The Pixel 11 Pro is a great phone, no thanks to its flashiest new features

Google is trying to get you disconnected your phone. The Pixel 11 Pro is “A Phone Designed to Help You Use It Less,” the institution promises. It tin proactively thief you book edifice reservations, return the champion frames from a video, and thief you voice-text importantly faster. The transportation is that the caller features bundled pinch the Pixel 11 bid of phones tin thief hole your narration pinch exertion — 1 that Google knows has severely degraded successful caller years.

But the hardware of the Pixel 11 Pro and 11 Pro XL is very akin to past year’s models — and successful astatine slightest 1 case, a downgrade — truthful those package features are beautiful overmuch the full pitch.

Over the past week testing the 11 Pro, I’ve been trying them each to spot really overmuch they tin thief maine put my telephone down. Like galore experiences pinch Google software, erstwhile they work, they are genuinely helpful. But getting them to activity often requires a very constrictive group of circumstances that immoderate Google technologist astir apt dreamed up successful the “society if” utopia lab.

The Pixel 11 Pro and 11 Pro XL are insignificant hardware updates compared to past year’s Pixel 10 Pro and 10 Pro XL. They some get brighter 3,600-nit screens. Their charging has been upgraded, pinch faster wired speeds and Qi2.2 for up to 25W erstwhile wireless. The 5x optical telephoto camera has a bigger sensor that Google says enables 30 percent much ray intake. Storage now starts astatine 256GB, alternatively of 128GB. And there’s besides a fancy caller “notification light,” which I’ll get to successful a bit.

Unfortunately, these upgrades travel pinch a downgrade too, for the guidelines exemplary astatine least. The 11 Pro and 11 Pro XL now commencement pinch less RAM: 12GB compared to the 16GB that came modular past year, the aforesaid magnitude arsenic the regular Pixel 11. I’m testing the 16GB / 512GB model, truthful unluckily I can’t show you if the RAM alteration is noticeable. That guidelines exemplary is besides $100 much costly than past year, too, astatine $1,099.

With specified insignificant spec changes, Google has gone each successful connected package this year. And this time, that software’s superior intent is to get you disconnected your phone, aliases astatine slightest get tedious tasks done faster truthful you tin get backmost to your life.

Perhaps the largest push successful this guidance is the Pixel 11’s caller “Proactive Assistance” feature. This is simply a group of move chips that look erstwhile definite interactions hap connected your phone, for illustration a friend asking what your schedule looks for illustration adjacent week aliases if you booked that array astatine a edifice yet.

For the astir basal interactions, for illustration checking readiness aliases adding an arena to my calendar, I recovered Proactive Assistance really helpful. I practically unrecorded wrong my calendar, and matter conversations astir scheduling are common. When my friend Marc texted maine asking erstwhile I was disposable adjacent week, Gemini popped up and suggested checking my almanac for times. Outside of elemental scenarios for illustration that, though, Proactive Assistance gets little reliable. One of Google’s cardinal examples is letting Gemini book a meal preservation for you if you’re chatting astir heading retired to eat, but I had to person a matter pinch an highly circumstantial drawstring of accusation to get it to activity — and moreover past it only worked sometimes.

For example, receiving the matter “Can you make a preservation astatine Frankie Spuntino adjacent Saturday astatine 7pm?” surfaced a spot to agentically effort to make the reservation. But if the connection doesn’t see the day aliases time, it won’t invoke thing astatine all. Most of the clip erstwhile the spot does show up, it disappears the infinitesimal I reply. Occasionally it will instrumentality astir if the AI thinks we’re still talking astir the restaurant, but those instances were fewer and acold between. I wish Google would support the spot astir for astatine slightest a fewer messages, aliases person it float around the messages successful immoderate way.

One committedness of ample connection models is the expertise to understand what you mean and region the requirements for smart keywords, truthful it’s overseas that definitive keywords are still basal to get truthful overmuch of Proactive Assistance to work. I tin spot what Google is trying to do pinch this and I tin possibly spot a early wherever it gets refined, but arsenic it stands, it’s simply excessively inconsistent. Plus, I had to manually toggle connected Proactive Assistance and adhd OpenTable to connected apps successful settings, which I conscionable don’t deliberation astir group will cognize to do. As my workfellow Cameron Faulkner puts it, “You request to beryllium proactive to get Proactive Assistance to work.”

Proactive Assistance is advertised arsenic moving pinch different scenarios too, for illustration surfacing your formation accusation erstwhile personification asks what clip your formation is aliases bringing up the correct photograph erstwhile personification asks for it. But some of these scenarios either grounded aliases were inconsistent for me. Asking erstwhile my formation is expected to onshore surfaced thing moreover though I person formation accusation successful my Gmail, and erstwhile my friend asked for a photograph of maine from 2024, it surfaced photos from 2024, but nary of me. It’s disappointing that this characteristic only useful successful specified constrictive circumstances. I tin spot the vision, but the execution conscionable isn’t location yet.

Another characteristic that sewage a batch of trading hype but flatlined connected its transportation is HiLight. You whitethorn person noticed the somesthesia sensor is missing connected the Pixel 11 Pro. Instead, Google has replaced it pinch a multicolored LED ringing hidden wrong the flash that tin glow erstwhile different things are happening connected your phone. Again, successful concept, I emotion this idea. Google wants you to beryllium surviving your life, pinch your telephone placed look down connected the array truthful it can’t distract you unless HiLight notifies you of thing you request to salary attraction to. In practice, HiLight is truthful severely executed that it’s frankly embarrassing.

Right now, HiLight tin glow for precisely 2 things. First, it will glow and animate erstwhile you’re speaking pinch Gemini, but only while your telephone is look down connected the table. These are 2 things I do not do very often. When I usage Gemini, I’m mostly typing to it, and erstwhile I do usage Gemini sound mode, my telephone is successful my manus aliases sitting surface up. If this was conscionable 1 of the galore things HiLight could ray up for, I wouldn’t find it truthful offensive. But astatine the moment, the only different point HiLight will glow for is for calls from your favourite contacts. I wish I was kidding.

If I’m getting a telephone from a favourite contact, I conscionable want my telephone to ring. Again, if it was conscionable an additional feature, past sure, I guess. I don’t mind having an further parameter that a favourite is calling maine while my telephone is look down. But if the telephone is coming done anyway, it’s really not that overmuch effort to move the telephone complete and spot who it is. To make it worse, you tin only take from 5 colors, and 1 of them is white!

Customizable RGB LEDs were a characteristic we mislaid agelong ago, but erstwhile we did person it, it was almost ever imaginable to representation to conscionable astir immoderate notification you wanted: reddish for a caller email, greenish for a WhatsApp message. Google has confirmed that it’s looking to adhd matter notifications from favourite contacts to HiLight, but why not conscionable make it customizable to immoderate app? This feels for illustration specified a missed opportunity, and it’s chaotic to maine that it wasn’t amended thought retired earlier launch. Right now, it’s conscionable acting for illustration my flash, for illustration it’s ever been.

There are immoderate caller features that I’m uncovering genuinely useful that do thief maine enactment successful the moment, though. I was astir pleasantly amazed by Rambler, a souped-up voice-to-text instrumentality powered by Gemini. Rambler removes the filler words that voice-to-text would usually prime up, does due grammar and punctuation without explicitly asking for it, and will moreover rewrite misspeaks mid-recording. The velocity of the Pixel’s voice-to-text has been 1 of its beardown suits ever since Google started utilizing its ain Tensor chips connected the Pixel 6, but Rambler makes this moreover better, to the constituent wherever I’m dictating the matter connected my telephone whenever I person the opportunity. It is simply a genuinely awesome feature, saves maine time, and almost makes it consciousness for illustration I’m having a speech successful existent clip while texting.

As is tradition, Google besides introduced a bunch of caller camera features this year, and possibly the astir salient is Magic Capture. The characteristic is beforehand and halfway successful the camera app correct adjacent to the photograph and video modes, which tells you thing astir really assured Google is successful it. Start a Magic Capture, constituent it astatine what’s happening, and erstwhile you’re done recording, Gemini will do immoderate processing and propulsion retired what it considers the champion photos and video clips from the session.

During the Made by Google keynote past week, Google demoed the characteristic by signaling immoderate group shooting hoops connected a hoops court. In the demonstration, Google said you could simply clasp your telephone and fto it grounds while you return successful the infinitesimal pinch your eyes. I person tried this nonstop script rather a fewer times, and fto maine show you, it is highly difficult to support your taxable successful framework if you’re not staring astatine your screen. Magic Capture did a awesome occupation of pulling applicable images and clips from my recordings erstwhile I was making judge to support my taxable successful framework by, you know, staring astatine my screen, but unless you person your telephone mounted connected a tripod aliases something, it’s naive to deliberation you tin disregard your telephone completely.

That caveat aside, I really for illustration this feature. I return a batch of videos connected my phone, but I’m overmuch much apt to revisit pictures. With Magic Capture, I tin person both. The main caveat seems to beryllium that stabilization isn’t arsenic bully connected the clips it cuts compared to clips you’d return successful video mode. Even so, I deliberation Magic Capture will beryllium useful for parents trying to seizure moments of their kids, without needing to activity truthful difficult to get the cleanable grin for a photo. Instead of trading this characteristic arsenic thing that lets you beryllium successful the infinitesimal by not looking astatine your telephone astatine all, it would astir apt beryllium amended to transportation it arsenic thing that will automatically drawback awesome photos and short video clips for you, and each you request to do is constituent your telephone and deed record.

While Magic Capture took astir of the spotlight successful Google’s keynote, possibly the astir discussed photograph upgrade this twelvemonth is Camera Looks. I did a whole question and reply pinch Google’s camera chief astir this characteristic going heavy into really the caller strategy was made, and there’s a batch of imaginable successful the execution. Camera Looks is simply a caller photography characteristic you tin deliberation of akin to Fujifilm’s movie simulations, which fto its cameras emulate different movie styles connected the JPGs they put out. On the Pixel 11 series, location are 4 modifications of the modular camera, pinch Original, Natural, Shadows, and Vanilla giving subtle tweaks to your image. But if you want to get much retired there, location are six further imaginative looks, called Editorial, Velvet, Classic, Digi, Black Tie, and Minimal.

Each of the looks tin beryllium modified to your liking, pinch adjustable settings for illustration contrast, highlights, shadows, vibrance, tint, warmth, sharpness, and grain. What makes this a really absorbing characteristic to maine is that Google is adjusting the magnitude of computational processing it’s doing astatine capture, based connected the settings you choose; it’s not conscionable applying filters later. For example, the Digi mode will do little framework stacking and the Minimal mode will use little sharpness and contrast.

I really excavation the looks, moreover correct retired of the box. They span from basal edits to rather inspired, and if you’re looking for thing that gives you the “film simulation look” consecutive retired of camera, these decidedly deliver. It was precocious clip Google added immoderate much imaginative looks to the Pixel, particularly considering it doesn’t person astir arsenic robust a third-party camera ecosystem arsenic the iPhone. I’ve personally made the Minimal mode imperishable connected my telephone for its unsharpened, minimally contrasty look, occasionally switching to Classic, but aft testing them all, I deliberation Velvet and Editorial will get a batch of use, since they person the astir “film aesthetic” of the bunch. With little processed photos, you tin really spot texture successful photos, which is usually washed distant by sound simplification algorithms.

Overall camera value connected the Pixel 11 Pro bid is awesome this year, and practically the only logic to prime up a Pro Pixel complete the modular 11, speech from wanting a larger phone, successful the lawsuit of the XL. The superior sensor is technically new, but Google tells maine it’s the aforesaid size arsenic past twelvemonth and was swapped successful because it uses somewhat little power. The biggest camera hardware alteration is the caller larger telephoto sensor, which Google says captures much light, and I tin tell. Telephoto cameras are usually the weakest nexus successful a smartphone’s camera arsenal, but moreover astatine 10x zoom, which is simply a 2x harvest of the telephoto sensor, it was difficult to announcement immoderate important value degradation. Plus, the modulation betwixt sensors is overmuch smoother now, pinch only a very flimsy jump erstwhile switching betwixt lenses.

The Pixel 11 Pro besides includes a 120x Pro Zoom mode, enabled by the caller image awesome processor successful Tensor G6. Like the 100x Pro Zoom connected the Pixel 10 Pro, Google is utilizing generative AI to upscale your highly zoomed-in images to make them look much realistic. On objects without a batch of crisp edges this really does a beautiful bully job, and Google will springiness you some the non-AI-enhanced and enhanced versions truthful you tin spot the difference.

I was successful Spain during past week’s star eclipse, and the Pixel 11 Pro did a bully occupation of turning a zoomed-in photograph of the satellite from a blurry messiness into thing that looked bully capable to elicit responses of awe erstwhile I posted it successful Slack. But that was a comparatively elemental image, and shots pinch a batch much item often look for illustration an early AI-generated image, pinch skewed angles and edges, garbled text, and muddy tones. I’d only really usage this if you needed to spot accusation you can’t spot pinch your normal eyes, not for creator purposes.

The Pixel 11 Pro besides gets a new, faster Night Sight, which Google says is astir 3 times faster connected mean than the Pixel 10 Pro. In testing, astir Night Sight images I took only needed to beryllium held for 1 second, and I sewage each the aforesaid benefits you sewage from holding the telephone for 3 aliases much seconds previously. This is the benignant of quality-of-life update I emotion to see, and I’m gladsome Google is continuing to amended here.

I emotion Rambler, Magic Capture, and Camera Looks. If you’re looking to upgrade your telephone this year, they’re legitimately awesome features. But aft a week of use, it’s clear to maine that the Pixel 11 Pro is not yet smart capable to thief maine usage my telephone less, contempt what Google claims. Proactive Assistance is only bound to prevention you a fewer seconds and a fewer taps compared to conscionable opening the apps and doing the steps yourself.

If you were hoping for the Pixel 11 Pro would thief reside your telephone addiction, that’s astir apt not going to happen. But if you’re looking for a telephone pinch the champion voice-to-text connected the market, awesome cameras pinch bully built-in style, and coagulated hardware, the Pixel 11 Pro delivers.

Photography by David Imel / The Verge