// 9TO5GOOGLE — MOBILE & WEB
Pixel 11 Pro Initial Review: Gemini Intelligence is the highlight, not HiLight
Historically, Google has set out to make helpful devices. The Pixel 11 Pro continues that with Gemini Intelligence, while introducing a new narrative about how you can use your phone less with HiLight.
Narratives matter, and the one around HiLight is frankly more interesting than the hardware feature as it exists today.
I don’t think “use your phone less” is spin. Google is responding to the very real sentiment that people love their phones but are increasingly overwhelmed by them. The opposite of genuinely trying to build hardware that meets the moment is what I consider paint-by-numbers design. The only priority there is to hit a spec or brief without real vision or regard for how it comes together.
At launch, HiLight just doesn’t accomplish what it set out to do. People do put their phones face down when they need to concentrate. Knowing when an important call comes in is not a bad idea, but having that serve as the first of only two functions is not enough.
The Gemini status lights for listening, thinking, and responding mimic a smart speaker. I don’t really need them for voice command confirmation since hotword detection is pretty reliable these days. That said, I do use it every night when my Pixel 11 Pro is (wired) charging face down on my nightstand and I ask Google to turn off the lights. There’s a non-zero amount of whimsy that I can appreciate. Another way you can use (demo) it is when your phone is face down and the power button is set to invoke Gemini.
Unlike software (more on the Magic Cue to Proactive Assistance upgrade below), a hardware feature that doesn’t do enough feels like wasted space. I’d go as far as saying that sticking with the temperature sensor for another year to allow the software for HiLight to mature might have been the better move.
HiLight will be appreciated by some users, but it’s not there yet for me or most people until it supports messaging. It kills me that “Who will you HiLight?” is actually a good line that could have gone viral, especially if Google connects it to Pixel VIPs, which I still think is their best software feature in ages.
Hopefully, Google will enable messaging support as soon as possible — actual weeks, not the “in the coming weeks” that always means months — but so far HiLight has not made a good first impression.
Gemini Intelligence is just a brand that I’m not sure will gain meaningful recognition, but it does provide a more cohesive branding umbrella compared to the past two generations.
The first of two tentpole features is Proactive Assistance. Before we dive into the functionality, what’s reassuring to me is Google’s year-over-year iteration on Magic Cue. Last year’s premise of delivering contextual information and actions based on what’s happening in a conversation was correct. However, my reaction to seeing them was “not quite.”