when it spots your face. Meanwhile calls and alarms are quietened when the phone knows you're near, and you can dismiss alerts or skip music tracks simply by waving your hand above the screen. When you're not near, the phone can turn off the always-on display to save power.

This could potentially be the nicest Android screen

Underneath all that tech, the OLED display itself has quite a few new tricks up its sleeve. Most exciting is a variable refresh rate, allowing the screen to speed up to 90Hz from the standard 60Hz in certain situations. This should make reading documents and browsing the web much slicker, as text and images move smoothly with no judder while you scroll.

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Then there’s Ambient EQ, which has come across from the Nest Hub smart displays. This means that the Pixel, similar to the iPhone, will match the colour temperature to your environment so the display is never harsh and blue.

To be honest, I'm taking Google's word for it on these features, because the playground wasn't really set up to demo them, but devices like Apple's iPad Pro have employed similar tech to brilliant effect. With the new Snapdragon 855 and 6GB RAM under the hood, the Pixel 4 should have more than enough grunt to push content at 90Hz and make for a really nice reading experience.

New AI tricks for Assistant and camera

The Pixel Neural Core has been made smarter again, which some people may find troubling, but it certainly makes for great phone software.

The Google Assistant can now do much more on the phone without needing an internet connection and is quick and smart enough to work across multiple apps and contexts. No matter what you're doing, you can ask for a specific user on Instagram or photos you took in a specific location. You could also ask to take a screenshot or selfie, then ask to send it to a specific contact. In the demo, each task took less than two seconds. There's also a new recorder app that transcribes your (English) recordings in real time, without an internet connection.

In the camera, the HDR+ algorithm (which combines multiple exposures so you don't lose detail in highlights or shadows) now works in real time. That means before you've even taken the photo you can adjust two sliders independently to make sure the pic is exposed how you want. Night Mode has also been improved, with the promise that if you keep the phone steady (but not necessarily on a tripod), you can get detailed photos of the night sky. Obviously, while taking photos of the objects inside a dark box at Google's event proved to me that Night Mode still works, I'm very keen to see how it all goes in the great outdoors.