Customer Ratings & Reviews

The Google Pixel 11 is a powerful smartphone loaded with great features, amazing cameras, and updates for 7 years! Design The Pixel 11 is covered in glass, front and back. It does look slick, and amazing. I found it a little too smooth and it actually slid off my night stand. Thankfully it didn't break and now I have a case and screen protector. They use very strong glass, but I still recommend a case and a screen protector. I had no problem finding some great options even though this phone is new. The right side has a power button and a volume rocker. There is a slit at the top of the phone, just above the screen, where the earpiece speaker is. There are two speaker output holes on the bottom. There's a mic on the top edge, one on the back with the cameras, and a third mic somewhere, maybe in one of the speaker output holes in the bottom. There are three cameras and a flash on the back. The cameras are in a bump that goes most of the way across the top, back, of the phone. I love this design because I can set it on a desk and use the screen without it rocking back and forth. It has a USB C port on the bottom in the middle. There's no 1/8" stereo/headphone jack. This has the Google Tensor G6 CPU, all new and much enhanced for better speed and battery life than the Tensor G5. It has 12 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. It also has PixelSnap which is MagSafe compatible and QuickShare is not AirDrop compatible! Interface I'm a fan of Android 17! This is the smoothest Android experience I've seen. Everything feel fast and smooth. I'm not saying my other phones were slow or I thought they gave a bad experience - I actually really liked my previous phones. This does feel smoother though, just all the time. I don't like having the Google app load on the page when you swipe right from the main/home/left Desktop page. I was glad to find that's easy to turn off in the "Home settings". Just tap and hold on the Desktop and choose "Home settings". There you can turn off "Swipe to access Google app". You can also turn off "At a Glance", which shows the date, weather, and then some summary info, like stop prices, at the end of the day. If you don't want that to take the top row on your home screen, go into "Home settings" and into the settings gear next to "At a Glance" and turn off "Use At a Glance" and "Show on home screen" separately, then all of it goes away. A new feature I'm really liking is called Bubbles. You can tap and hold on most apps, I like it for messaging apps, and choose "Bubble". It will open that app in a window anchored by it's icon as a bubble around the side of the screen. You can move it where you want and see it over other apps. You can have a number of apps set as Bubbles. They stick together and you can move them around the screen. When you tap the Bubble, all app Bubble you have line up at the top and you can select the one you want, switching between them with one touch. It also works great with the Calculator, which could be very helpful for me sometimes. Also, the Quick Access Panel (swipe down from the top) is much better than I'm used to. Tiles are different sizes depending on what they're for, so space is used more efficiently. Swipe down again and you will see two rows at a time instead of one. Swipe right, keep swiping if you need to, to see the rest. When you edit the Quick Access panel, the tiles are grouped by category. Again, I'm not sure this is new in Android 17 but it's an improvement over what I'm used to. Overall, I really like the interface. I wish they gave the option to swipe right, so I could wrap around from the first screen to the last without going through the others. I have five screens with widgets and apps. Maybe Android 18 will do that! But I do love Android 17 anyway! Display This screen is crazy bright at 3,000 nits! It's bright enough that I have no problem using it in the bright sunlight; I actually was today. I'm pretty sure it's the brightest smartphone screen I've seen. Besides the brightness, it's supports up to 120Hz, which is a high refresh rate for a phone, and it's OLED, which means it has an extremely high contrast ratio (this is a very good thing) so it supports HDR with ease. What all that means is you get, bright, rich, life-like colors. Pictures look great and video plays well. I haven't noticed ghosting or anything like that. The screen is lit very evenly. Also, because it's OLED and every pixel provides it's own light, you can save power on your phone but using a dark theme, for instance. Black should use no power and darker colors should use less power than brighter colors. The downside with OLED is that they tend to burn in. OLED has been improving so it should be less of a problem than it used to be, but only time will tell how this display does - and it also depends on what's on your screen, in the exact same position, and for how long. Don't get me wrong, this is an incredible looking high-end display! Switching to the Pixel 11 This was the best phone switching experience I ever had. The Pixel 11 gave me a QR code on the screen. I scanned that with my old phone and followed the instructions. Before I knew it, I was transferring service to my eSIM on the Pixel 11 (my old phone had a regular, non-eSIM, SIM) and copying data from my old phone to the new phone. It copied everything over, contact, files from the file system, pictures, you name it, and some settings too. I was up and running with the phone functions working and many/most apps installed in under an hour! I couldn't believe it! Since then, it's been great. Most apps I still need to login or do some individual app setup, but they're installed and almost ready to go! App compatibility has been excellent. I had one game I played that the graphics didn't display correctly. Most of the screen just showed up as black. Things like that are to be expected with a brand new CPU/GPU on a brand new phone. Some games will need to be re-compiled to be compatible, not the developers fault or Google's, just part of the process. I'm happy to report the other 4 or 5 games I tried ran without issue. Speed It's hard to know what makes what fast, but between having 12 GB of RAM, the new Tensor G6 Processor, and fast UFS 4 storage - this phone seems to run everything fast! I don't exactly know how it compares to other phones, but Google concentrated on improving what people actually do on their phones and it seems they did a great job. My last phone was still running Android 13. This phone has Android 17 which just came out in June. One change made in Android 17 has to do with cleaning up memory at times when it doesn't impact performance, maybe that helped eliminate jerkiness, I'm not sure, but everything seems butter smooth now. Apps launch quickly. The phone boots fast. It takes pictures fast. Everything just feels fast as I use it. If you look at other processors and benchmarks, this will not be at the top, but those don't always speak to real world use. This phone is just fast and smooth all the time. It's designed to do what's needed and do it well. Battery Life Ok, this totally depends on what you're doing with the phone, but I got 48 hours of battery life out of it, starting at 100%, and finishing (charging again) at 22%. I could have gone longer but I'm thrilled with that stat. I wasn't trying to not use it either. I was still installing apps, testing things, playing music and video, reading, all kinds of stuff...and I use a light mode, not a dark theme. They made a few significant changes. The Tensor G6 is faster than the previous one, so it finishes tasks faster, saving battery power. It may also be a smaller die size than the G5, which would save power/reduce heat output, but that's not clear. The other major thing they did is the replaced the modem. The new modem uses less power than the old one and also should provide a better connection. Whatever they did, I'm very happy with the battery life!!! There's a mode where it only charges to 80% so the cells in the battery will last longer over time. I turned that on. Cameras I can't talk about this phone without mentioning the cameras. The front camera is excellent! It even has two modes, 1x and 0.7x (slightly zoomed out), which is great for group selfies! The back cameras just blow me away though. They provide 1x, 2x, and 5x optical zoom (it's sort of but not really optical zoom because that's not from one lens. There are two that provide that.) The third lens is a wide angle 120 degree lens. Please see my included pictures showing standard, 2x, and 5x. Then there's up to 30x digital zoom that actually looks very good! I have a picture of that too. Low light shots are equally as impressive. The distant and low light shots really come out great, not looking blurry or blocky, respectively. Did I mention the camera is fast!? It is really fast! My understanding is that most/all of the images are produced by taking 3 every time you try to take one, comparing data across the three, and using AI. The results are incredible. Summary I think Google made some excellent design decisions that produced an excellent phone. From it laying evenly on a table so you can use it without it wobbling to changing that modem to a better, more power efficient one, to the new Bubble mode for apps and all the other changes around and in between, the Pixel 11 was an upgrade I'm glad I made! I was going to list more features, there are many more, especially related to Gemini, but I ran out of room. If you need a new phone, or want a better phone experience, and haven't looked at the new Pixel 11 series of smartphones, you should check them out!

It’s always exciting to get a new phone and getting the Google Pixel 11 was no exception to the excitement. This phone comes with some welcomed new features that I’m looking forward to using like: - Magic Capture - Teleprompter on Video: Creator mode - 30x zoom; for reference, I’m replacing a Pixel 9 which has 8x zoom. - Circle to Search in Camera Magic Capture is going to be great for parties and events - I often take phone pictures and videos at holidays. Google Photos makes things easy to organize then share albums with friends and family. I can already see the benefits of having Magic Capture pick stills while filming videos so I don’t have to hit the shutter button myself all the time. I’ve already filmed some candid videos at home with my dogs and I like it so far, it’s a really fun feature. Trying out the new Teleprompter and Project feature on Video mode was pretty cool, I’m stoked about it! Having a teleprompter right on the screen is convenient so in theory I won’t have to set up a physical teleprompter anymore. This can make a production more efficient and that’s just one less piece of equipment to deal with. The Camera Looks feature in the Photo mode Preferences panel is interesting, but I don’t know how much I will use it on a regular basis. My instinct is telling me I’d rather edit photos after I take them, but I’ll really only know in time. I’m definitely not complaining though - having these features is pretty neat. Circle to Search in Camera is cool to have because this avoids having to take a picture, then go to Photos for Google Lens. This way is much quicker and I might actually use the feature more because it’s more convenient to use. As for the design of the phone itself, it’s nice and slim and the back camera bar is also very thin. I finally got a Pixel in a color other than black! I have the model in Frost, which in cool lighting looks like a light lavender, and in warm lighting looks kind of grey. I thought it would be more lavender looking but it’s a bit more subdued than I anticipated. Switching from the Pixel 9 to the Pixel 11 was pretty easy. It takes some time, but it’s not unreasonable. Plus the phone comes with a USB-C to USB-C cable to make the switch faster if you choose to bring over all your settings and info. I like having a Google phone because I use Gmail and Google One so it makes sense to have a Pixel phone in my opinion. Overall, the camera features & upgrades are great and I’m happy with my new phone!

The phone comes with a USB-C to USB-C charging cable. My version is unlocked and came with minimal bloatware; always a big plus. I always have my provider transfer my old phone data to the new as something always goes wrong and then it takes a long call to the provider. After reading the spec comparison between the cameras on the Pixel 9 and Pixel 11, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to upgrade. The Pixel 9 has Add Me (where you can add yourself to a photo for a group shot) and I thought that was fun. The Pixel 11 has that too and much more. The 30x Super Zoom does a great job zooming in with crisp detail. It also worked well in low light. Magic Capture is fun. It takes a video and creates photos from the video. Quality varies a lot and the stills can be discards or a photo you might really want. Still fun though. It would be great to film the grandkids sports and see what photos work out. One thing I didn’t like is how it photographs faces. They kind of look plastic or touched up. I didn’t have face retouching enabled. Not awful, just different. And it was better in lower light. The camera settings can be customized and quick access controls setup. There is also a creator mode for the influencer types. An underwater mode too, but I didn’t try that. Processing speed is also fast and it worked much better than my Pixel 9 when connecting to my work internet. That alone was worth it. We will be travel this fall and the live translate is helpful. At this time, it has limited languages for Eastern Europe but hopefully they will add more. The Google Translate app has more options. Gemini can be very helpful or annoying. If you turn on proactive assistance it will try and anticipate your needs. Simple tasks work extremely well but Gemini (or any AI) can become confused with detailed requests. Ask for a particular restaurant menu and in 1 second it will appear. Ask who will win the World Series and it says the Dodgers. It also says the Vikings will only win 8-9 games. Probably right on that last one. It computed Pi to 1,000 decimal places in 3 seconds. Battery life is fantastic and can last 2 days with normal use or a day with heavy use. Charging is pretty quick. Most importantly it works extremely well as a phone. They even have increased volume. Clarity on both ends was great. I really like this phone. Not perfect, but very good and I am happy that I upgraded. FYI – the Pixel 9 case will not fit the Pixel 11.

Google Pixel 11 Review: An iPhone Power-User’s Real-World Experience After using an iPhone as my main device for over twelve years—most recently an iPhone 16 Pro Max—I decided to switch over to the Google Pixel 11. Coming from a massive 6.9-inch display down to a 6.3-inch phone had me wondering if I’d miss the screen size, but the Pixel 11 blew me away almost immediately. It isn't just a great phone; it completely changes how you interact with a mobile device. Initial Setup & Onboarding The setup process was quick and very easy, but pay attention to the prompts and don't skip anything. The Pixel 11 immediately picked up and connected to my Wi-Fi 6 network without any tinkering. I ran into a small hiccup with my eSIM activation, but that was a quick carrier-side fix on my end. One important warning for anyone switching over from iOS: if you have hidden or locked photos on your iPhone, those will not transfer over automatically. You’ll need to move those over manually. And if you get confused, call your ISP to help you. Display, Form Factor & Ergonomics I am not one for huge camera stats. Forget the technical unit specs—this screen is ridiculously bright. Torch mode as they say. It acts like a beacon outdoors and stays crystal clear even under direct, blinding sunlight. Even though it has a smaller footprint than my Pro Max, the display feels spacious and pleasing to the eye. A quick warning for iPhone switchers: swiping down on the home screen pulls down your notification shade and quick settings rather than an app search drawer. On the hardware side, the bottom-center fingerprint reader is fast and forgiving, and the haptic motor engine is noticeably stronger than Apple's. If this phone buzzes in your pocket, you will feel it. Don't leave this phone on the edge of the stairs or near a long drop, it will vibrate right off into space. Camera Performance & Magic Capture Night Sight is a real game-changer, and is a feature that the Pixel 11 beats iPhone in handily. It illuminates pitch-black scenes and pulls out crisp detail from shots that would normally turn out unusable on an iPhone. But the real star is the feature they call Magic Capture. Instead of trying to time a single photo, you record a short video clip. The on-device AI automatically extracts the sharpest, highest-quality still frames from the motion. For example, when my niece came up to bat at her softball game, I recorded a short clip from her walkup to 1st base. Magic Capture instantly pulled out crystal-clear stills of her mid-swing with a look of pure joy on her face—no human timing required and zero motion blur. Circle to Search is equally impressive; I took a photo of my Pomeranian, held the screen, and it instantly recognized the exact breed. Accessibility & Daily Quality of Life Features As someone who has hearing aids, the accessibility support on this phone is fantastic. The second I turned my hearing aids on, a pop-up asked if I wanted to pair them—no digging through multi-layer settings menus required. Universal Live Captions also work system-wide on any audio, which is huge for watching uncaptioned YouTube videos or live streams. Universal Live Caption offers live captioning when closed caption is not an option. The phone also does language translation live as well but I did not use that feature. Day-to-day automation is where the Pixel 11 leaves iOS behind: Gboard Rambler Voice Input: Powered by local AI, Rambler lets you talk completely naturally—stutters, pauses, and filler words included. It automatically strips out the "ums," cleans up sentence structure, and formats your thought into a clean text message. Zero-Touch 2FA Auto-Fill: When a two-factor verification token arrives via SMS or email, the phone automatically fetches the code, inputs it, submits the form, and drops down a prompt asking if you want to mark the message as read with one tap. It also asks you if you'd like to mark the email or text as read, which is nice for spam control. Instant Bluetooth Pairing: Powering on a nearby speaker immediately brings up a direct 1-tap connection prompt on screen. Lock Screen Customization: Always-On Display is off by default, but turning it on lets you display personal info like calendar events right on your lock screen. There is a selection of how your lock screen, as well as your home screen icons, can look. Being able to bling out your icons doesn't require a third party, it's built right into this phone. Local AI Performance, Privacy & Pro Assistant Having Gemini process AI directly on the phone’s hardware means whatever you ask it, it executes almost instantly with zero server lag. Because the AI runs locally, your searches and data stay stored right on your device rather than sent off to cloud servers, and key features keep working even if you lose 5G or Wi-Fi. This feature is a big feature for those who value their privacy and where your data is stored in the cloud. The local media suite also gives you tons of templates to generate and edit AI pictures and video clips easily. The standout feature long-term is the Pro Assistant (which is OFF by default for privacy). It passively listens for conversational context when enabled. For example, when my wife and I were in the car talking about getting cheap fast food after shopping, the Pixel 11 lit up and offered personalized local recommendations without us touching a button. Instead of giving generic results, it prioritizes your actual preferences—putting local spots like KFC right at the top of the list. The Verdict The Google Pixel 11 is a massive leap forward in software intelligence, camera features, and real-world daily automation. If you're on the fence about switching from iOS, this device gives you a faster, smarter, and far more convenient phone experience. If you're new to AI, it will guide you into using it, and if you're a AI enthusiast then you'll have the best phone on the market today. Solid 5 out of 5 stars.