Google - Pixel 11 Pro XL 256GB (Unlocked) - Olive

Exceptional refinement across the board. Coming from previous generations, the Pixel 11 Pro XL feels like Google firing on all cylinders. The build quality in hand is genuinely premium, the display gets ridiculously bright with flawless outdoor visibility, and everyday performance is snappy without breaking a sweat or warming up unnecessarily. Battery life easily carries through an intense day, and the camera system continues to deliver class-leading consistency—especially dynamic range and low-light portraits. Fast, fluid, and polished software. Easily Google’s best flagship to date.

I’ll start by mentioning that I’ve owned other Pixel and Google nexus phones in the past and the Google Pixel 11 Pro XL feels the most refined and polished. Build quality is excellent; on par with other flagship phones on the market. It’s glass body with aluminum sides is quite premium feeling in the hands. The camera bar on the back lost the metal frame and is covered with gorilla glass victus 2. It also lost the temperature sensor on the back and replaced with a “HiLight” something that for now I feel is a little gimmicky and un necessary. I don’t miss the temperature sensor either though. The HiLight is used to notify you of specific contacts and notifications while your phone is placed face down. Cool to have but not a must have for me personally. Perhaps with custom software the light can be used for other notifications and apps. I feel like the biggest upgrades in this years Pixel are the camera sensors and the OLED screen. The screen is now capable of 120hz and 3600 nits of brightness at max, which is crazy bright. Bright enough to allow me to see the display clearly outside at high noon when the sun is at its brightest here in a cloudless Texas day. The camera sensors are larger now, allowing for them to see more light. Making them more useful in low light scenarios. A 50mp wide, 48mp ultra wide and 48mp Telephoto which can zoom upto 120X. The telephoto zoom is difficult to use and Ai is used to create the end image and clarify the end result which sometimes creates weird artifacts. Especially if there is text or jagged lines. Still a very cool feature though that might come in handy some day. It comes equipped with Googles new Tensor G6 processor.. which might not out perform the competition but is plenty quick enough to get all your tasks done on this phone, while being very power efficient. I have not had any issues running my favorite games and apps on the pixel 11 pro so far. I think the battery got downsized a little from last year but I’ve experienced excellent battery life and sometimes can go almost 2 days before having to plug it in to charge. Standby battery life is the best I’ve seen on any Google phone I’ve owned. The default storage size is 256gb, which is what I have and consider to be the bare minimum these days. Camera files and apps can be very large, so thank you Google for not giving us anything less than 256gb. If you are looking to buy this phone, you can expect the best of google’s software. It will be a clean and fluid experience. No added bloatware or apps preinstalled other than google’s service apps. The Gemini ai assistant on this phone is by far the most helpful and useful ai on any phone. You can have a natural feeling conversation with Gemini and it will provide helpful information. Admittedly, I haven’t used it to do some of the tasks available because I still prefer to do a lot of things myself. But I could see Gemini Ai being very helpful for someone who can be overwhelmed sometimes with day to day tasks. If I had to complain about anything about the ai suite on here is that some of the features are locked behind a paywall subscription and it is not cheap. Therefore personally I feel like I don’t need it and don’t want it. But you might feel differently about it after using it for some time. For me personally the biggest reason to own a Google phone has always been their cameras. Google phones tend to produce some of the best looking photos on any smartphone, and it still holds true and Google has included more camera features this year. “Looks” they are calling them. Basically you can now choose a different color profile for your photos on the fly if you choose to. I stick to the default since I still like what Google is doing with their computational photography. The video on this camera though, still needs some work. It can be inconsistent. While testing the cameras zoom with family, I noticed that sometimes my videos looked cartoonish. People’s skin looked smeered and waxy, and the colors looked like they melted onto others. I don’t know what I did in the settings, but the next video I took looked more natural. I think filming at 60fps indoors is what created the unnatural skin tones and colors to appear. When switched back to 30fps, the indoor video looked more natural looking. So be careful and mindful with your video settings. I would just leave it set to 30fps for everyday use. At the end of the day.. I still think the camera system and software is the best on any smartphone and the reason I will carry this phone in my pocket everyday. Would I recommend this phone? Yes. Especially if you just want a clean android experience with the most helpful ai software Google has to offer. I don’t know if any of the other android phones have better cameras, but the pixel 11 pro xl has a fantastic camera on board.

The Pixel 11 Pro XL design remains similar to last year's model with the most notable change to the camera bar. To me, this phone remains the best looking, most ergonomic and smartest phone on the market. In the box you get the phone along with a USB-C transfer/charging cable. A power adapter is not included. My phone came with about an 80% charge so it was ready to go as soon as I plugged it in. I used my Pixel 10 Pro XL to transfer my account and data to the new phone. As soon as I turned the phone on, it connected to my old phone and the setup and transfer began. It can do it wirelessly; however, it will go faster if you use the included usb cable. The setup was very quick, even connecting to my Wi-Fi without needing to enter my password. As I mentioned the camera bar is the only noticeable physical difference. I has been made shallower. It is the only phone of the major brands that lies completely flat on its back. This seems like a small detail, but it makes typing and scrolling so much easier when lying on a flat surface. Google states that the screen has a new coating that makes it twice as scratch-resistant. However, I will not test the validity of that statement so I installed a screen protector and a case immediately. This year's model is the first to have the Google Tensor G6 chip, which is designed to work better with Gemini and improve photography. I was very satisfied with the camera on my Pixel 10 Pro XL, however, the Pro 11 XL camera is noticeably better. I am not a photographer, but it is easy to see the difference when comparing the same shots side by side. The detail is strikingly better, especially when zooming with the telescopic lens. Video has also been improved, even the audio quality is better. Video stabilization is excellent.One of my favorite new features is Magic Capture. This allows the camera to take a video and high-quality photos simultaneously. You can then pick out photos to save that you never would have been able to capture on your own. Night Sight has been improved too. You can take low light photos in a fraction of the time it used to take. This means that your subject does not have to stand still for a long time and you don't have to hold the shutter as long. Google calls it Instant Night Sight. The very useful Circle to Search which has been available on Pixel phones for a while has now been added to the camera. Just point your camera at an object and Google will tell you what it is. And of course this can be used to translate also. The camera can be instantly accessed by double tapping the power button. You can even customize the camera settings that will open so that you are ready to shoot. There are far too many camera-related settings to cover now, including a Creator Suite designed to facilitate video production. The temperature sensor has been replaced by a sensor called HiLight. It is an LED light that glows various colors depending on which contact is calling you. It will also glow when communicating with Gemini. However, this is only visible when your phone is lying screen down. I set this up; however, I have not found it to be useful yet. Maybe Google will add additional features to this in the future. Gemini has been very helpful in so many ways and now its features have been expanded. Visual cards in chats will show answers to questions such as your availability, flight information, etc. This saves you the time spent searching for this information. Gemini can also make restaurant reservations from your chat and even order groceries from your Keep list. I have not tried either of these features yet. Gemini Omni will create an 8 second video based on photos and other information you input, such dialogue and background. Another one of my favorite new features is called Rambler. This allows you to speak naturally, including all the flaws and "ums," and it will filter out the mistakes, restating your message as a clear concise message. Finally, the Pixel 11 Pro XL excels as a phone. Connectivity is strong to both Wi-Fi and cellular. The voice is very clear. The screen is brighter than ever. BTW, the color I chose was fog. I have yet to see a picture of that accurately shows the color. In certain light it looks off-white; in other light, it looks light blue or light green. It is attractive; however, it must be seen in person. In summary the Pixel 11 Pro XL is an excellent phone with a very attractive ergonomic design and the brains to back it up. I would recommend this phone to everyone.

If you have been following the Google Pixel at all, you may know that they have been making more subtle improvements over the last couple of years. At least on the outside. That remains true with the Pixel 11 Pro XL. However, as they say, it's what's inside that counts. The specs, on paper, may seem like they are nothing to brag about. But, when using the phone daily, it's easy to see the refinements that have been made, and the push to just make things easier. Which, I think everyone can be happy with. The upgraded tensor processor seems to make a significant improvement in several key areas. Using any sort of AI seems to be more responsive. While some people may think that isn't for them, the new processor also helps in photo processing, which I'm sure nearly everyone benefits from. -- Setup Transferring to a new phone seems to get easier each generation of Pixel devices. Moving to the Pixel 11 from the Pixel 10 was easier than ever. With nice little details, like during the wireless transfer process, you're given the option to plug in a cable to speed things up, instead of choosing one option at the beginning only. I tried plugging in during the middle of my transfer, just to see how things would go, and it didn't skip a beat. It just continued transferring my content over. To me, it's all these little things like this that make the experience of the Pixel tough to beat. -- Hardware As I mentioned, the upgraded Tensor chip makes a clear difference. The upgraded camera also works very well. I'm always impressed by the photo quality of the Pixels. While I do think some cameras work better in video than the Pixel, it's definitely no slouch. Being able to shoot at 4k 60 on the device is a nice addition, and seeing how quickly Night Sight photos are processed is pretty impressive. Something else that I've noticed during my testing, is that the phone doesn't seem to get nearly as hot as my Pixel 10 would get during heavy tasks. My Pixel 10 Pro XL would often get pretty warm if I tried using the phone while also using Android Auto in my car. The 11 doesn't seem to have this issue. Battery life seems to be improved as well over my 10. All while the performance seems better. I'm easily making it through the day with around 30% battery left, whereas my 10 would often be scraping by at the end of the day. The physical look of the phone is also refined over the 10. The camera bar seems like a more cohesive and sleek design now. And the addition of "HiLight" seems like it may have potential. But it's not the most useful addition so far. Being limited to calling contacts or Gemini so far. Hopefully Google will expand on this feature in the future. Pixels always seem to excel with their software features and the 11 has updated hardware to make that experience even better. While maybe not a huge leap from the 10, there's enough here to make me more than happy with the upgrades. And I'll be looking forward to upcoming feature drops through the year to see what else they may add and improve. Pros: nicely refined and elegant hardware, excellent software, excellent camera Cons: HiLight seems a little restricted at the moment, while it's no slouch, additional performance for gaming would also be welcome

Google's newest Pixel 11 Pro XL is a solid choice for those wanting to break away from the big two. I'll start with pros and get to the cons. The screen is a nice 6.8" Super Actua display QHD+ (1344 x 2992) resolution with a variable refresh rate (1-120Hz). It's also made from Gorilla Glass Victus 2 so it's pretty durable and scratch resistant. The picture is very vivid and colorful. Under the hood the Pixel 11 Pro XL has 256Gb of storage, 12Gb of RAM, Google's newest Tensor G6 processor, and their new Titan M3 security chip. The Tensor G6 and Titan M3 are what gonna really make the Pixel shine, as the new processor will power all the Ai technology and photography packed into the phone and the Titan will keep your phone secure from suspicious or risky data threats. Speaking of photography the Pro XL has triple cameras (50MP main, 48MP Ultrawide, 48 MP telephoto) and photo editing technology are top notch letting even the most amature shutterbug get some great pictures like a pro. One of my favorite features was the Ai upscaling and enhancing which simplifies the process of improving photos, this is great for anyone that is unsure on how to adjust all those specific settings when editing photos, and I've gotta admit after taking a few pictures of my cat I don't think I've ever gotten as good of a photo of her as I did with the Pixel 11. My other favorite feature was the Gemini Ai improvements that make it a great tool for everyday use. My favorites were Gemini Flash and Rambler. Flash is a limited version of their Ai tool Pro membership which is great to get you started into Ai tools and really does make you want to upgrade to the Pro after playing with it for a while. I had so much fun just editing pictures with prompts, most of them being just me imagining my cat into crazy characters or situations, I know I could definitely use it for more with time. Rambler is their new text-to-speech technology with Ai enhancement, a neat feature that I ended up finding useful for making my communication a bit more polished. It takes your spoken message and dictates it into text but sorta paraphrases it by taking out unnecessary fillers (uhs, umms, like, etc...) or pauses, organizing lists, and adding punctuation, structuring your message into a more clean and beautifully structed text, it really makes you sound more verbose and erudite. Now for the cons, and despite how great this phone is there was only two things I found in my experience to be worth noting. This first one is kinda minor and more an annoyance than an actual issue. The gallery system for Pixel is more complicated than it needs to be. On my previous Samsung phones I could organize pictures on my phone and create Collections/Folders easily and send photos to them and then pull them up quickly. However on Pixel, Collections and Folders are made complicated by making Collections an entirely separate thing from Folders and that gets automatically uploaded to the cloud even if you disable cloud backup, which then prompts a pop-up to buy upgraded Cloud storage. This is needlessly overcomplicating something that was never difficult. The second issue is the Pixel not being able to handle moderate to higher end mobile gaming. This was something that actually upset me because I play CoD and Delta Force on mobile. When trying to play these games they were locked to the lowest performance settings, touchscreen controls weren't syncing with the aspect ratio, and even when trying to play it was lagging and struggling to run smoothly. When researching the issue it's the possible reasons were the Battery Throttle limits were locking my games to lower specs to save battery life/longevity or the Tensor chip isn't designed for gaming and more focused on Ai processes. If you don't really play mobile games then this will be a non-issue for you. Overall, I really liked the new Pixel 11 Pro XL I had a lot of fun playing with the camera and Gemini and I would say its a good choice when looking to get a new phone.