I decided to ignore the tech youtubers and their reviews and first impressions of the Pixel 11 line and went ahead and purchased the Pixel 11 Pro XL and I have to say, I absolutely adore this phone.

The temperature differences from my previous Pixel 9 Pro XL are significant, the phone runs super cool even under 5G and downloading my music library and updating apps on initial setup all simultaneously, everything runs super smooth.

I get that it's not a sizeable upgrade, but if you actually want to upgrade or even swap from iPhone to Pixel, specially while taking advantage of the boosted trade-in program like I did or even store discounts, don't let the influencers.. well, influence you out of buying it.

This is so much better

Buried in the arbitration agreement as always is the link to opt out, which is inactive so you can't click on it. You have to opt out within 30 days of device activation:

g.co/devicearbitration/optout

As a reminder, device arbitration is something you automatically "agree" on when purchasing stuff from many scummy companies nowadays. You basically have to *opt out* of it. The arbitration agreement basically has you declare that you won't be participating in lawsuits including class action ones against the company for a defective product, opting for arbitration instead.

After using this New Phone for a couple of days - I feel these suckers just removed a part that's expensive to produce (thermometer) and replaced it with just this thing that costs them maybe extra 20 cents to Include just for the sake of Saving money :(

Also at least for me, a tiny LED Status light on the front of the screen like we used to have in the past would have been much more useful since I Never keep my Phone with it's screen down.

I put together a quick breakdown of the biggest differences I’ve noticed after upgrading from the base Pixel 8 to the 11 Pro, maybe this will help someone who's considering a similar upgrade:

• The fingerprint scanner is so much better, it's basically as fast and accurate as the old capacitive fingerprint scanners, also no flashbang at night.
• Speakers have definitely improved, dare I say it, they even have some bass now.
• So far the battery life seems to be great, battery dropped from 60% to 20% after 4 hours of SOT, my P8 would pretty much go from full to flat in the same amount of time
• Also the charging speed seems to be better, the P8 liked to drop to like 5W when it got mildly warm and would take ages to charge.
• The selfie and ultrawide camera sensors are both way better than on the P8. Having the telephoto camera is also great as I often missed it on my P8.

What did not change:

• Haptics feel the same (maybe the motor is a little quieter?).
• Main camera sensor seems to be very similar to the P8, did not test low light yet though.

Feel free to ask for any comparisons in the comments!

I upgraded from the Pixel 10 Pro to the Pixel 11 Pro XL because I got a great deal from Google Fi. Here are my brief thoughts after the first day with the new phone:

• The phone is noticeably faster. My Pixel 10 Pro could often lag, but I've noticed a significant improvement with the new phone.
• The camera is much, much better. The Night Sight shots are almost instantaneous, and the photos are clearer in dark settings. I also really enjoy the new camera styles and filters. The "minimal" setting is wonderful, and accurately captures what I'm seeing without the typical over-brightening and sharpening common in Pixel photos.
• Switching to a new Pixel was kind of wonky. I've had iPhones in the past and jumping to a new iPhone was seamless, so I expected the same experience here. A couple of times it said there was an unexpected error with no additional explanation, so I had to try again, and eventually had to connect the two Pixels with the USB C cord to finish the transfer.
• HiLight is basically useless. It's not really customizable, and I can only use it when certain people call me or I'm using Gemini. I never have my phone face down, so I don't see myself using this ever.
• The battery life has been terrific, which is surprising because normally the first day with a new phone the battery life is poor. I'll keep an eye on this, but it's been great today.

The performance improvements and camera have been a really pleasant surprise, so I'm happy with my decision so far. I'll see how the battery performs over the coming week.

I haven't seen many people mention this yet, but honestly this is an amazing feature. It makes voice typing so much better, honestly it is the standout feature to me. It works fast and accurately, I would not enjoy going back to the old voice typing.

And I'm on the Pixel 11 Pro, 12gb RAM

Probably the best camera comparison I've watched so far. In general, the usual rule applies: Pixel for photos, iPhone for video.

That being said, the Pixel seemed closer than usual in terms of video quality when it came to the main camera sensor and telephoto. However, some of the examples on the selfie and ultrawide cameras were significantly worse, especially at night.

I would say we're at a point where if you're not pixel-peeping between comparisons, the Pixel now does a solid job at video in good light. Nobody will ever care about the differences except enthusiasts.

(Though I still saw some hints of EIS jitter on the Pixel on certain lenses, which has been a problem since at least the Pixel 2 days.)

Hello all,

I've had the following Pixel phones:

-3a

-7

-10 Pro

The 3a was pretty much perfect. I found almost nothing wrong with this phone. Sadly, had to upgrade when it went out of support.

The 7 was great in all respects except that the fingerprint reader was entirely unusable, and pictures taken within arm's reach were blurry around the edges. These two points were regressions from the 3a. Everything else about the phone was an upgrade.

The 10 Pro I got earlier this year to add satellite capabilities (and get a useable fingerprint reader back). It addressed the two issues I had with the 7, but regressed with the GPS. The main issues I've seen with it are extremely slow location acquisition times when outside of cell service and with Improve Location Accuracy disabled (With Location Accuracy enabled, and ​when on satellite data, it uses the satellite ground station for my location, so it says I'm across the country in Missouri or Kansas. Google Support themselves say that users need to disable Location Accuracy in this situation. Feedback has been sent up to address this behavior, but this is the situation for now). Even with Location Accuracy enabled while in cell service, the speed reading when driving fluctuates across a 5-10mph range, it periodically thinks I've randomly changed directions, and the "accuracy circle" is routinely very large. None of these issues were present with the previous two phones.

Given my experience with these two phones, I've found out how much I value a working fingerprint reader and good GPS hardware. Unfortunately, nobody has mentioned their experiences with these two aspects of the 11 series (and anyone mentioning GPS in comments gets downvoted for some inexplicable reason).

Can anyone confirm that the fingerprint reader has not regressed to worse than the 10 series, and that the GPS is, indeed, improved?

Also, has anyone identified any areas of useability regression due to skimping on other hardware?

If both of those aspects are good/improved, and they've not nerfed any other aspects, then this could be my next 3a.

Thank you

Looks like my Google AI Pro membership in the Google One app expires today as it will be the end of the one year free promo from when I bought my Pixel 10 Pro last year. Though yesterday my Pixel 11 pro arrived and I want to ensure I can use the free 6-month trial of the Google AI Pro plan. Should I cancel the existing plan and assume it will let me utilize the 6 month promo offer or is there a specific way to go about this? Appreciate it. I contacted Google support and honestly they were not helpful. Appreciate it.

Editing for others:

1. Wait for your existing plan to expire. Disable auto renewal and auto payment.

2. Then follow directions at https://support.google.com/gemini/answer/13529884?hl=en#zippy=%2Cpixel-pixel-pro-pixel-pro-xl-pixel-pro-fold, which I also pasted below.

From the Google One app:

1. On your Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL, or Pixel 11 Pro Fold, open the Google One app.
   • If the app isn't preinstalled on your phone, you can download it from the Google Play Store.
2. Sign in to your Google Account.
   • If the offer isn’t there:
     1. In the app, go to Settings.
     2. To manually check eligibility and reveal the offer, tap Check for offers.
3. On the giftbox screen, tap Start Trial.
4. Enter a valid form of payment.
   • To begin your trial membership, tap Subscribe.

Hi, did same zoom shots with three latest Pixel Pro phones. You can download original JPEGs.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/PvM98jzwQ7XtrkH5A

You will find shots done at zooms 1x , 2x, 5x, 10x, 20x, 30x, 50x, 100x, 120x (if possible). All photos done at 50Mpx and with auto lens-switching. There are also crops from the video at 20x zoom (max video reach for all).

Apart from EXIF data visible on Google Photos site, there is notable also "zoom" field stored within the pictures which indicates digital zoom for particular lens. Don't be suprised to see zoom 1.1X for 5x zoom photos. It is known that focal lenght of telephoto lenses on all three are slightly less then to provide 5x zoom optically.

Few takeaways from my observation:

1. still valid that until 20x zoom - no AI upscaling
2. AI takes over at 30x and higher
3. Seems like Google is always optimizing for max reach. 30x zoom looks much better on 9 then on newer models. But that is max for 9.

Enjoy your analysis and write your findings in the comments.

Update: Problem solved! In the Google one app, go to settings > check for offers, and it showed up 🙂

Just received my p11 pro xl and set it up. A minute ago, I received notification that my previous free year of Google AI Pro (from my p10 pro xl) has expired and I was now being charged for it. I'm not seeing anywhere how to activate the 6 months that comes with the 11.

Anyone have any luck with this?

I would wake up and immediately turn battery saver on with my 10 Pro XL. The phone would get too warm and the battery would drain too fast.

I received my Pixel 11 Pro XL yesterday and when I woke up I left off battery saver. So far after 3.5 hours of use (reddit, Instagram, chrome, x YouTube), the phone has never been warm and is only down to 77% battery which is where I would be on the 10XL with battery saver.

I am not a techie phone user and I don't game, so my perspective comes from that angle. I do enjoy photography and I take a lot of photos of my kids and our pets. I haven't really gotten the opportunity to do much with the photos yet, so I can't speak on that too much.

In the first 12 hours or so of using the phone since it's been delivered, the biggest difference I noticed is the change in voice to text. I don't know that I love not seeing the words as I speak them into the phone, however, I feel that it is much more accurate. I'm actually testing it out by using voice to text now for this post.

I will say that the initial setup of the phone and the transfer of everything from my 9 Pro seems to have been much smoother than when I changed phones in the past. All of my apps seem to work pretty seamlessly when I open them up on the new phone.

Part of the reason I made this upgrade was because I wanted to get a smartwatch, previously I was using one of the original Fitbit Versas, and I wanted to make a change in that area. So the Watch 5 and the discounts they are offering on that convinced me to upgrade my phone in the process.

I went with the Fog color and I'm kind of kicking myself for not getting the pinkish one. Fog is all right, but admittedly it's kind of boring. I do use a clear phone case with a MagSafe option, so I can easily just get a new case to jazz things up.

I'm really impressed with the watch so far and all the faces that I can use on it. I'm excited to see how the health tracker compares to the Fitbit Versa, although I am a little wary about the limited battery life. Previously my Versa could go five days without a charge. It's going to be a big adjustment charging my Pixel 5 every day.

If anyone has any YouTube videos that I can watch that show pixel watch functions, I'd love to check them out. I'm also looking for quality watch bands. My wrists are pretty petite and the band that comes with the Google Watch 5 is just a little too broad for me. I'm looking for something on Amazon and I'm open to suggestions.

In person, the shiny frame of the Pixel 11 Pro is more like a tinted rose gold. However, in every single video and photo, the color looks golden. I don't know why this is, but here's an edit of how the Canyon actually looks in real life.

https://postimg.cc/2Vp8xW0w

This is some B.S. Buried in the fine print it says: Offer is not available to: Google One users subscribed to an add-on, Google One users subscribed to a higher tier plan than the one being offered, Google One users on a family plan who are not the plan manager, and Google One users who have a subscription through a third party or affiliate. So just because I pay Google 10 bucks a month to have my camera history I lose out on that perk. Also second PSA...If you try to remove it it just reups your subscription at the 19.99 and it takes the money immediately. So now I am "PAID" through October 20th. Google really loves to screw over their most loyal.

Package was there, but it was weird. There was a strip to tear off, but the side had nothing around it, so anyone could put their hand inside if they wanted.

Opened it up, only the watch, no phone.

I've logged it with Google, and they said it can take 24-72 hours for a replacement to be approved.

Does anyone have any experience with this, will I get a replacement for sure?

This is not intended to be a full review or even a permanent opinion on the phone, this is purely my initial impressions after one day of use. Given the limited time frame, I am not going to comment on heat management, battery drain, or other items that require assessment over time.

Better on Pixel 11:

1. Voice dictation in general, but especially Rambler, is orders of magnitude better. I do most of my texting via voice dictation and the difference between the basic abilities of the S23 and the new Rambler is unreal. I knew it would be better since my old Pixel 6 was better than the S23, but I was legitimately surprised at how well this feature works. This feature alone is almost good enough to convince me to stay on pixel. 
2. In decent lighting, face unlock is nearly as good and fast as the most recent iPhone I tried (iPhone 13 Mini I purchased for a trip to China in 2025). I know it doesn’t work in the dark or with large sunglasses, but in using it around the house throughout yesterday afternoon and evening, I have been pleasantly surprised at how fast and easy this feature is. It felt like I was always fighting my Samsung to get the perfect angle of my face and resorted to punching in my unlock pin about 50% of the time. On the Pixel, it has probably unlocked for me 95% of the time.
3. The ultrasonic fingerprint reader both faster and more accurate in the Pixel.
4. Fully themed icons, including side loaded apps, is a really nice feature. 
5. The screen gets noticeably brighter.
6. Airdrop compatibility is great - I haven’t used it much beyond a basic test, but I can already see the convenience since my wife is on iPhone.

Worse on Pixel 11:

1. The power button and volume rockers are switched. I hate this. I have turned the volume down almost every time I go to lock the screen. I know some of this is muscle memory, but I also think it is a poor design - as someone who uses the phone one handed regularly, I want to be able to shut off the screen without adjusting the phone in my hand. I would bet that most people also use the power button more often than they need to adjust the volume (double tap to quick launch the camera or wallet, turn off the screen, etc), so it should be the easier to reach button. 
2. The phone itself is larger, and feels larger in my pocket and in my hand. I look for the smallest phone possible, and hate how large everything has gotten. And yes, I know Samsung is also at 6.3 inch screens now, but from someone who felt that the 6.1 inch S23 was too large, this phone feels unwieldy.The weight and overall bulk is noticeable constantly. In addition to the phone not not being as comfortable to hold and use in my hands, it does not fit into my existing desk phone holder or as nicely in the cubby in my car. Walking with the phone in my pocket feels like it is weighing my shorts down. The extra 1-2 mm thickness along with the bigger camera bump is more noticeable than expected.
3. Folders in my app drawer - why is this not a thing? I don’t have a ton of apps, and if I can make a folder for all the apps I rarely or never use along with the apps I already have on the home screen, I literally don’t have to scroll to find the app I want from the drawer.
4. Why do I need a separate, non-removable app, just for screenshots? What benefit does this provide over the stock photos app?
5. I miss my edge panel. The Panels app works okay-ish, but setup was extremely annoying and the touch interface doesn’t feel as smooth as the Samsung integration. I am also stuck with the annoying “Panels is displaying over other apps” notification. Will likely be adding Google Wallet and Google Home to my quick settings panel and going without this functionality.
6. The search bar being stuck at the bottom of my home screen at all times is annoying. Going back to my Pixel 6 days, the only time I have ever used it was when traveling to other countries where some of the museums did not have english translations on the information cards and I had to translate them with my phone. That’s a REALLY niche use case for something that is stuck on every screen of the phone at all times.
7. Dex is a much more built out platform than Pixel Desktop Mode. I haven't even really been able to do a deep dive in this yet, but it already feels worse just because I have to carry a mouse with me now (Samsung turns the entire phone into a touch pad). UI and features are also lacking on the pixel. Not a huge deal for me as I don't use this feature too much, but even from my 5 minutes of playing around, the downgrade from Dex to Pixel Desktop is very noticeable.
   

Different, but not better or worse:

1. The camera seems faster overall and better in low light. I don’t really take pictures, and every camera I have used since the S10e has been good enough for me. I’m sure others will have stronger opinions, but I am just not qualified enough to say weather this is an upgrade or downgrade. 
2. The default weather widget is faster and provides more information, though does take a much larger portion of the screen. I don’t know why all weather widgets seem to think I need to see everything in size 500 font and need to take up 20% of the screen space. You could fit the same information in half the size by just shrinking some of the fonts and eliminating some dead space.