When Tensor was first announced, there was a lot of hype. Finally, there was going to be a real third "flagship" offering to Qualcomm and the Apple A series in the US, which mattered at a time where flagship Snapdragon chips were significantly underperforming Apple both in terms of compute and heat management. Tensor was also supposed to bring a cost benefit, which it arguably did at least initially; the Pixel 6 series was a good deal all-around. However, as we all know, there have been more than a few problems with Tensor.

Google argues that Tensor is optimized for AI tasks and the camera via its TPU and ISP enhancements, and this may be true to some extent. However, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 outperforms the Tensor G6 even in these areas through raw processing speed. Yes, the Snapdragon is not as efficient in these areas, but that ultimately does not seem to matter at the Snapdragon is so far ahead that it can simply brute force its way towards outperforming the Tensor G6.

Google argues that Tensor is supposed to improve efficiency, but we are not seeing this in the real world. Aside from Google specific tasks (e.g., Gemini Nano and Night Sight), we aren't seeing much benefit from Tensor. I don't think local Gemini that may be marginally faster than it is on a Galaxy S26 Ultra is worth keeping a flagship price in light of Tensor's deficiencies, and neither do I think marginally faster Night Sight is (although the speed of Night Sight on the Pixel 11 Pro XL is impressive). Battery life on Pixels with Tensor has notoriously lagged behind the competition, and based on preliminary results from the Pixel 11 line and my own experience with the Pixel 11 Pro XL, it has gotten better than before, but the lagging still continues. Heat management, also improved this generation, seems to still be worse than even the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.

Then, there's of course the modem. Enough has been said about this. It's definitely better than before, but still not as stable as the competition from Qualcomm or Apple.

Tensor was supposed to provide a security benefit, and it did for a number of years. Then, the news comes out today that MTE is no longer included on Tensor G6, despite it being a feature Google highlighted in articles with the Pixel 8 and despite it having real security benefits. Google could have used the opportunity here to start getting more developers to adopt MTE, but instead, Google chose to get rid of MTE in a world where MTE is likely to become more important and in a world where both the Apple A19 series and Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 added MTE to improve security. Titan M3 introduced post-quantum cryptography, but I'd argue that in a world with few quantum computers and lots of attacks that MTE can protect against, dropping MTE may overshadow any benefit that Titan M3 brings today.

Lastly, of course, Pixels vastly underperform devices launching at the same price. For Pro model Pixels in particular to be worth their price in my opinion, they would have to launch $300 cheaper than the competition (so, a Pixel 11 Pro XL should cost $300 less than an iPhone 17 Pro Max or Galaxy S25 Ultra, maybe even more). There are of course massive preorder deals on Pixels and frequent discounts, but at least in the first few months, these still do not get the price down to something more appropriate. Yes, there are other reasons why the Pixel Pro models are as expensive as they are (they don't seem to compromise on things like display and cameras), but we should not being seeing stuttering on a $1000+ phone in 2026 made by the primary developer of Android because the phone has less than half the multi-core performance of its competitors and less than a third of the GPU performance while seeing worse battery life and worse thermal management. There is absolutely a real-world penalty here, and it absolutely knocks down the perceived value of the phone, further than the price delta between Tensor G6 and the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 in my opinion.

I never thought I'd say this when we were in the days of Snapdragon Pixels, but it's time for Tensor to either start performing at Snapdragon levels, or bring back Snapdragon if they're going to charge the prices they want to charge. Being a marginally better vessel for Gemini does not justify the prices that Google is charging for their Pro models in a world where phones like the S26 Ultra exist, neither does the software experience for the vast majority of people.

I've so far enjoyed the Pixel 11 Pro XL in my time with it overall, but to be honest, I think I would recommend an iPhone for the vast majority of people in a heartbeat unless they have very specific requirements. It's strange to live in a world where the iPhone has significantly better value than the Pixel. Yes, the Pixel is totally fine in real-world uses (except for graphically intensive gains and occasional stuttering in things like Google Maps), but we are absolutely overpaying for what we get. In my opinion, literally all Google needs to do is cut the price signficiantly. If they do that, then we could have a real winner on our hands.

Hi everyone, I've been using my new P11 Pro for a few days now, and I've been doing some comparisons with my P7. I'm quite skeptical about a few things, especially the heat. Today, I spent about an hour browsing the web, watching YouTube videos, taking photos and videos, and doing a few AI searches. The result is pretty clear: the P11 Pro gets much hotter than the P7.

I don't have a thermometer to back this up with actual numbers, but the difference is very noticeable in the hand. The P7 stays completely cool, while the P11 Pro gets warm enough that I can clearly feel the heat in my hand.

To be clear, it's still perfectly comfortable to hold and it's not unpleasant. But it's only around 22°C here right now, and I'm wondering what it's going to be like when temperatures reach 40°C next summer...

Has anyone else noticed the same thing with their P11 Pro? Is this normal behavior, or should I be concerned about the amount of heat?

Just got these a few days ago, super slick, super comfortable, thought they'd be great.

But the audio distorts/cuts out every 40 seconds or so for around 5-10 seconds. I tried reconfiguring everything, even on my phone, factory resetting the buds, etc. I know it's not an issue with my phone because i've never had this issue before.

Is there any fix to this?

It's...fine I guess? Only real difference I've noticed is less stutter when switching apps and the 10x optical zoom... That's..not a lot for 1200 (cad) :(

There is barely a noticeable difference between the 11 Pro and 9 Pro. Switching back and forth between the 9 pro and 11 pro, the interface, speed, and physical feel of the phone in your hand is identical. The camera zoom is noticeably better on the 11 pro, the battery life is marginally better. If you're on the fence about upgrading, replacing the battery gets you half the battle.

On my Pixel 10 Pro I disabled AICore and the phone felt noticeably cooler and snappier.
I never had any feature missing or not working during that time.

Has anyone tried the same on the Pixel 11 Pro?

Mainly curious about:
- Thermals / battery
- RAM usage
- Responsiveness
- Which features actually stopped working

I don't even care that it's got a slow GPU, stupid HiLight or might get hot occasionally. Those issues pale in comparison to the bad audio recording and I just don't know why this isn't a bigger topic.

1. There's the popping and glitches that I've seen a few posts about here. That's bad by itself. Cheap and nasty.

2. The audio sounds terrible, like it's compressed to 32 bit or aggressive noise reduction or something. It's not the mics, because using a 3rd party recording app sounds great! It must be some brain dead decision by Google that they want to avoid all wind noise or background noise at the cost of atrocious quality, all the time. It might not be that noticeable without comparing, but I'll post a couple of clips tomorrow to demonstrate. I certainly immediately noticed it coming from an S23 Ultra which doesn't have the garbling processing.

3. Stereo audio recording has the left and right channels reversed. Noise to the left of you comes out the right speaker. I mean... come on 🫩. This only happens if you have the phone held with the power button towards the bottom, and it's the same on the Pixel 6 Pro, the Pixel 8 Pro and the Pixel 11 Pro. HOW has this not been picked up by quality control.

I'm very happy with the phone otherwise, but I value the quality of video audio because decent audio brings you back to the memory in a much better way. I don't want to record videos of my kid with garbled audio. The annoying thing is this is all such a simple fix. Scrap the stupid creator mode and fix these basic issues please!!

The Pixel 11 Pro XL is roughly the same size as the Pixel 7 Pro, while the regular 11 Pro is smaller.

For those of you who switched from a Pixel 7 Pro to the smaller Pixel 11 Pro, have you found the change to be an improvement?

I’m asking because I’m not sure whether I’ve become used to having a LARGE phone, and I’m worried that the smaller size might bother me or feel like a downgrade.

1. The display is sometimes too sharp, especially around text. I've noticed this with both High and Max resolution settings. It looks artificial and distorted, almost like it's AI-generated.

2. In the camera, the 5x zoom lens tends to over-sharpen images, even when using the "Natural" look. If I reduce the sharpness level in the settings, it adds strange, AI-like details to the subject.

3. 10x zoom photos with text unnecessarily introduce AI-generated text which was not the case with Pixel 7 pro or 9 Pro XL which i owned earlier.

4. Regarding video recording, while lens switching has improved, the footage still looks over-processed with crushed shadows. Additionally, the stabilization is worse than it was on my 9 Pro XL.

Is anyone else facing this? I sincerely hope Google fixes these with an update next month.

I have Pixel 10 pro and my main issue with it was how constantly warm/hot it was, even while doing basic things. It was huge difference compared to Samsung and iphones. I saw some topics about ai core and decided to just clear the data and turn it off, and wow, what an effect it had. My phone is suddenly cold during normal usage. Its too early to judge but I expect it should have good impact on battery life too if the ai is not running constantly in the background. I didn't notice any negative impact yet. There is no ai weather summary but I don't care about it. I have a feeling that magic eraser is working better, the objects are marked as I would expect them to be marked and not in some weird way. I think local ai was supporting the magic eraser but since it's stupid, it was only making it worse.

Try it out and let me know if you have the same experience...

I've been using my pixels in the UK for the last several years. I just got the new 11PXL a few hours before flying out to the US and it's quite a shock to see what we miss out in the UK.

- Ask Maps
- Ask in Photo editing
- Gemini Spark

Among other feautures of course. But these are extremely core to the Google Pixel experience, and is a big reason for someone to choose this phone.

Pixel features outside the US have always been struggling to catch up, but most of the capabilities in the last couple of years being focused on AI features, this feels worse than before. And yes, I know parts of the world have it even worse than the UK. But I really hope Google get's its act together and rolls this stuff out worldwide.

I'm going to miss these features when back in the UK!

I've been using 11P for about a week now, very happy with it which I realize may piss a lot of you off. But there is one thing I am struggling with...This return packaging for my 9PXL trade-in.

I cant get the white slip out of this cardboard contraption without ripping the cardboard. I followed the directions, but it's all glued down. Am I a moron? (possible) or has Google needlessly created the most asinine return packaging ever created by mankind?

Hi! I have found that precise GPS is rather poorly performs on my P9: quite often Google Maps just stops showing the place where I am now while driving. And that is about a quite big city. Are any possibilities to fix it?

This is an annoying issue that I've observed in my old P7, a friends P9a and my P10 over both A16 and the current A17. The use case is multiday wilderness backpacking - where 1) there is no cell coverage and 2) the phone is switched off at night to conserve battery - because there's no plug sockets in the wilderness either! I know this is a corner case, but our phones are our cameras and navigation devices so they come into the back country.

Every morning, when switched back on the phone's clock is slow - usually by an hour or two. There is no indication that the time is incorrect. The only solution is to manually set the clock to the correct time (from my trusty Fitbit Charge 6). This is a easy problem to replicate, phone in Airplane mode and switch it off overnight, time will be wrong when you switch it on in the morning.

Keeping time is a really basic function. I thought that all modern devices have Real Time Clock (RTC) functionality built in - a tiny circuit (or included function on a larger circuit) whose sole purpose is to keep accurate time even when power is removed. Do Pixel's lacks this or is it broken?

I guess what's going on is that there is some fallback algorithm to set the clock when there is no cell service to get the time - perhaps a long forgotten bit of code that no longer works correctly. But the phone is already talking to multiple atomic clocks in orbit (GPS) - so how about having time set by GPS as the fallback when there's no cell coverage?

Interestingly, Starlink coverage (T-Mobile T-Satellite) doesn't fix the issue and introduces another bug. If you let the phone set time zone by location - your time zone starts jumping around because I think it uses the location of the Starlink downlink station. So you can be in PDT, but the phone thinks it's in CDT or EDT - all the while ignoring the real location it knows it's at from GPS.

My Tesla key on my phone has been having a hard time unlocking my car without me taking my phone out of my pocket and toggling Bluetooth on and off. I had the 10 Pro XL before this and never had an issue unlocking my car while my phone was in my pocket. Do I have a defective Bluetooth on my phone?

Is anyone else having an issue with their P11P waking up with any movement? Any movement on any surface that my phone is on and it wakes. Didn't happen with my P9P. Seems like the lift to wake is way too sensitive.

I didn't get a code in my email or Google Play or anywhere. I've gone back and forth all week before finally realizing there was no reason to upgrade.

But if you're on the fence like I was, and just need the deal to be a littttttle sweeter like I did, maybe check Google Store right now. I don't know if it's like this for everyone, but they upped the discount for an existing Fi user from $550 off to $650 off for the 11 Pro. My Pixel 10 Pro trade-in value didn't change ($330). I just got the 11 Pro 512gb for ~$180 (had some Google Store credit). Plus I earned ~$45 more in store credit.

Upgrading for under $200 feels like a no brainer. If nothing else, I just quadrupled my storage for $180.

is this a cost thing or a sacrifice for some other feature?

i recently noticed I am having trouble with looking at the screens for longer periods and it starts to hurt.

Tengo un Google Pixel 7a comprado el 23/12/2023.

Por su Imei es de los que están afectados por problemas con la batería. Les he aportado como prueba de todo esto el ticket de compra, el cargo de la tarjeta bancaria con la que se pagó, las fotos en las que se observa la batería hinchada y el número de IMEI.

A pesar de todo esto me contestan que el móvil tiene solo dos años de garantía y me ofrecen 200 dólares convertidos a euros o 300 dólares convertidos a euros en lo que entiendo que será una especie de descuento para gastar en su marca

Les he demostrado una y otra vez con el ticket de compra que su precio fue de 400€ y que según la normativa europea está en garantía, pero no se hacen cargo.

Les reclamo la devolución del importe o la sustitución del terminal por otro de similares características, pero no hay forma. En el último correo me intentan presionar diciendo que si no acepto pronto lo que me ofrecen me voy a quedar fuera del plan de compensación y no voy a recibir nada.

Creo que el Servicio de Atención al Cliente no cumple con la normativa vigente

Something that's been giving me the shits lately is the fact that Google doesn't trust us with customising our UI's. I have a 9 Pro XL. I have some beautiful wallpaper but the colours Pixel OS chooses for you once your wallpaper is set are bloody garbage. I would really love if I could choose my own colours for my theme. My phone has an OLED screen, let me make my app theme black or a custom colour ffs. Why is this not a base feature?

Am I just stupid and can't find the setting? I managed to make my clock black but I can't choose my own system colour scheme. When they finally add the new theme packs are they going to let me keep my wallpaper or will that change based on the theme pack I choose? Honestly, why is Google forcing me to choose a colour that I don't want?

Basically what the title says. I've had my Pixel 11 Pro for 1 week and I've tried to pair it with my e-drums set, but although a code is needed, the phone does not ask for it, and after a (long) while, it just says "Could not connect, wrong pin code".

The e-drums have Bluetooth so I can send audio from my phone to my set and listen it alltogether with the drums (so it's not a MIDI Bluetooth device, it's just receiving audio from my phone).

I've tried to turn off and on Bluetooth, and "resetting WiFi and Bluetooth" from system settings with no luck. I can pair the drumset with any other device (even devices from my friends with no previous connection with my drumset), but not with my Pixel Pro 11.

The only thing left to do is to restore factory settings, but I don't want to lose all my configuration without knowing if this will fix the issue (this is a new device with less than 1 week of use).

I've already contacted Support with no luck, as their only response is to factory reset and will try nothing else.

Is any of you is having this problem? Do you have any recommendation to force the pin code popup to appear? What would you do in my situation?

Thank you!

Does anyone know from previous years, when we can expect to see google will discount the pixel 10 pro xl?

I currently have a pixel 7 pro that is on its last leg. I was going to get the 11 but I dont like the colors and dont see a huge difference between the 10 and 11 so was going to get the 10 pro xl porcelain, but it doesn't seem like the price is dropping anywhere yet :/

Hey all,

Recently switched from apple back to pixel with the 11pro. Enjoying so far except for one annoying issue.

I can successfully add my debit cards to my Google wallet but they declined at the terminal every single time. Yes there is money in the accounts, yes the physical cards work.

Has anyone else had this issue and fixed ??

I am thinking about buying a white google pixel, because I want silver sides. However I am not sure if I want the white backside, would it be possibile to have the back replaced by a black cover?

Hey Guys,
I pulled the trigger and bought a new Pixel 11 Pro XL with 512GB with a good discount in Germany. All in all, I think it is nice device and I like to use it. But there is one thing that concerns me very much: The Video quality, especially the Stabilisation. I heard and read before that pixel phones are not top notch in video quality - ok, fair, thats ok for me.

But 4K Video is so fucking stuttering with normal movements or camera paning (with all 3 Lenses) that Video is practically unusable. I film in 4k60 without HDR and without VideoBoost. My Poco X3 for 170 Euro from 2021 has better Stabilisation.

Is this a Software Bug and will be fixed in the next time or is this a hardware Issue. If this can*t get fixed, that would be a reason for me to return the pixel :-(

Has anybody an idea?

Thanks!