- For Google, the trade-off is visible in the spec sheet itself: buyers pay more, but the base model now ships with double the storage of last year’s entry-level Pixel.
Google debuted its latest line of Pixel smartphones, unveiling the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL, and the foldable Pixel 11 Pro Fold.
The launch arrives at a precarious moment for the broader smartphone industry: Apple is preparing to introduce its iPhone 18 lineup and its rumoured first foldable iPhone next month, while every major manufacturer contends with an ongoing AI-driven memory and storage shortage that is steadily pushing component costs higher.
Each Pixel phone carries a $100 price increase over its predecessor. The entry-level Pixel 11 now starts at $899, though Google has sweetened the move by doubling the base storage to 256GB across the Pixel 11 and Pixel 11 Pro.
The price adjustment mirrors what consumers are already seeing elsewhere in the Android ecosystem, where Samsung has raised the cost of its own smartphones, and what most analysts expect from Apple’s iPhone 18 lineup when it arrives next month.
Google’s smartphones have never been volume sellers. The company does not break out revenue from unit sales, instead grouping them under its Subscriptions, Platforms, and Devices segment. According to Counterpoint Research, Google captured just 3 per cent of the US market in the first quarter of 2026, compared with Samsung’s 26 per cent and Apple’s dominant 58 per cent.
Yet the Pixel lineup matters to Google for reasons that have little to do with raw volume. The phones serve as an idealised showcase of what a Google smartphone can be, and they provide a gateway through which devoted Google users can tap into the company’s Gemini AI platform and its broader ecosystem of services.
Familiar design, refreshed internals
From a design standpoint, the Pixel 11 family carries over the same styling as the Pixel 10 lineup. All four phones feature three rear cameras and run on Google’s latest Tensor G6 processor, which delivers improved power efficiency over its predecessor.
Memory and storage configurations vary across the range: the Pixel 11 comes with 12GB of memory, while the Pixel 11 Pro and Pixel 11 Pro XL offer a choice of 12GB or 16GB of memory paired with between 256GB and 1TB of storage. The Pixel 11 Pro Fold ships with 16GB of memory and the same 256GB to 1TB storage options.
Gemini intelligence steps forward
The most consequential upgrades are on the software side. Google says the Pixel 11’s Gemini Intelligence services can now perform certain agentic tasks autonomously, such as booking a ride or ordering groceries on the user’s behalf.
The phones are also increasingly context-aware, surfacing relevant information at the moment it is needed — for example, pulling up calendar availability when someone texts to propose dinner.
Google also unveiled the Pixel Watch 5 alongside the new phones, adding the ability to help users track blood pressure and insulin resistance. The company is careful to note that these features are not intended to diagnose or treat medical conditions, positioning them instead as advisory tools rather than medical devices.
The $100 price hike is not arbitrary. Smartphone makers across the industry are grappling with a global RAM shortage that has driven component costs higher, and the Pixel 11 lineup is one of the clearest public expressions of that pressure.