Google Pixel 11 review: A lot of phone for a little more money
Engadget · C · trust 60/100
The Pixel 11 is $100 more than last year and didn't change a ton, but is still one of the best smartphones on the market.
Nathan Ingraham for Engadget RATING : 9.2 / 10 Pros Great performance and battery life More base storage this year Some of Google’s AI tricks are pretty handy Three-camera setup still beats the base iPhone and other comparable Android phones Just look at that hibiscus colorway Cons $100 more expensive than the Pixel 10 Few significant changes from last year’s model Last month, Engadget's Slack channel lit up with excitement over a leak of the Pixel 11 , which Google officially announced last week . What was telling is that the excitement wasn't over a new hardware feature or software trick — it was about the possibility of a bold magenta color .
There's no way around it: in 2026, phone upgrades are typically iterative, and the Pixel 11 is no different. Last year's Pixel 10 , with improved performance and a third camera lens for telephoto shooting, was a genuinely exciting step forward for the base model. The Pixel 11, however, is more of a tentative, meandering shuffle, particularly from a hardware standpoint. There's an updated Tensor G6 processor, more base storage, an improved main camera sensor and a few other tweaks. Oh, and a really nice set of colors.
So, the Pixel 11 isn't the kind of phone that'll entice people to upgrade from the Pixel 10, or any flagship released in the last year or two. But, if you have a Pixel 9 or something even older, the Pixel 11 is an excellent Android phone that'll satisfy most potential buyers — even if, at $899, it is $100 more than last year's model.
The Pixel 11 isn't wildly different from the Pixel 10, which itself wasn't wildly different from the Pixel 9. It's still dominated by the 6.3-inch "Actua" display, which is identical to the one in last year's phone. It's a lovely and bright screen with a 60-120Hz variable refresh rate with up to 3,000 nits of brightness. The Pixel 11 Pro's screen is brighter, more pixel-dense and can lower its refresh rate all the way down to 1Hz. But for a phone in this price bracket, this thing looks great.
Like prior Pixels, the Pixel 11 has glass on both the front and back, with a metal edge and large camera bar on the back. This time, the camera "pill" doesn't protrude as much from the phone, which makes it feel just a bit more compact. And it's available in four colors again this year: the more staid obsidian and frost (which is a blue-ish silver), a rather distinctive pistachio green and the show-stopping hibiscus. I hope Apple pays attention to the hibiscus shade and brings something equally eye-catching to its offerings, either this fall with the iPhone 18 Pro or next year when the standard iPhone 18 is rumored to arrive.
Nathan Ingraham for Engadget Google didn't reinvent the three-camera array on the back of the Pixel 11 this year; it's just a slight tweak to the one on the Pixel 10. The 13-megapixel ultra-wide camera (with an f/2.2 aperture) and the 5x, 10.8-megapixel telephoto camera (with an f/3.1 aperture) are identical to last year. The main sensor is still rated at 48 megapixels this year, too, though its sensor is significantly larger this year. The 10.5-megapixel front-facing camera is identical to last year, as well.
Overall, those hardware changes are minimal, but there's still a key new feature here. The Pixel 11 camera can shoot in up to 30x "Super Zoom" mode, up from the 20x you could squeeze out of the Pixel 10. While Google uses AI upscaling, it isn't using generative AI to fill in the gaps here (as it does with the 120x "Pro Zoom" on the Pixel 11 Pro). Instead, the company says it takes multiple images and uses its HDR+ processing to sharpen and fill in the details. (The image below was shot at 30x.)
In my testing, the results were decent enough, though looking at Super Zoom photos on my laptop screen revealed the lack of detail and sharpness in more detailed areas of the image. But it still yields surprisingly decent images if you keep your expectations in check — the more expensive iPhone 17 Pro at 30X and the Pixel 11 at 30X yielded quite similar results. Just remember that these will likely be quick keepsakes that look fine on your phone screen but don't stand up to closer scrutiny.
But put aside the Super Zoom. It's been a year since Google added that 5x telephoto lens to the Pixel 10, and I'm extremely glad they kept it here on the Pixel 11. The base iPhone 17 doesn't have a telephoto lens at all, while the Galaxy S26 still has to make do with a 3x optical zoom. This is a real differentiator for Google, and it should be a consideration for anyone who considers themselves even a slight photography enthusiast. I personally bought the iPhone 17 Pro (and the 14 Pro before it) largely because I knew I'd use that extra camera lens frequently. And I always feel bad for friends who try to use digital zoom to capture moments with predictably messy results. Sure, the Pixel 11 might be $100 more than it was last year, but its camera system is still a highlight.
While the camera hardware hasn't changed much, there are a few notable software features as usual. One is Camera Looks, a feature that reminded me of the iPhone's photographic styles. This lets you edit and set a default filter for the camera as well as swipe through several more options, all of which are editable as well. You can tweak contrast, highlights, shadows, color temperature and more and the app remembers those settings between sessions. So if you want to go from a more neutral look as your default to a high-contrast filter with blown-out highlights, you can do so with a tap and swipe.
Magic Capture is a more significant and quite ambitious mode in the Pixel camera this year. When you have Magic Capture activated, the Pixel 11 records a short video and multiple photos with edits automatically applied to them. Google says this feature is meant to capture fast-moving scenes — on its blog, the company…
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