The Pixel 11 isn’t one of the best Pixel of 2026, but it surely’s the neatest purchase

It’d be simple to miss the Pixel 11. Need one of the best cameras? The Pixel 11 Professional is your reply. Need one of the best discount? The Pixel 10A remains to be an amazing deal.

However the Pixel 11 could be the candy spot in Google’s lineup this 12 months. With 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, it delivers the identical efficiency as the bottom Pixel 11 Professional for $899 — $200 much less. And whereas it’s $400 greater than the Pixel 10A, it has a sooner processor, extra RAM and storage, Qi2 charging, and a telephoto lens.

It’s additionally the most cost effective approach to expertise what’s truly new concerning the Pixel 11 collection. With the {hardware} mainly unchanged from the Pixel 10 besides for brand new colours and a thinner digital camera bar, the highlight this 12 months has shifted to software program, particularly options that goal to take full benefit of what most Pixel followers like about their telephones: the cameras and particular options that make the telephones only a bit extra useful.

Final 12 months, we stated Google’s Pixel 10 was priced pretty at $799, and that it’d be grasping for consumers to count on extra from it. Properly, RAMageddon occurred, and everybody’s costs went up. The brand new Pixel 11 begins at $899 and has principally the identical specs. It provides just a few unique software program options that principally make up for it and doubles the bottom storage. I assume it’d be grasping to count on rather more from this one, too.

The Pixel 11 appears to be like, feels, and performs equally to the $1,099 11 Professional. The Professional has a brighter, higher-resolution display screen and rather more highly effective ultrawide and telephoto cameras, however the 11 is simply pretty much as good in practically each different method. It has the identical Tensor G6 processor, and it even has the identical quantity of RAM as the bottom mannequin Professional telephone (although the dearer Professional configurations have 16GB). In day-to-day use, I didn’t discover any efficiency points owing to the smaller quantity of RAM on the 11, although it’s doable that the newer processor balanced it out.

Google didn’t maintain again any of the software program options from this mannequin, both. As somebody who doesn’t improve their telephone until they must (I’m nonetheless very pleased with my Pixel 9 Professional), I used to be skeptical that a few of the telephones’ most intriguing new digital camera options — Digital camera Seems to be and Magic Seize — can be sufficient to temp me. Sadly for these like me who’re holding off on upgrading for so long as doable, each options are rad.

Like final 12 months, the 11 has a 48MP principal digital camera, 13MP ultrawide, and 10.8MP 5x telephoto, all of that are smaller and decrease decision than the sensors on the Professional telephones. My Pixel 9 Professional’s vast and ultrawide lenses are roughly on par with the 11 Professional’s, and fairly a bit extra succesful than the Pixel 11’s. However prior to now week of testing, I don’t miss them as a lot as I believed I’d. Digital camera Seems to be particularly helped me have extra enjoyable capturing with a Pixel than I’ve in years. It’s satisfying to rapidly swap between totally different sensor-level presets, they usually could make a huge impact on how a photograph seems.

I’ve been a Pixel person since 2017, going from the two to the three to the 6 to the 9 Professional, nearly completely due to the cameras. I belief them to take nice pictures rapidly and with little effort. I even introduced the Pixel 2 on my honeymoon journey as a substitute of a DSLR, and no, I don’t remorse all of it these years later. In case you’re a severe telephone photographer who spends time composing each shot, you’ll in all probability need to go for the Professional, however for extra informal photographers like me, the standard distinction isn’t that noticeable, particularly with Digital camera Seems to be utilized. Digital camera Seems to be has even inspired me to decelerate generally to place a little bit extra effort into my composition.

Digital camera Seems to be looks like Google’s realization that the Pixel’s default vibrant HDR-drenched look isn’t the only option for each photograph. Now, it’s simple to modify to the daring, barely extra muted “Digi” or the black-and-white “Black Tie” kinds if you need to take a extra impactful photograph. In case you like one of many Seems to be sufficient to make it your default capturing fashion, you may lock it in. And it’s simpler to make changes on the fly, due to the brand new fast entry dials you may pin to the viewfinder. You may add dials for publicity, shade temperature, and shadows.

Magic Seize — one other digital camera characteristic unique to the 11 collection — is genuinely helpful. The hybrid digital camera mode data a video and intelligently plucks hi-res images and video clips from it, and I used it to seize a bunch of little moments with our two-year-old on the seashore and at parks. It’s handy to have a setting that may seize the sudden with out lacking a beat. You can even manually seize images whereas it’s recording. Nevertheless, the images are the spotlight, not the video (the ensuing video appears to be like choppier than a typical video, as if it lacks picture stabilization; it doesn’t appear to be it’s meant for consumption). I’m extra the sort who’d wish to shoot particular person images, because it feels nice to occur upon a spectacular shot. However the AI does a adequate job at capturing little moments within the motion.

One other new software program part accessible solely on the Pixel 11 lineup is Gemini’s Proactive Help characteristic. It’s meant to deal with extra of the grunt work of utilizing a telephone for issues like managing calendars, making reservations, and shopping for groceries. To really have it do issues for you, it’s good to give the agentic AI permission (it’s not on by default) to make modifications inside an array of apps, starting from Google’s productiveness suite to apps like OpenTable, Instacart, Google Messages, and extra. It’s partially useful, however like an intern that will get simply sufficient mistaken that you simply simply really feel higher doing it your self.

In my back-and-forth text-a-thon with David Imel, who reviewed the 11 Professional, Proactive Help was extra miss than hit. One of many options Google advertises is an OpenTable integration that pops up a Gemini chip to e book a restaurant reservation if it sees a related message. We may solely get it to work by being as particular and formal as doable, together with the restaurant’s full title and the particular day and time. That’s not how most individuals sort to one another.

Right here’s one other instance of Proactive Help in motion: I used to be capable of order groceries via my grocery record in Google Hold, however solely after I discovered some unspoken guidelines. After I enabled entry to each Google Hold and Instacart in Gemini’s settings, I needed to alter the title of my Google Hold record to incorporate “Instacart” (a lot for with the ability to use pure language). Afterward, the characteristic rapidly related me with an inventory of close by retailers that might fulfill my order, similar to it does within the Instacart app. Proactive Help is intriguing, however I hope it will get higher. You may learn extra concerning the characteristic’s quirks in David’s evaluate; for now, it’s not value upgrading for.

Once I purchased the Pixel 9 Professional two years in the past, I picked the Professional as a result of it was a lot better. It had a telephoto digital camera, extra RAM, and extra particular options than the usual mannequin. And its value got here in underneath $1,000.

This 12 months, that’s all modified. The usual Pixel 11 now has a telephoto lens and simply as a lot RAM because the $1,099 Professional, it’ll get all the identical software program options, and it’s now the one with a value underneath 4 digits.

In case you’re severe about telephone images, the 11 Professional might be value it for the larger digital camera sensors. Nevertheless, as somebody who purchased the Pixel 9 Professional two years in the past, the Pixel 11’s mix of good-enough {hardware} and compelling software program feels Professional sufficient to me.

Images by Cameron Faulkner/The Verge