I’ve used Pixel phones for years. Why the upcoming Pixel 11 has me worried

Google’s Pixel phones have always prioritized software over hardware. While that’s delivered some of Android’s smartest AI features and best cameras, it’s also meant living with compromises that fans have been asking Google to fix for years: slower charging, middling battery life, Tensor processors that trail the competition, and hardware that often feels a generation behind the best Android flagships.

As someone who’s used Pixels for years, I was hoping the Pixel 11 would finally start closing that gap. It didn’t need to leapfrog every rival overnight, but even one or two meaningful hardware upgrades — a larger battery, faster charging, a more competitive Tensor chip, or a standout camera improvement — would have gone a long way to making the Pixel 11 series feel like flagships at the top of their game.

Instead, based on everything we’ve seen so far, the Pixel 11 series looks set to stick with much the same formula.

While I expect Google’s latest flagships to retain their signature focus on AI software features and ecosystem tools, that’s no longer enough on its own. When you’re spending anywhere from $800 to $1,200 on a flagship expected to last five years or more, you expect premium hardware to match the price. That’s especially true when competitors in the US, and even more so across global markets, are pushing ahead with genuinely meaningful hardware innovations that improve the day-to-day experience. Prospective Pixel buyers shouldn’t settle for anything less.

I’m a huge fan of fast charging, especially since modern versions can top up handsets in well under an hour without the increased heat of older methods. Hitting a cool 45W is really the baseline in 2026, and even Samsung has managed to push its Galaxy S26 Ultra to 60W, resulting in a full charge time of just 40 minutes compared to over 100 for my Pixel 10 Pro XL.

While there are hopefully rumors of Google increasing its power this generation, based on reports of how its current phones are struggling to stay cool while charging in recent hot temperatures and the brand’s troubled history with low-quality batteries, I’d be surprised if Google feels at all confident about pushing beyond its current 37W peak on the XL models and 27W capabilities for its smaller handsets. In any case, it seems incredibly unlikely Google will jump to 60W or higher to match its rivals’ capabilities, and even if there is a higher power level around the corner, sustaining it to actually make a next-gen Pixel charge meaningfully faster is a whole different question.

In any case, perhaps the biggest game-changer in the past two years has been the adoption of silicon-carbon battery technology. This has allowed China’s best to pack over 7,000mAh batteries into their largest flagship phones, and for home staples like Motorola to pack 5,000mAh cells into its compact Razr Ultra 2026 foldable. If there’s one thing Google could really do to improve the day-to-day experience of using a Pixel, it’s making battery life feel that bit more reliable.

Unfortunately, according to rumors, the Pixel 11 series looks set to retain roughly the same battery capacity as the current generation. We’re likely looking at cells between 4,840mAh and 5,000mAh. These might be competitive with what Apple and Samsung continue to offer in their flagship phones, but they fall well short of the capacities found in the ultra-premium Android space, where manufacturers are pushing phones comfortably into two days of heavy use.

The good news is that moving to a smaller TSMC manufacturing node will help Google’s Tensor G6 processor, and pairing it with a MediaTek M90 modem instead of a Samsung Exynos modem might help the chip sip battery power more slowly for daily tasks. Those improvements would certainly be welcome, but even a 10% efficiency gain won’t close the gap with phones that offer 40–50% larger batteries.

Speaking of the Tensor G6, it’s perhaps the most heavily leaked aspect of Google’s upcoming flagships. Sporting a more powerful big Arm C1-Ultra core at 4.11GHz, alongside four C1-Pro cores at 3.38GHz and two C1-Pro cores at 2.65GHz, it represents a significant CPU uplift over the G5’s aging components. However, Google’s processor still lacks the peak performance grunt of Apple’s A-series, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon, and MediaTek’s Dimensity, which pack dual powerhouse cores to handle the heavy lifting and, in MediaTek’s case, a far greater overall core count.

On the graphics side, the Tensor G6 is reportedly switching to a PowerVR CXTP-48-1536 GPU, which is unlikely to excite serious mobile gamers. After digging into the architecture, I expect performance to be closer to a sidegrade than a major leap, with any improvements coming primarily from efficiency rather than outright rendering power.

While today’s flagship chips are arguably overkill for most mobile games, Tensor continues to fall further behind the competition in sustained graphics performance, ray tracing support, and demanding workloads. That matters not only for gaming but increasingly for on-device AI processing, computational photography, and future software features that rely on extra GPU horsepower. Yes, Google is leaning on a new, faster TPU to speed up on-device AI, but that feels like a questionable trade if it means squeezing the budget for versatile graphics silicon.

When other phones can do it all, Google is increasingly relying on its software experience to compensate for hardware shortcomings. That strategy has worked surprisingly well so far, and Tensor will almost certainly remain fast enough for everyday tasks, but enthusiasts looking for class-leading performance will once again find Google’s custom silicon difficult to recommend.

Having spent a good amount of time comparing Google’s Pixel 10 Pro XL against the best camera phones in the business, trust me when I say that China’s most expensive phones are a cut above. Not that Google’s realistic take on color science and powerful HDR formula has lost its magic, but rival phones can now capture more exquisite, true-to-life details in portrait photographs and those sought-after long-range shots. And it’s all thanks to new hardware sweeping the market — including large 200MP telephoto and periscope cameras offering 6x zoom and beyond.

Google’s Pixel series is expected to receive some camera upgrades of its own, but they will be incremental rather than formula-changing. The baseline Pixel 11 is expected to receive a new 50MP “chemosh” sensor to replace its aging 48MP primary camera, bringing it more in line with the Pro models. While we don’t know the exact model, it’s probably safe to say this will help reduce the camera’s noise and improve detail and low-light performance.

The Pro and Pro XL models are also reported to receive a revamped 48MP ultrawide lens and a 48MP telephoto with 5x optical zoom. We don’t yet know the exact sensor, making it difficult to predict precise improvements. More likely than not, Google is focusing on incremental gains — reduced image noise, faster autofocus, improved HDR processing, and better low-light performance — rather than introducing dramatically different focal lengths or the kind of massive 200MP sensors now appearing elsewhere.

Still, we’ll likely see some new software tools; Google’s new Metis ISP is reported to support 4K 30fps cinematic blur, improve low-light video, and improve 100x AI-assisted zoom, which should keep the camera package interesting enough. But I’d rather see a next-gen Pixel camera capable of taking amazing portraits without muddled software bokeh or snapping incredibly vibrant distant shots in low light over another software tool I’ll forget to use.

On the subject of cameras, the Pixel 11 series could also introduce something called “Pixel Glow“—a rear-facing RGB LED ring surrounding the camera housing that reportedly replaces the infrared thermometer with a Nothing-inspired notification system. It could be a genuinely fun addition and perhaps even prove useful for notifications or photography, but it also raises questions about Google’s hardware priorities. When rivals are experimenting with enormous periscope sensors and dramatically extending optical zoom capabilities, decorative lighting feels like an odd place to spend engineering effort.

In addition to all the above, there are some more concerning reports that the baseline Pixel 11 might ship with an 8GB RAM option (12GB was the minimum on the Pixel 10), while the new Pixel 11 Pro Fold could have a 12GB SKU (previously 16GB minimum). Not great for a flagship foldable expected to cost upwards of $1,799.

These smaller capacities would run counter to Google’s recent push toward larger on-device AI models, which increasingly rely on abundant memory. Its latest handsets reserve close to 4GB of RAM to ensure a snappy Gemini Nano experience. Next-gen models with less RAM might be forced to use smaller, weaker AI models or wait for delayed responses as they struggle to quickly load into memory — hardly a great sales pitch for Android’s flagship AI brand.

While I won’t blame Google for the industry’s broader memory pricing pressures, it would still be another disappointing compromise for Pixel fans hoping for more substantial hardware upgrades this year.

If the leaks are accurate, the Pixel 11 series risks feeling like another year of Google asking buyers to prioritize software over hardware. A slower charging setup, comparatively modest battery capacities, Tensor’s continued performance deficit, and only incremental camera upgrades leave the Pixel looking increasingly outgunned by flagship Android rivals from OPPO, Xiaomi, and vivo.

Perhaps Google will never try to beat those phones on specifications alone. Its strategy has long been to compete with the iPhone and Galaxy by delivering a polished software experience, industry-leading AI features, and cameras that remain consistently excellent. That’s a perfectly valid approach, but after several generations of waiting for Tensor, charging speeds, and battery technology to catch up, it’s becoming harder to ignore just how wide the hardware gap has become.

The Pixel 11 series will almost certainly be another very good smartphone. The question is whether “very good” is still enough in a premium market that’s moving forward much faster than Google appears willing to.