The Pixel 11 series is here and should start shipping to customers in a matter of days. Google was quick this year to open pre-orders and then immediately get devices in everyone’s hands within a week, which is a wild turn-around.
For those who pre-ordered or who may be on the fence, we wanted to highlight a handful of features and release notes that you may have missed during the chaos of last week. Not that we’re trying to sell you on the Pixel 11 series, because this isn’t going to be the upgrade for everyone, but there are some cool things going on you need to know.
Magic Capture might be a camera winner
As a part of the Pixel 11 series camera, Google is introducing a new feature called Magic Capture. The idea here is that having to point-and-shoot over and over to get the best photos is not always the best play, especially if you have moving subjects or want to better experience a moment.
Magic Capture is a new camera mode that works almost like a video recording, but then returns stills to you after you are done capturing. So you’ll open the camera, flip over to Magic Capture, and let the viewfinder do its thing. You can move around, adjust angles, switch lenses, or just hold one spot while it works. Once done, you press the Stop button and it’ll return what it believes are the best stills from that short little capture session.
You then get the stills it thinks were great after analyzing 400 frames or you can scrub back through the video you took to pull your own stills. Google explains more of how this works here.
Rambler takes over your Gboard
Back at Google I/O, Google debuted a new voice-to-text feature they referred to as Rambler. This was their next-gen idea for getting you to talk to your phone more and have it return text, without editing after the fact, because it was smart enough to edit for you on the fly.
Rambler is built into Gboard and lets you talk naturally, with “umms” and “ahhs” and “likes” that it can filter and remove when a final text is presented. It works in real-time and can even switch languages mid-conversation.
This is first debuting on the Pixel 11 series and the early reports of it working are nothing but positive. We’d share our thoughts, but aren’t allowed to just yet.
Qi2.2 25W wireless charging is on all Pixel 11 devices
Google first gave us Qi2.2 magnets within devices when it launched the Pixel 10 series last year. Unfortunately, the best version of that Qi2.2 experience was reserved for the Pixel 10 Pro XL and not the smaller Pixel 10 or Pixel 10 Pro. That upgraded experience included faster 25W wireless charging when attached to a supported charger.
For the Pixel 11 launch, Google gave the full Qi2.2 25W experience to every single new Pixel 11 phone, including the cheapest Pixel 11 and most expensive Pixel 11 Pro Fold.
Pixel 11 Pro Fold has a new indestructible back material
I feel like this is flying a bit under the radar, but Google has introduced a new glass fiber composite back cover on the Pixel 11 Pro Fold that they say is “nearly impossible to crack.” With durability always being a concern on foldables, this is a big upgrade for a phone that picked up a price increase for 2026.
Of course, you still can’t just freely drop the Pixel 11 Pro Fold, as the front is still very much glass and you’ll need to worry about the hinge holding up. At least you’ll have some comfort in setting the thing down wherever.
New scratch resistance on displays
Claims about levels of scratch resistant have always been a thing I roll my eyes at. For far too many years, Corning promised the world and then never delivered. We all know that glass scratches and cracks no matter how big the promised improvements are.
Still, Google has made a pretty bold claim this year for the Pixel 11 Pro and 11 Pro XL. They are using a new anti-scratch display coating that they say delivers “more than double the scratch resistance” of the previous generation. Not a 10% improvement, but double.
Who wants to be the first to test that?
Low-light pictures are 4.5x faster
Thanks to Tensor G6 and its upgraded Image Signal Processor (ISP), Google claims that the Pixel 11 Pro phones can capture up to 4.5x faster Night Sight photos and still give you the same quality. For those of you who have used Pixel phones over the years, you’ve likely found yourself tapping your fingers as Night Sight photos process and you wonder if they are any good or not. With that much of a speed boost, you should be able to snap much more freely with time to review.
Pixel 11 barely has a camera bar bump
The camera bar on Pixel phones has become somewhat of an iconic design choice at this point, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that it can get in the way. I can’t tell you how many times over the years that I’ve pulled a Pixel phone out of the pocket and snagged it. The worry there, obviously, is that a snag like that could cause you to drop your $1,000 phone and watch it break.
The regular Pixel 11 now has a camera bar that is almost flush to the body of the phone. Google reduced the thickness by 40%, so if you put a case on it, it basically has no bump at all and can lay flat on a table or desk…or more freely pull out of a pocket.
Camera Looks let you customize your photo style
Google is finally letting you setup a camera shooting style that can stick with you going forward. Called Camera Looks, Google has introduced 4 styles (Original, Natural, Shadows, and Vanilla) that you can set as your default to take pictures with, plus you can further customize each through controls like Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, etc.
There are also several presets from within Looks to choose from, like Digi, Editorial, Velvet, and Minimal. Oh, and all of these settings stick across Night Sight, Portrait, 120x Pro Zoom, and in high-res 50MP Pro shots.
Smaller batteries, longer battery life
Both the Pixel 11 Pro and Pixel 11 Pro XL have slightly smaller batteries than their Pixel 10 Pro versions, yet Google is promising improved battery life. Again, we’ll share our findings soon enough, but what you need to know today is that Google suggests 30 hours of battery life on both phones, while they only promised 24 hours on last year’s models.
There are likely a few things at play here. For one, the new Tensor G6 chip should be more power efficient, plus there’s a new MediaTek modem and upgraded displays. But an extra 6 hours of battery life is a big promise when the batteries didn’t get bigger.
See, we do have some upgrades in the new Pixel 11 series. You tell me if they are big enough to get you to buy one.
Read the original post: Here’s 9 Pixel 11 Upgrades You Need to Know
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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