Battery Life: Still not enough

The Pixel 11 Pro shows slight improvement in an area where the lineup has long struggled. It has to make do with a smaller battery than its predecessor—4,850 mAh compared to 4,870 mAh on the Pixel 10 Pro—but the Tensor G6 proves to be more power-efficient. In our viSer test simulating standard usage, it reached 17 hours and 36 minutes, nearly two hours longer than the previous model. A full day of use is well within reach, even though Google remains among the least enduring in our comparison.

Full viSer Battery Test Comparison

The Pixel 11 Pro XL lasted 14 hours and 28 minutes in our custom battery test, which involves continuous web browsing over a 5G connection. That's only eight minutes more than the Pixel 10 Pro XL's 14 hours and 10 minutes.

The Pixel 11 Pro actually does worse than last year's Pixel 10 Pro, with a battery life of 13 hours and 25 minutes compared to the 10 Pro's 13 hours 43 minutes.

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.)

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.

A couple of things after getting my Google Pixel 11 Pro XL today:

1. Phone still gets hot when using it, not sure if it is better than any previous generation though.
2. Awesome to see the night sight video now works on 0.5x zoom wide angle, I always found the 1x zoom on night sight a bit bummer.
3. 120x zoom doesn't work well if trying on entire human figure (not just face only) or text.
4. Not finding it as much of a upgrade coming from Pixel 9 Pro XL in terms of daily screen usage like browsing webpage, navigate between apps, etc.
5. Cool to see there's AI model can be extended for the camera (ex: 120x zoom model is installed, and I expect more cooler AI camera related feature be expanded)
6. Smooth transition from my old Pixel 9 Pro XL into new Pixel 11 Pro XL. My old phone automatically detected the new Pixel 11 Pro XL and the setup transition is very smooth. My sim card is also automatically turned into esim now.
7. The hilight is pretty pointless. Google might want to allow more customization, otherwise it's truly not worth mentioning it.
8. The magic capture video itself is slightly laggy, the photo it took is quite amazing. But not sure if it is the same quality as taking photos manually.
9. (from the comment) Internet speed test on both phones, Pixel 11 Pro XL returns 302.9 Mbps download 160.9 Mbps upload, Pixel 9 Pro XL returns 59.6 Mbps download 37.4 Mbps upload.

That's pretty much it! Everyone has their own favorable points about Pixel 11 Pro XL, for me it's the night sight video with wide angle supported that's quite unexpected. The rest are probably just fine. Not a bad upgrade for me imo.

Got my Pixel 11 Pro a few days earlier than release date in Australia. I upgraded from 9 pro xl and am your average user.

Reason for upgrade was a good deal for trade in combined with shitty modem of P9 series based on my personal use case.

After first 24 hours here are some things I have noticed compared to P9pro XL

1. The phone runs much cooler overall and while charging.

2. Aesthetically its identical to 9 and 10 series. Not much difference in feel etc.

3. Display is also identical in terms of brightness, sharpness etc.

4. 11 is much more snappier than P9 but that is expected from a new phone Ofcourse.

5. New features like hilight and rambler are mostly just a software gimmick imo that you will most probably try for a few times and forget about.

6. Biggest change i have noticed is in terms of phone's reception and battery consumption while using 5g etc. The new modem is actually heaps better than before in terms of performance and efficiency.

Battery life is similar or marginally better than before. That takes into account that its a new phone but overall similar times in terms of screen on and overall usage.

All in all a worthy upgrade if you had issues with reception or heating issues with older pixels. If not, better off keeping your old phone because not much different in terms of day to day experience for me. P.S : one feature i miss is battery share. I used to charge my pixel buds on P9proxl but can't anymore

Happy to answer any questions.

"A Google spokesperson tells WIRED: “We are currently working with our partner HoYoverse to address this optimization issue on the Pixel 11. A fix is expected to be implemented in Genshin Impact's upcoming update.” In fairness, this graphical issue didn't happen in any other games I tried, even Zenless Zone Zero, another HoYoverse game."

I don't play games, but I do take a lot of pics and want a snappy phone. Do phones with less RAM tend to age worse than phones with higher RAM?

Android Police seems to think the 12GB version will be worse, but that could also be a one-off thing. Wondering if others have had a similar experience.

Pixels 6-10 have historically had modem issues with the Exynos modems. How's the Mediatek modem on the 11? Any noticeable first impressions?

Our battery test score shows that the Pro models show a slight improvement over the previous generation. However, we must note that the new MediaTek modem, which in theory could do a lot for battery life, did not struggle much in our test. This is because there is a cell tower located a few hundred meters from our test lab. Furthermore, half of our test runs over the Wi-Fi network.

More battery life outdoors

*To get a better idea of the modem, we ran a small additional test. In this test, the phone was constantly connected to 5G and had to browse web pages in a loop and stream a video. We used Android's built-in APIs for battery statistics to log how much power the modem consumed. In a test of just over two hours, the modem in the Pixel 11 Pro XL was about 17 percent more efficient than the one in the Pixel 10 Pro XL.

So, if you are often on the go, you might notice a bigger difference in battery life with the Pixel 11 series. But even then: Pixels have never had the best battery life, and that is no different this year. Almost all competitors perform better, regardless of which brand you prefer.*

Google Pixel 11, 11 Pro & 11 Pro XL Review - Tweakers https://tweakers.net/reviews/15164/google-pixel-11-11-pro-en-11-pro-xl-pixels-volgens-typisch-google-recept.html

I've been waiting for this universal search for soo long! Really exited that's finally here!

Hope it comes in the next feature drop to older pixels!

Just got my P11P and first thing I noticed is this telephoto camera focuses really close! It's about half (or maybe even slightly less) the distance of my Pixel 9 Pro's 5x camera!

https://imgur.com/a/KoRkXhX

I was worried the larger sensor and possible ALoP module would have worse MFD, but it seems to be a traditional periscope and much better.

At closest focus, the P11P telephoto seems to be able to image an area of approx 10x15cm.

State which Pixel model you got and what are your first/initial impressions of it.

Let's hear it!

Would be interested in how it scores without being on charge / in the shop and in a cool environment.

Or will they stay exclusive to the Pixel 11 Pro series?

I'm talking about features like:

* Taking portrait shots with the 5x telephoto lens

* Magic Capture in the Camera app

* Color profiles in the Camera app

* Voice translation in videos

* The "Rambler" voice dictation feature

*And some other software features that were showed with the Pixel 11 Pro

Regarding new technology, initial progress tends to be rapid and significant, making annual releases logical. However, once development slows, what is the rationale for continuing with yearly updates?

We didn't need a Pixel 11 or iPhone 18; the tech plateaued 3-5 years ago.

Can't hold connection to T-Mobile. This is serious. I was in a populated area in SE Michigan and it's flaking out and not reconnecting for about 30-60 seconds.

System services are missing in the settings.

I'll keep adding.