GoKawiilThe new $899 Pixel 11, announced Wednesday ahead of the company’s Made by Google event, has a number of meaningful improvements, like a 30x zoom and faster wireless charging, while dancing around the $100 higher starting price than last year’s Pixel 10.
The Pixel 11 shares the same 6.3-inch screen size as the Pixel 10, shaves its camera bump and extends the camera’s digital zoom range, among a few other changes, such as an ever-so-slightly larger battery. While these iterative alterations don’t seem eye-catching, I appreciated a few of the Pixel 11’s redesigned features during my brief time trying them out.
Admittedly, some of my favorite improvements are to aesthetics. The slimmer camera bar is 40% thinner than the one on the Pixel 10, making it look like a slightly raised platform on the back of the phone. While it’s not flush, it is slim enough that using Google’s PixelSnap case helps the phone lie fully flat on a table.
While the Pixel 11 supports the same 30-watt wired charging as its predecessor, it now tops out at 25-watt Qi2 wireless charging, which should let it recharge faster than last year’s version. In my story exploring CNET Lab testing for the fastest-charging phones, the Pixel 10 (which only supports 15 watts) added only 27% in 30 minutes. The Pixel 11 has a baby battery bump in capacity to 4,985 mAh, up from the Pixel 10’s 4,970 mAh.
If you’re looking for areas of improvement, don’t look at the camera hardware, as the Pixel 11 has the same cameras as the Pixel 10. The upgrades lie, as they usually do with Google phones, in the software.
The Pixel 11 now features a 30x digital zoom, up from the 20x zoom on the Pixel 10. Mike Sorrentino/CNET
Pixel 11 cameras
Lens Aperture Resolution Magnification Wide-angle f/1.7 48 megapixels 1x Ultrawide f/2.2 13 megapixels 0.6x Telephoto f/2.8 10.8 megapixels 5x Selfie f2.2 10.5 megapixels 1x
Software gives the Pixel 11’s digital zoom range a boost, now maxing out at 30x, up from last year’s 20x. During my hands-on time with the Pixel 11, I spent most of it experimenting with the improved zoom. I was impressed with how I could zoom straight into various plants in the demo room at 30x and the resulting image had sharp details — such as visible strands inside of a flower — with limited artifacting. Normally, I don’t bother with digital zoom because the resulting photos look like a pixelated mess. I still have to put the phone through more testing for my review
The Pixel 11 has Google’s new Tensor G6 processor and runs on Android 17, with a promised seven years of major OS and security updates. The Pixel 11 will also get the benefit of Google’s Pixel Feature drops that bring new functionality and refinements throughout the year between major Android overhauls.
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