Pixel 11 Pro review: Google finally makes AI feel like a reason to buy a phone

In fact, the Pixel 11 Pro brings all the attention to Gemini – it even includes a dedicated notification light for the AI on its back! It’s surprising that Google didn’t name the phone the “Pixel Gemini Pro”, since Gemini is smeared all over the phone’s interface – from the camera app to the app menu, it’s everywhere.

But is Gemini enough on its own to convince other Android phone users as well as iPhone users to buy a Pixel 11 Pro? Last year’s experiences with the Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro Fold made us believe that Google’s phones are the best way to experience Gemini, but those phones seemed like a starting point.

With the Pixel 11 series, the formula is relatively simple – refine last year’s strengths and eradicate the weakness. The Pixel 11 Pro, as a result, ends up being the sweet spot in the four-phone lineup – you get the best camera hardware and the cream of Google’s mobile software, packed in a handy size (relative to the massive slabs of today).

Over the last two weeks, I have had my share of fun using the Pixel 11 Pro, but there are several things you need to know before investing Rs 1.20,000 of your hard-earned money on a phone wearing the Google logo.

Let’s start with the aspect that drew people (and me) to the Pixels – its design.

Pixel 11 Pro looks posh

It has been five years since Google introduced the camera bar design theme, and it continues to mesmerise me. With design refinements, the camera bar now seems to be floating on the back panel, and the pill-shaped bar gives the Pixel its distinct identity – nobody mistook this for an iPhone, as is the case with most Android phones these days. The satin-finish matte glass back also adds to the appeal. The compact and ergonomic 6.3-inch form factor of the Pixel 11 Pro makes it fairly handy on a daily basis, although the 204g weight makes it hefty.  The inclusion of Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on both the display and back promises to make the body durable, and so far, I haven’t seen the phone pick up any scratches.

The Pixel 11 Pro’s front houses a Super Actua LTPO OLED panel with a 1280 x 2856 resolution display, which has a dynamic 1–120Hz refresh rate, and s capable of pushing up to 3,600 nits peak brightness (in HDR content only). This ensures that the Pixel 11 Pro is easily legible under the harsh daylight of the Indian summer. HDR content is vastly enjoyable, and the relatively slim and uniform bezels add to an immersive experience. 

Similar to most Android phones, the Pixel 11 Pro sticks to an under-display ultrasonic fingerprint sensor for fast and reliable biometric unlocking. There’s a software-based face unlock feature too, but it struggles under dim ambient lighting. You can use the face unlock for verifying payments, though.

The Pixel’s Tensor G6 is sensibly fast

One of the lingering controversies with the Pixels over the past few years is the performance. With this year’s Pixel 11 Pro, Google moves to an efficient 2nm TSMC-made Tensor G6 chipset, which Google says is designed to pamper AI processing and thermal efficiency. The tech community, however, has raised concerns about the GPU, which is said to be inferior to what Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 offers. Theoretically, it doesn’t make the Pixel 11 Pro a gamer’s favourite.

Practically, though, the Pixel 11 Pro has been a joy to use so far. I agree that some of the demanding video game titles like Genshin Impact and CarX Street Racing tend to run out of breath after a while, but the Tensor G6 manages relatively less demanding titles with ease. It can handle Meta’s resource-hungry social media apps, deal with some serious office-centric multitasking, and light video editing work with ease.

So, while the similarly priced Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra’s Snapdragon chip will be good with raw processing performance, the Pixel 11 Pro’s Tensor G6 is better at managing the regular smartphone activities you mostly care about.

While call performance remains among the leading flagship phones, the Tensor G6 also addresses the network connectivity issues that plagued the previous generation models – my phone was able to latch on to data and phone calls even in my basement parking. However, I was surprised to see the lack of an automatic network-type mode that’s present on most smartphones these days – you either stick to 5G or downgrade to LTE. There were instances when I had to manually force the phone to stick to LTE to get a working mobile data connection. 

Let’s talk about the Pixel software

The biggest reason you buy a Google Pixel is its software, and all these years apart, the Pixel interface continues to be mesmerising (at least for enthusiasts like me). From the thoughtfully designed aesthetics of the Android 17 UI to the myriad of Pixel software features and Gemini boosts, the Pixel 11 Pro ends up deserving a chef’s kiss. Apologies for sounding biased, but no other phone, including the iPhone, can pamper the eyes as nicely as Google’s Pixel UI.

Now obviously, AI is the hero in the Pixel 11 Pro’s story and Google has baked Gemini into most of the crucial aspects you’d care about. Consider the Call Assist Suite as an example – you get a better call screen that predicts unknown caller names and even offers to use AI voice models to handle telemarketers and deal with unknown callers. The voice-based handling has helped me deal with many PR pitches without picking up the call. I wish Google could find a way to identify what the transcript says and provide relevant responses instead of sticking to basic call prompts.

Then there’s Google’s Magic Editor, which continues to offer the best photo editing features in the Photos app. Gemini’s presence as the sole voice assistant helped me get valuable contextual information for most things I stumbled upon while browsing the web and social media. I recommend having a Gemini Pro subscription for the best AI experiences on board, especially if you are into creativity. 

I also admired the AI summaries within the notifications, which works with most texting and email apps – it helps to quickly gloss through what’s in the queue and grab hold of something that’s truly important. The Rambler feature helps with dictating messages to the phone, and it works pretty well even with broken English and Hinglish, but I found the Gboard AI suggestions equally helpful for silent typing of messages.

All this and much more – there’s AI integrated in many sections of the phone’s software that makes you addicted to the Pixel. 

Not every AI feature, however, is impressive. The AI wallpaper generators and image creators seem useless, but there’s something far more annoying present on this phone – the HiLight. It’s sad to see that Google not only reduced the intensity of its LED flash, but reduced its functionality to just Gemini and a few favourite contacts. With the phone face down, Gemini’s voice interactions make no good use of the LED light, and the HiLight doesn’t glow up when my “favourite” contacts call via WhatsApp, which is a common phenomenon these days. What’s the point of adding this? The Pixel’s Always-On interface is far more useful for interacting with Gemini, any notifications, and all kinds of calls.

Maybe Google should take a page out of Nothing’s Glyph interface playbook to give the HiLight a purpose.

You will find the utilities like Live Translate, Circle to Search, and localised document summaries quite useful too.

For budding creators, the Camera Coach uses Gemini to suggest framing, lighting angles, and composition adjustments while shooting. For group photos, Auto Best Take scans multi-frame burst shots to ensure everyone has their eyes open, while Add Me uses augmented reality to merge two photos so the photographer can be seamlessly added to the shot. You also get elements like a mic input visualiser and a camera UI grid for helping shoot better reels/short format videos.

Since we touched upon the cameras, let’s discuss the Pixel camera experience, which simply blew me over.

Pixel’s camera is charming

With this year’s Pixel 11 Pro, the cameras have seen a lot of improvement compared to the Pixel 10 Pro. Photography is a lot more enjoyable than before, despite some concerns that Google needs to address with a software update. 

The updated camera gets a couple of aspects right, i.e., colour accuracy, skin tone fidelity, and low-light capability, backed by Google’s updated HDR+ processing pipeline. In fact, the Pixel 11 Pro can finally do justice to Indian skin tones. The colour accuracy is still close to what the eyes see, especially at night. Exposure control in low light, however, is an area where the Pixel struggles, regardless of the focal length you choose. 

The Instant Night Sight deserves a special mention, since it adds the advantage of long-exposure night photos without needing to freeze your framing for multiple seconds. Mind you, the dedicated Night Sight mode is still a lot better at getting the sharpness and exposures right, but Instant Night Sight helps in situations where your subject can’t wait for you to get your framing right, like a baby, or a cute cat.

Then there’s the zoom performance, which takes advantage of the new 48MP sensor and a 5x optical telephoto lens. Backed by the new ISP on the Tensor G6, the Pixel 11 Pro blew my mind with its still photo zoom performance – the post-processing brings up the sharpness lost in zooming, and even in tricky low light situations, the phone managed to give me impressive photos all the time.

The Pro Res Zoom lets you crop in to simulate up to 130x zoom, and it’s the AI that fills in lost details, which could be uncanny at times as you’d be at the mercy of Google’s models for retaining/deleting certain details. It works as advertised, though, and Google’s Video Boost feature, which uploads it to servers for AI upscaling, enhances the end result. Video recording has also improved over the previous generation, as the phone retains all details, renders accurate skin tones, and manages exposures well. All in all, this is a good mobile camera system that stands there with the iPhone’s performance.

The same can be said for the front camera, which keeps facial details and skin tones as realistic as possible.

Pixel 11 Pro remains an all-day phone

The efficient Tensor G6 processor and clever AI-bred software make the most out of the Pixel 11 Pro’s 4,850 mAh battery, which in my use case has generally lasted me all-day. Mind you that I kept the “Hey Google” wake word detection and the Always-On display switched off for the all-day battery standard. Your usage patterns could alter the battery life dramatically. In my opinion, even heavy users shall see the Pixel 11 Pro make it to the end of day with some charge remaining.

With a compatible PD charger, I was able to charge the battery to 55% in 30 minutes, and a full charge from 30% usually takes close to 50 minutes. The 25W Pixelsnap Wireless Charging is a great convenience while doing a quick top-up during a commute to the office on my car’s charger. 

Indian price and its competition

In India, the Pixel 11 Pro is relatively accessible for a Pro phone. The base variant with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage costs Rs 1,19,999, whereas the top variant with 16GB RAM and 512GB storage costs Rs 1,34,999.

At a starting price of Rs 1,19,999, the Pixel 11 Pro competes directly with top-tier flagships in India like the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra costing Rs 1,18,000 and Apple’s outgoing iPhone 17 Pro, which is retailing for Rs 1,29,900.

The Galaxy S26 Ultra offers a larger 6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED screen, a 200 MP main camera, and faster 45W wired charging powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, while the iPhone 17 Pro holds its ground with superior video camera recording and Apple’s polished iOS experience. In comparison, the Pixel 11 Pro is infused with actually useful AI bits and pieces that make the phone pleasant to use. 

Our verdict on the Pixel 11 Pro

Google has always pitched the Pixel as a fun yet smart alternative to the iPhones and Samsung Galaxies of the world. The Pixel 11 Pro keeps that spirit alive – it relies on Gemini Intelligence to make utility fun, the camera better, and the battery last all day. It’s not going to impress those who want to play the most graphically impressive video games on a phone, but it can handle everything else you can throw at a phone. Be it dictating a long email to your boss, or getting those late-night party photos with your family and friends to look lifelike, the Pixel 11 Pro is your phone – it can meet your modern and complex demands by cleverly using AI.

For Rs 1.2 lakh, the Pixel 11 Pro is immense value for money too, considering you get an impressive pocket camera system and a phone that’s making smart utility of AI.