Editorials · Reviewer Insight
I love that the Pixel 11 is bringing back the notification LED, even if it's just a distraction
Somehow, the notification LED came back. You love to see it!
This article may contain personal views and opinion from the author.
Could be a major selling point for the PIxel line if Google sticks with it. | Image by Google
It's nearly time for Google to officially unveil the Pixel 11 series to the public, but as usual with Big G, little is left to the imagination about the specs, appearance, or any unique features about the lineup. That's because the specs have been kept secret in the wide open and have leaked profusely months ago, which is a tradition for Google.
They would rather not keep a tight ship over there, it seems. But at the same time, I'm glad that we get to learn about the ins and outs of the upcoming devices mostly for curiosity's sake.
Pixel Glow, HiLight, or whatever it's called, keep it coming
One of the cool new features of the Pixel 11 series that truly piqued my interest is the rumored LED notification light at the back, on the camera strip. This is a brand new feature for the Pixel lineup and, actually, a black swan event for the mobile industry, as no other major phone maker uses notification LED lights anymore.
And those were legitimately one of the more useful hardware features on Android phones from back in the day, the demise of which I bemoaned just as I did with the microSD card slot and the 3.5mm audio jack.
So having at least one of those old features back to some extent is a small win for this author.
Of course, we can't judge the Pixel 11's new multi-color LED light before we've seen it in action so we don't know how useful and customizable that one would be. I can already pinpoint a weakness: it being at the rear will require you to always keep your phone face down in order to benefit from the LED notification, and that could go against your established habits.
An objectively useful feature back in the day, but should it exist in 2026?
Alright, I agree that notification LEDs had their time to shine and were also sunset for a reason. They were incompatible with those super-thin bezels that we like to see, and the advent of always-on displays quickly showed manufacturers that they could ditch the hardware feature for a software one.
Still, I have warm memories of all the Android phones that I owned back in the day which had an LED light. I still remember my Galaxy S8, where I had its LED light set to a red blinking alert for emails, green for calls, and blue for texts and messages so that I could see if I had a pending notification from half a room away. My nostalgia is definitely showing.
It was certainly a useful feature, but innovation killed it off. Well, that's until the thirst for any and all hardware upgrades is about to bring it back in 2026.
Could Pixel Glow (or HiLight) be a legitimately useful feature? I'm convinced the potential is all there, but I'm afraid the majority of Pixel users might deem that a gimmick of the highest caliber.
Just like the thermometer sensor, as well as the Pixel 4's motion-gesture sensor.
The light-up show is an obvious distraction
No two ways around it: while I love the fact we're getting some notification LED functionality at the rear, it's a distraction from the fact that the Pixel 11 series is basically the Pixel 10 series but now at a slightly higher price tag.
Google has been in a rut for the past couple of years, failing to deliver any meaningful upgrades to its device lineup, merely swapping one chipset for another and hoping we'd never notice that the past few Pixel releases have basically been the same phones in slightly different colors. The Tensor platform is a disaster, the cameras are good but not improving that much, and Google only seems to care about AI these days.
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