GoKawiilSanuj Bhatia / Android Authority
The reception to the Google Pixel 11 series may have been slightly muted, thanks to relatively minor upgrades and a higher price tag, but there’s one fundamental change this year that a lot of us Pixel fans have been waiting for: a new modem.
As rumored before launch, the Pixel 11 series ships with a MediaTek modem for the first time. Google has completely ditched Samsung’s Exynos modem on its latest Pixel phones in favor of a MediaTek modem, with Google claiming the new modem is more reliable, faster, and more power-efficient.
On paper, the new modem should outperform what we’ve seen on previous Pixel generations. It should also help address some of the biggest complaints we’ve had with Pixel phones over the years, including overheating, battery drain, and poor cellular reception.
But rather than taking Google’s word for it, I wanted to put those claims to the test. So, I put the Pixel 11 Pro against last year’s Pixel 10 Pro across a few different tests to see whether the new modem actually makes a noticeable difference.
What's been your biggest Pixel connectivity issue? 199 votes Weak reception 29 % Battery drain 37 % Slow mobile data 8 % Never had an issue 26 %
How I tested the Pixel 11’s new MediaTek modem Before we move on to the test, it’s worth noting that I used the same SIM card on both devices and tested them under similar conditions to keep things as fair as possible. I also disconnected both phones from Wi-Fi and relied entirely on cellular data throughout the test.
Lastly, I made sure both devices were running the latest available version of Android 17 before testing, so any differences should be primarily due to the modem rather than software.
Signal strength test
Sanuj Bhatia / Android Authority
... continue reading