For once, the timid Pixel 11 Pro upgrades won't look bad despite the cursed price hike

My days with a Google Pixel as a daily driver are long gone. But I can't help but keep a close eye on whatever the search engine giant is doing with each passing day – their phones rightly so deserve to be on the list of best phones to get in 2026.

At times, I'm genuinely impressed with what devices like the Pixel 10 Pro XL can pull off against the iPhone 17 Pro, while other moves by Google leave me bemused.

Then, there's the third category of occasions which are few and far between – when I'm disenchanted with what Google is doing but I can't be angry with the company.

Today is such a day.

Pricier Pixel phones ahead

The Pixel 11 models are probably going to cost more than the Pixel 10. Who, apart from everybody, could've seen that coming?!

Prices are expected to go up by about $114 (€100) in Europe and $107 (£80) in the UK. Ouch.

The good news for anyone buying a standard Pixel 11 or the 11 Pro is that the cheapest model will likely give you more room for your photos and apps. Google is expected to bump the starting storage up to 256 GB, which is double the 128 GB you used to get.

But many users are subscribed to a cloud service (maybe to the company's own Google One?) anyway and I suspect they'd prefer to save a hundred bucks over being forced to switch to 256 GB.

The new phones are rumored to be a mixed bag in terms of upgrades. The Pixel 11 will most likely be utilizing the brand new Tensor G6 processor (built on an advanced 2nm process by TSMC).

This should make the devices faster and much more power-efficient, but Tensors can't really compete with high-end Snapdragon silicon in terms of raw power.

Maybe the biggest will come on the outside in the form of a new feature called Pixel Glow. This is the fancy name for a rumored array of eight-color LED lights on the back of the phone. These lights will pulse in different colors to show who is messaging you, what kind of notification you received or if your battery is running low.

Yeah, if I could avoid paying an extra $100 for this, I'd be so happy.

The Pixel 10 Pro wasn't a big upgrade, either

The Pixel 11 Pro's alleged stalled upgrade is nothing new, as the Pixel 10 Pro wasn't that different from the Pixel 9 Pro as well.

These two share the design, build materials, display panels, RAM and camera setups. The successor comes with a slightly brighter display, a newer Tensor chipset (but the difference is certainly not night and day), slightly better digital zoom capabilities and a battery difference of only 170 mAh

It's the context that matters

Usually, substantial hardware upgrades come once every two years, but it's possible that Google will kick the bucket down the road for another year and the potential Pixel 12 Pro.

And now is the perfect time to do so – we're in the middle of the RAMpocalypse. Memory chips and other components have become significantly pricier and smartphone makers would be damned if they took all the burden without splitting the bill with the end users.

Samsung, Apple and many major Chinese brands have already bumped prices up (or have promised to do so), so Google won't be the odd one out.

Instead of saying, "Look how expensive the Pixel 11 Pro has become", many people will simply see the higher price, shrug and assume that's just the new normal in 2026. It doesn't make the increase any easier on the wallet, but it does make it far less controversial. Google couldn't have picked a better moment to ship another year of modest hardware improvements with a higher price tag.

It's on the horizon anyway

There's not much time left until the Pixel 11 family materializes. Google has officially sent out invitations and the event is happening in New York City on August 12, which is a little earlier in the year than usual.

There are rumors that Google might actually lower the starting memory on the entry-level models. The base Pixel 11 could drop from 12 GB down to 8 GB of RAM, and the base Pro model might drop from 16 GB down to 12 GB of RAM.

Naturally, Google is expected to introduce heavy AI upgrades. I don't see the Pixel 11 family becoming a hit like the iPhone 17; but at least the combination of incremental upgrades and a higher price won't be that shocking, given that everybody else is pushing prices up.

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