Pixel 11 Pro vs iPhone 17 Pro: All the differences explained
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Pixel 11 Pro in Obsidian on the left vs iPhone 17 Pro in silver on the right | Image by PhoneArena
These are two of the best compact phones around, but which one fits you better: the new Google Pixel 11 Pro or Apple's iPhone 17 Pro?
I have used and tested both in the past few days, figuring out the pros and cons of each one. The Pixel 11 Pro brings improvements to the camera with a new telephoto lens and for the first time, it allows you to tweak settings like colors and sharpening to get photos that look closer to a real camera.
The iPhone 17 Pro, on the other hand, runs on iOS and is part of the bigger Apple ecosystem; it clearly has the faster chipset, and it's the better phone for gaming.
Pixel 11 Pro vs iPhone 17 Pro differences explained:
| Pixel 11 Pro | iPhone 17 Pro |
|---|---|
| Quite heavy for a compact phone at 206 grams | Similarly heavy at 204 grams |
| Average thickness (8.4mm) | Even thicker at 8.8mm |
| Horizontal camera bar on the back | Camera Plateau |
| Brighter screen at 3,600 nits peak | 3,000 nits peak brightness |
| Slower Tensor G6 chipset | Faster Apple A19 Pro chipset |
| Triple rear cameras | Triple rear cameras |
| Bigger sensor for telephoto camera | Less capable telephoto camera |
| Bigger battery at 4,850mAh | 4,252mAh battery (eSIM model for US) 3,998mAh battery (Global model) |
| 30W wired charging | Faster wired charge at 40W |
| Supports Qi2.2 magnetic wireless charging | 25W MagSafe wireless charging |
| $1,100 starting price (256 GB base model) | Same $1,100 starting price |
Table of Contents:
Design and Display Quality
The Galaxy wins on compactness
Image by PhoneArena
With rounded corners and flat sides, the Pixel 11 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro feel incredibly similar to hold and use.
Sure, they look different from the back: the Pixel has that horizontal camera bar, while the iPhone has the camera plateau and the two-tone design with the glass insert, but the feel is indeed very similar.
It's so similar that even the dimensions and weights are nearly identical between these two (they are a bit heavier than you would expect from a compact phone).
Image by PhoneArena
One new gimmick on the Pixel is the HiLight, an array of 8 LED lights in a circle placed with the flash. But after using the phone for a week, I found it to be a gimmick that is quickly forgotten.
In terms of pure practicality, I actually prefer the camera control and action buttons on the iPhone, as they are programmable and can be quite helpful (I've personally set the action key to open ChatGPT and you can set the camera control to open a third-party camera app too).
Image by PhoneArena
Display Measurements:
The Pixel 11 Pro scores a higher brightness than the iPhone which makes it a bit easier to see outdoors on a sunny day. What you don't see on a spec sheet is reflectivity, and the iPhone does a slightly better job at killing reflections.
The minimum brightness on the iPhone, however, is better — it can drop to below 1 nit, while the Pixel remains much brighter at its lowest setting. At night in bed you want the lowest brightness possible to avoid eye sore.
Performance and Software
Tensor is still behind
The Pixel 11 Pro keeps on using a Google Tensor chip for yet another year — the Tensor G6. The iPhone, on the other hand, runs on Apple's A19 Pro chip.
Both phones come with 12GB of RAM.
GPU Performance
Google's Tensor chip has been behind Apple's A series of chips for years, and it's just embarrassing to see that nearly a year after the release of the iPhone 17 Pro, Google has not caught up at all.
The gap in gaming performance is particularly stark, the iPhone being the much better optimized phone for gamers.
Storage speed
Both the Pixel and the Galaxy base models now start at 256GB of native storage. For the Pixel, that's a recent change, as the previous base model had 128GB of storage. You can also opt for 512GB models, and the iPhone has additional tiers too, like 1TB (you don't get that option on the Pixel).
Camera
Pixel has the upper hand
Image by PhoneArena
In our PhoneArena Camera score, we have a very interesting case: both have the same total score. The Pixel wins by one point in photo quality, while the iPhone wins by the same margin in video quality.
Both phones have three rear cameras. Don't pay too much attention to the megapixels; what matters more is sensor size. Both phones use a 1/1.3-inch main camera sensor, same as most other flagships. The ultra-wide camera on both comes with a much smaller sensor.
However, the biggest change is actually in the telephoto, as the Pixel 11 Pro gets a nearly 70% larger 1/1.95-inch sensor this year. This should result in much better zoomed in photos, even in low light.
But in my view, the best Pixel 11 Pro camera feature this year is camera looks. Tap on settings, then Looks in the camera app, and you get to tweak the color science, the sharpness, highlights, shadows, and every other aspect of the camera experience that you can imagine. The iPhone has its Photographic Styles, which is something, but you still cannot reduce the sharpness or choose to have more neutral colors for your photos.
Main Camera
Zoom Quality
Portrait Mode
Ultra-wide
Selfies
The character of Pixel photos has not changed — it has that extreme dynamic range thanks to the computational photography approach, and I'd argue that it also looks a bit better, with slightly more detail.
Battery Life and Charging
SUBHEADING
Image by PhoneArena
While the Pixel has the larger battery, don't forget that these run two different operating systems, and iOS is clearly the most power efficient one.
In our battery testing, we found some very intriguing results. For example, the Pixel 11 Pro scores more than 11 hours of non-stop video streaming, while the iPhone scores just 8 hours and a half.
However, in simple tasks like a web browsing session, the iPhone was much more efficient, scoring 17 hours vs only 11 hours on the Pixel. In gaming too, the iPhone performed much better while the Pixel started heating up and going through the battery quickly.
I'm also very happy that you get magnetic wireless charging on both these phones, that's a huge convenience. On the iPhone, that's MagSafe at 25W speedsd and on the Pixel, it's Qi 2.2 at the same supported speed.
Audio Quality and Haptics
Both phones feature dual speakers (bottom firing main speaker and a secondary one in the earpiece). The iPhone has slightly richer sound with fuller lower frequencies, but the Pixel is also very close.
I have to give a special shout out to the small sound effects with every action on the Pixel. Google has put this attention to detail for every notification and little interaction, and it makes a big difference to me.
For haptics, I'd say both do a fine job, with clean, sharp feedback from the vibration motor for both notifications and calls.
Specs Comparison
And here is a table showing all the differences in the Pixel 11 Pro vs iPhone 17 Pro specs:
|
|
| Google Pixel 11 Pro | Apple iPhone 17 Pro |
| Dimensions | |
|---|---|
| 152.4 x 71.1 x 8.4 mm (~12.22 mm with camera bump) | 150.0 x 71.9 x 8.75 mm (~13.13 mm with camera bump) |
| Weight | |
| 204.0 g | 206.0 g |
| Size | |
|---|---|
| 6.3-inch | 6.3-inch |
| Type | |
| OLED, 120Hz | OLED, Variable 1-120Hz |
| System chip | |
|---|---|
| Google Tensor G6 (3 nm) | Apple A19 Pro (3 nm) |
| Memory | |
| 12GB (LPDDR5X)/256GB (UFS 4.0) 16GB/512GB 16GB/1TB |
12GB (LPDDR5)/256GB 12GB/512GB 12GB/1TB |
| OS | |
| Android (17), up to 7 OS updates | iOS (26.x) |
| Type | |
|---|---|
| 4850 mAh | 4252 mAh |
| Charge speed | |
| Wired: 30.0W Wireless: 25.0W | Wired: 40.0W Wireless: 25.0W |
| Main camera | |
|---|---|
| 50 MP (OIS, PDAF) Aperture size: F1.7 Sensor size: 1/1.3" |
48 MP (Sensor-shift OIS, PDAF) Aperture size: F1.8 Focal length: 24 mm Sensor size: 1/1.28" Pixel size: 1.22 μm |
| Second camera | |
| 48 MP (Ultra-wide) Aperture size: F2.8 Sensor size: 1/2.51" |
48 MP (Ultra-wide, Sensor-shift OIS) Aperture size: F2.2 Focal Length: 13 mm Sensor size: 1/2.55" Pixel size: 0.7 μm |
| Third camera | |
| 48 MP (Telephoto, Periscope) Optical zoom: 5.0x Aperture size: F2.8 Sensor size: 1/1.95" |
48 MP (Telephoto, OIS, PDAF) Optical zoom: 4.0x Aperture size: F2.8 Focal Length: 100 mm Sensor size: 1/2.55" Pixel size: 0.7 μm |
| Front | |
| 42 MP (PDAF) | 18 MP (Time-of-Flight (ToF), Autofocus, HDR) |
See the full
Google Pixel 11 Pro vs Apple iPhone 17 Pro specs comparison
or compare them to other phones using our
Phone Comparison tool
Which one should you buy?
Image by PhoneArena
[INSERT-IMAGE-07-CONCLUSION]
Now that the Pixel 11 Pro costs as much as the iPhone 17 Pro, does it stand a fighting chance?
It has some advantages: in my view, that is the better photo quality, the option for more camera customizations, and Android for those who prefer the ecosystem.
The iPhone still has the upper hand for video recording, and its still miles ahead in terms of pure performance.
So... which one would you but and why?
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