r/GooglePixel

I just got my Pixel 11 Pro XL and tried the new Rambler voice-to-text feature, and they weren't kidding at the Made by Google event. It works exactly as it did at the event. I'm almost in disbelief.

The phone feels exactly the same in hand. The back feels a little different to touch, maybe because of the matte finish. The case for the 10 pro fits perfectly on the 11 pro, even the camera cutout fits perfectly.

The screen is a little brighter at max brightness. The front camera is clearer without a doubt, so that's an upgrade. The back camera feels the same, just a 120x compared to 100x zoom.

The apps open/close noticeably faster. Don't know if that's because it's a new phone or what, but the phone feels snappier imo.

The setup/transfer was smooth, and while the pixel 10 pro lost 20% battery during the data transfer, the 11 pro lost around 10%. This doesn't mean anything but just sharing it out there.

Also the phone didn't get hot like how people are saying, it was moderately warm for me for a few minutes and it's back to normal now.

Let me know if you want to know anything else!

Haven't heard anyone else mention this but the speakers are a huge improvement over the 10. Makes it about equal with the latest iPhone speakers in my opinion.

I've been trying to get a P11Pro and a P11ProXL activated through an MVNO on the AT&T network. They state that they can't do anything about it because the AT&T IMEI checker (here) shows that the phone is not compatible. Since I'm not an AT&T customer, I can't do anything to get past the dumb AT&T AI chatbot to see if I can get someone to update their compatibility database. I'm escalating with the MVNO, but that's been a dead end so far today.

I contacted Google support to 1. Verify that the phone is, in fact, compatible, and 2. see if they could do anything to get AT&T to update their compatibility database; they did verify that the phone is compatible (Google Fi is an AT&T MVNO, and it would obviously work with that), but that the compatibility list is entirely on AT&T to update.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to proceed? I'm sure that if I wait a week or two they'll get around to it, but I'm hoping someone, somewhere in the depths of the Reddit community has a line to the ear of the right people to get this fixed. It's a bad look for AT&T, particularly when early adopters want to use their shiny new toys.

Edit: Google Fi is T-Mobile (despite what Google support told me LOL); but as others have said below, other AT&T MVNOs are able to activate the Pixel 11 models.

I decided to ignore the tech youtubers and their reviews and first impressions of the Pixel 11 line and went ahead and purchased the Pixel 11 Pro XL and I have to say, I absolutely adore this phone.

The temperature differences from my previous Pixel 9 Pro XL are significant, the phone runs super cool even under 5G and downloading my music library and updating apps on initial setup all simultaneously, everything runs super smooth.

I get that it's not a sizeable upgrade, but if you actually want to upgrade or even swap from iPhone to Pixel, specially while taking advantage of the boosted trade-in program like I did or even store discounts, don't let the influencers.. well, influence you out of buying it.

Fun fact: If you set your Pixel 11 Pro's camera to 50MP mode and turn on RAW, your 5X shots will all be 36.9MP instead of 50. Doesn't affect the JPEGs.

The 1x camera and .5x cameras still spit out the full expected resolution in RAW.

Note: 5x camera spits out a 50MP, 8160x6128 JPEG, and a 36.9MP, 7004x5264 DNG file.

I double checked to make sure I didn't zoom past 5x. If you digitally zoom past the native focal lengths it does crop in on the RAW files, which is expected. Not the end of the world, as 37ish megapixels is plenty of resolution, but I wonder if Google's 5x lens doesn't fully cover the whole sensor. Who knows. Just info for anyone who might actually use this feature.

Is it just me or does the 11 pro flashlight feel very dim/soft compared to the 10 pro?

I think it's probably because of the design wrt the HiLight

After using this New Phone for a couple of days - I feel these suckers just removed a part that's expensive to produce (thermometer) and replaced it with just this thing that costs them maybe extra 20 cents to Include just for the sake of Saving money :(

Also at least for me, a tiny LED Status light on the front of the screen like we used to have in the past would have been much more useful since I Never keep my Phone with it's screen down.

I traded in my p8pro for a p11 pro and I should admit it is really nice. I like the small form factor (my fingers are loving it! Top to bottom, one hand reachable) and gorgeous display and man, the haptics!!

Coming from p8 pro, I really ENJOYED the haptics in that and I really love how sharp the new haptics are.

Loving the rambler feature!!! I started adding notes to the journal and it recognizes my native language seamlessly (even with my dialect).

First impressions on the lens switching while video: huge improvement over p8 pro!! More gradual and smoother transition and less glitter.

Have to monitor the battery life. But so far, I'm impressed!

This is not intended to be a full review or even a permanent opinion on the phone, this is purely my initial impressions after one day of use. Given the limited time frame, I am not going to comment on heat management, battery drain, or other items that require assessment over time.

Better on Pixel 11:

1. Voice dictation in general, but especially Rambler, is orders of magnitude better. I do most of my texting via voice dictation and the difference between the basic abilities of the S23 and the new Rambler is unreal. I knew it would be better since my old Pixel 6 was better than the S23, but I was legitimately surprised at how well this feature works. This feature alone is almost good enough to convince me to stay on pixel. 
2. In decent lighting, face unlock is nearly as good and fast as the most recent iPhone I tried (iPhone 13 Mini I purchased for a trip to China in 2025). I know it doesn’t work in the dark or with large sunglasses, but in using it around the house throughout yesterday afternoon and evening, I have been pleasantly surprised at how fast and easy this feature is. It felt like I was always fighting my Samsung to get the perfect angle of my face and resorted to punching in my unlock pin about 50% of the time. On the Pixel, it has probably unlocked for me 95% of the time.
3. The ultrasonic fingerprint reader both faster and more accurate in the Pixel.
4. Fully themed icons, including side loaded apps, is a really nice feature. 
5. The screen gets noticeably brighter.
6. Airdrop compatibility is great - I haven’t used it much beyond a basic test, but I can already see the convenience since my wife is on iPhone.

Worse on Pixel 11:

1. The power button and volume rockers are switched. I hate this. I have turned the volume down almost every time I go to lock the screen. I know some of this is muscle memory, but I also think it is a poor design - as someone who uses the phone one handed regularly, I want to be able to shut off the screen without adjusting the phone in my hand. I would bet that most people also use the power button more often than they need to adjust the volume (double tap to quick launch the camera or wallet, turn off the screen, etc), so it should be the easier to reach button. 
2. The phone itself is larger, and feels larger in my pocket and in my hand. I look for the smallest phone possible, and hate how large everything has gotten. And yes, I know Samsung is also at 6.3 inch screens now, but from someone who felt that the 6.1 inch S23 was too large, this phone feels unwieldy.The weight and overall bulk is noticeable constantly. In addition to the phone not not being as comfortable to hold and use in my hands, it does not fit into my existing desk phone holder or as nicely in the cubby in my car. Walking with the phone in my pocket feels like it is weighing my shorts down. The extra 1-2 mm thickness along with the bigger camera bump is more noticeable than expected.
3. Folders in my app drawer - why is this not a thing? I don’t have a ton of apps, and if I can make a folder for all the apps I rarely or never use along with the apps I already have on the home screen, I literally don’t have to scroll to find the app I want from the drawer.
4. Why do I need a separate, non-removable app, just for screenshots? What benefit does this provide over the stock photos app?
5. I miss my edge panel. The Panels app works okay-ish, but setup was extremely annoying and the touch interface doesn’t feel as smooth as the Samsung integration. I am also stuck with the annoying “Panels is displaying over other apps” notification. Will likely be adding Google Wallet and Google Home to my quick settings panel and going without this functionality.
6. The search bar being stuck at the bottom of my home screen at all times is annoying. Going back to my Pixel 6 days, the only time I have ever used it was when traveling to other countries where some of the museums did not have english translations on the information cards and I had to translate them with my phone. That’s a REALLY niche use case for something that is stuck on every screen of the phone at all times.
7. Dex is a much more built out platform than Pixel Desktop Mode. I haven't even really been able to do a deep dive in this yet, but it already feels worse just because I have to carry a mouse with me now (Samsung turns the entire phone into a touch pad). UI and features are also lacking on the pixel. Not a huge deal for me as I don't use this feature too much, but even from my 5 minutes of playing around, the downgrade from Dex to Pixel Desktop is very noticeable.

Different, but not better or worse:

1. The camera seems faster overall and better in low light. I don’t really take pictures, and every camera I have used since the S10e has been good enough for me. I’m sure others will have stronger opinions, but I am just not qualified enough to say weather this is an upgrade or downgrade. 
2. The default weather widget is faster and provides more information, though does take a much larger portion of the screen. I don’t know why all weather widgets seem to think I need to see everything in size 500 font and need to take up 20% of the screen space. You could fit the same information in half the size by just shrinking some of the fonts and eliminating some dead space.

This is some B.S. Buried in the fine print it says: Offer is not available to: Google One users subscribed to an add-on, Google One users subscribed to a higher tier plan than the one being offered, Google One users on a family plan who are not the plan manager, and Google One users who have a subscription through a third party or affiliate. So just because I pay Google 10 bucks a month to have my camera history I lose out on that perk. Also second PSA...If you try to remove it it just reups your subscription at the 19.99 and it takes the money immediately. So now I am "PAID" through October 20th. Google really loves to screw over their most loyal.

This is so much better

I realise the battery will fluctuate over the first few weeks as it learns my usage patterns, but I was surprised to get nearly 6 hours SoT on my first full day.

I took it off charge at around 7:30am and at nearly 11pm it was at 50% with no charging throughout the day.

Most of my usage was playing a game or two, YouTube, Instagram, and YT Music.

This was all done without any consideration for battery saving measures.

Something something, doesn't line up with benchmarks, etc

I put together a quick breakdown of the biggest differences I’ve noticed after upgrading from the base Pixel 8 to the 11 Pro, maybe this will help someone who's considering a similar upgrade:

• The fingerprint scanner is so much better, it's basically as fast and accurate as the old capacitive fingerprint scanners, also no flashbang at night.
• Speakers have definitely improved, dare I say it, they even have some bass now.
• So far the battery life seems to be great, battery dropped from 60% to 20% after 4 hours of SOT, my P8 would pretty much go from full to flat in the same amount of time
• Also the charging speed seems to be better, the P8 liked to drop to like 5W when it got mildly warm and would take ages to charge.
• The selfie and ultrawide camera sensors are both way better than on the P8. Having the telephoto camera is also great as I often missed it on my P8.

What did not change:

• Haptics feel the same (maybe the motor is a little quieter?).
• Main camera sensor seems to be very similar to the P8, did not test low light yet though.

Feel free to ask for any comparisons in the comments!

Buried in the arbitration agreement as always is the link to opt out, which is inactive so you can't click on it. You have to opt out within 30 days of device activation:

g.co/devicearbitration/optout

As a reminder, device arbitration is something you automatically "agree" on when purchasing stuff from many scummy companies nowadays. You basically have to *opt out* of it. The arbitration agreement basically has you declare that you won't be participating in lawsuits including class action ones against the company for a defective product, opting for arbitration instead.

>Battery Life: Still not enough

The Pixel 11 Pro shows slight improvement in an area where the lineup has long struggled. It has to make do with a smaller battery than its predecessor—4,850 mAh compared to 4,870 mAh on the Pixel 10 Pro—but the Tensor G6 proves to be more power-efficient. In our viSer test simulating standard usage, it reached 17 hours and 36 minutes, nearly two hours longer than the previous model. A full day of use is well within reach, even though Google remains among the least enduring in our comparison.

Full viSer Battery Test Comparison

Device	Battery Life
Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max	29 h 32
Samsung Galaxy S26+	29 h 23
Samsung Galaxy S26	28 h 22
Apple iPhone 17 Pro	26 h 41
Honor Magic 8 Pro	26 h 35
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra	26 h 14
Oppo Find X9 Pro	25 h 32
Apple iPhone 17	24 h 58
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra	24 h 21
Apple iPhone Air	22 h 34
Xiaomi 17 Ultra	22 h 09
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge	19 h 29
Google Pixel 11 Pro	17 h 36
Google Pixel 10 Pro	15 h 38
Google Pixel 10	14 h 52