GoKawiilis a senior reporter covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme.
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It’s that time of year: On Wednesday, Google is set to host its annual Made by Google hardware launch event for Pixel gadgets. Google itself has already teased new slab-style and foldable Pixel smartphones, but leaks also indicate that the company could announce updated watches, a new color for familiar earbuds, and perhaps a brand new AirTag-like item tracker.
However, unusually, Google’s event is taking place in the evening: It kicks off on Wednesday at 6PM ET / 3PM PT instead of in the early afternoon or mid-morning, like many other tech events. And this time it has a celebrity host in Trevor Noah.
Even more strange: As noted by 9to5Google, the Google Store homepage has a Pixel 11 preorder countdown that will end at 10AM ET on Wednesday — which is many hours earlier than the launch event itself. That could mean that all of the details about Google’s new devices will be officially revealed long before the company hosts the formal launch event.
Here’s what we expect to see Google announce this week. If you want to watch the event live, you can catch it on YouTube.
The Pixel 11 lineup
A leaked marketing render of the Pixel 11 Pro Fold. Image: Evan Blass
Google has already hinted at its new phones while promoting the event, including shadowy glimpses of updated Pro and foldable phones. But the new smartphones could be largely iterative updates.
Google is expected to announce four new smartphones: the Pixel 11, the Pixel 11 Pro, the Pixel 11 Pro XL, and the Pixel 11 Pro Fold. Based on leaked images, they should look largely the same as the Pixel 10 lineup, though it appears they’ll have camera bars that are black all the way across and colors that might rule.
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