Google wrapped Made by Google 2026 five days ago, and the Pixel 11 line reaches shelves on August 20 at $899 to $1,299. I was in the studio in New York, so here is my read on where the Pixel 11 Pro leaves Google against the iPhone 17 Pro Max and whether it belongs among the best Pixel phones.
Before anything else, here is where I was sitting
I should get the disclosure out of the way first because it matters for everything below. Aside from what I do here at PhoneArena, I run a tech-focused YouTube channel where I review hardware, mostly phones, and that channel has given me access to devices I would not normally be able to get my hands on.
In Google's case, I was part of Team Pixel back when it was a thing, and more recently I became one of the creators the company sends review units to and invites to its launch events. None of that is paid work. Google covers travel and accommodations for the event, and no money changes hands beyond that.
So I watched this one from inside the studio, and I had hands-on time with the new devices before the announcement went out. That is also why one thing I wrote last week has changed, which I will get to.
My creator badge for the event, and Google's Dieter Bohn on the right. | Image by PhoneArena
The most important hardware change this year never got a moment in the show. Google swapped the modem, which we made the case for months ago as the change that would matter most to anyone actually using the phone.
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So I asked Google directly, on the record, who supplies the new modem and what Pixel owners should expect from it around power efficiency and 5G handoff. The company confirmed the hardware change and declined to name the supplier.
We make frequent improvements to our connectivity software stack and also integrated new modem hardware this year to ensure a great connectivity experience on Pixel 11 devices.
Google PR Rep in an emailed statement, August 17, 2026
That leaves the supplier to outside reporting, and a report published this morning matched FCC filings and the baseband on retail units to MediaTek, which lines up with everything that leaked ahead of launch.
Google does say on its own store page that the new modem is reliable, faster and more power efficient, with a footnote pinning that to pre-production devices in lab-controlled conditions. Exynos modems have been blamed for battery drain and dropped signal on Pixels for years, though, so I will still take a quiet fix over most of what did make the stage.
What do you think Google needs to focus on when it comes to the Pixel?
What a Google launch looks like when it is built for TV
This was my first time at this version of the event. I had been to the previous ones on Google's California campus, right before the company turned the launch into a televised production, with Jimmy Fallon hosting last year and Trevor Noah hosting this one.
The experience is genuinely different from a traditional keynote. You are sitting in a studio audience watching a TV shoot happen around you, cameras and all, rather than watching executives work through slides.
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I had my reservations about this last year, and I found the Fallon show a bit cringe. This year felt more natural and more to the point, and I think that comes down to Noah being the better host, mostly because he did not follow the script to the letter.
There were a couple of moments where he seemed to genuinely trip up the Google exec next to him, either with a question or a remark about the devices, including asking who comes up with the colors and pointing out that Google did not invent the color black. Not everyone came away as convinced, and one report called the whole thing a cringe fest.
Trevor Noah hosting Made by Google 2026 in New York. | Image by PhoneArena
The other experiment is the split. Google let outlets and creators publish the announcement and first impressions eight hours before the show itself, which is a real departure from how launches usually work.
The jury is still out on whether that pays off. However, the livestream sits at 33 million views against 454,000 for last year's, and that gap is large enough that Google has probably figured something out. Whether it turns into sales is a separate question.
It should be noted that the numbers underneath the noise are better than the mood suggests. Google shipped 16% more phones year over year in the second quarter of 2026, according to a new report from Counterpoint Research, in a quarter when the global smartphone market fell 11% and posted its weakest second quarter since 2013.
That is worth sitting with, because it runs against the story the comment sections have been telling. We covered the wave of Pixel owners saying they are sitting this generation out, and that sentiment is real, but it is coexisting with Google growing while nearly everybody else shrinks.
Beyond that, Galaxy S26 Ultra and iPhone 17 Pro Max owners have very little reason to feel any pressure from this launch, and I do not think Google expected them to. What Google is doing is holding its own audience and pulling in people who were never in the tech conversation to begin with, which is a slower game than winning a spec argument.
What I think Google is still holding back
I understand what Google is doing by bringing in celebrities and lifestyle personalities. But what about the techies, the people who were on Team Pixel from the start and the ones who were all in on Nexus before that?
That feels like a lifetime ago now, and Pixels have become the iPhones of the Android world. I am not mad at that, because Pixel fans have spent years complaining that these phones are not taken seriously, particularly here in the US where the conversation really is just iPhone against Samsung.
The Pixel 11 Pro XL in Obsidian, Olive, Fog and Canyon. | Image by Google
Google has clearly gotten tired of being the third option, or the fourth if you count Motorola. It has to compete to survive as a respectable OEM, and repeating what it already knows is not working was never going to change that.
My critique is that Google is not changing enough. Experiment more, add genuinely new features, give us upgrades that leave us with no choice but to want a new phone every year, because these iterative bumps are doing Google no favors.
I want to be wowed again by something nobody else can get close to copying. That is the Pixel magic I miss, and while we got some of it this year, a price increase that is not entirely Google's fault still raises what people expect in return.
HiLight is exactly what I mean
I wrote last week that HiLight was the thing I most wanted to try. Now that I have seen how it works in real life, it is not what I expected, and I came away let down.
HiLight sits in a ring around the camera flash, and only on the Pro models. | Image by Google
I was hoping to use it with Messages, which is where I see the most value in a light on the back of a phone. I also want more colors and the ability to apply it to a group of people, everyone in your favorites for example, rather than assigning colors contact by contact.
I have passed that feedback to Google directly, and I am still hopeful it gets there. The hardware is already sitting in the phone, so this is entirely a software problem now, and software is the part Google is supposed to be good at.
What I want from Google next
There are very smart people at Google and I am fairly sure they know what has to happen. I hope the company reads this year's Pixel sales clearly and moves, because the industry will keep going without it otherwise.
Software is not the worry. Google has a real lead where it counts and it knows that is where this is heading, so it is trending in the right direction there. Hardware is where it needs to catch up, and features like HiLight that do not add much yet are not going to carry the line forward.
Give us better cameras, because paired with Pixel photo processing the results would be difficult to argue with. Give us a faster processor and a better modem, which to be fair has finally happened, and while you are in there, make the Pixel Launcher more customizable.
Let us install icon packs instead of generating them. Give us something closer to what One UI and Good Lock offer together, because that is the kind of thing that builds a following that sticks around, and it is the change I would be happiest to be proven right about next August.
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Johanna Romero is a Senior News Writer at PhoneArena, covering mobile technology news across Android, iOS, wearables, and the Google ecosystem she knows best. Drawing on 15 years in IT and tech support from 2007 to 2022, she brings a user-friendly eye for the practical features and lesser-known tricks readers care about. Google named her an official #TeamPixel member in 2022, and she also reviews the latest devices on her YouTube channel, JoJo the Techie.
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