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Pixel 10 vs. Pixel 11: Where are the upgrades? [Video]

Published: 08/24/2026, 05:15 PM

A year in tech used to bring about big, bold changes. Today, things are iterative, merely refinements, and that has never been more apparent than going from the Pixel 10 to the Pixel 11. Here’s what you need to know. Protect your Pixel 11 with a dbrand case or skin sponsors of 9to5Google Take one look, particularly at the Obsidian Pixel 10 and Pixel 11 side-by-side, and there is basically nothing to separate the two phones. You could be forgiven for not knowing what and where the minimal changes have been made. These phones have identical screens, almost identical dimensions, and the Obsidian model even uses the exact same shade of deep gray. Copy-paste would be a very quick and easy criticism, and it would be justified in lots of ways. To push back slightly, the display is still great on both phones. 3000 nits peak brightness, but no change to the bezels, which is an annoyance. The fingerprint scanner is still fast and fluid, with no changes to how quickly you’ll get back into your phone, and the Face Unlock has not changed despite rumors ahead of launch that it might. On the back of the phone, there are more alterations. The camera bar has the most changes. The metal visor edge is gone, and the camera bar takes up a tiny bit more space. It doesn’t protrude as much from the backplate, which means that when you put the phone face up, it’s flatter on a desk or surface. This feels inconsequential, but many people complain about it on other phones. There is also a change to the camera’s LED flash. It is within the glass, so it has better diffusion. That means it should be softer when used. Whether due to these minor tweaks and less metal on the camera bar, the Pixel 11 is 6g lighter than the Pixel 10. You can notice in the hand right away. It feels inconsequential, but at 197g versus 204g, that could be important if you care about how heavy your phone is. There are so few differences in Android 17 experience on the Pixel 10 and Pixel 11 that it boils down to just a few little functions that you may never even use. Gemini Intelligence was supposed to be coming to more devices per the original announcement pre-Google IO, but it looks like most of the functions will be locked to the newest devices – at least for a while. That’s a big disappointment, given that not all of the functionality is even fully here at launch. Material 3 Expressive is maybe applied a little more liberally, and there are new Pixel-exclusive icons for the camera, calculator, and clock apps. They’ll probably get backported, but the only usability change appears to be Rambler. This is baked into Gboard and is a new, improved voice-to-text tool that can handle changes, vocal tics, and even course correction when you are dictating, a lot better than the previous voice-to-text tool. Save that, you’ll struggle to tell the two phones running side-by-side apart. The improved storage speeds on the base Pixel 11 are something that is a good quality of life upgrade. In almost all cases, launching from cold into an application, it will be faster on the newer device. It isn’t exponentially faster, but it does make a difference. This isn’t always the case, like if something is already in RAM, but there is a speed boost.