// 9TO5GOOGLE — MOBILE & WEB
The trials and tribulations of reviewing a Pixel
Good morning and happy Thursday. We’ve got Pixel reviews galore, a new look at Insomniac’s upcoming Wolverine game, a crazy story about prolific phone scammers, and an updated version of Qwen 3.8 that I’ll be spending the next few days tweaking to my liking.
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The big story today is, of course, Google’s new Pixel phones and smartwatches. Reviews are live, and in his famously unfiltered way, our own Damien Wilde says it best: “This probably could have been a software update.”
On one hand, that’s a bit disappointing: no big, flashy hardware upgrades to tempt new buyers. On the other hand, it’s reassuring: many of the major upgrades will eventually arrive on older Pixel phones once Google gets around to optimizing them. A handful of features may be gated to the faster Tensor G6 inside the phones — the excellent Magic Capture mode comes to mind — while others like Proactive Assistance (née Magic Cue) and Rambler will likely be backported within a few months.
But among the wider press circuit, there appears to be a prevailing ambivalence toward the new Pixel products, a consequence of rising prices and a hardware platform that feels a few steps behind its closest competitors.
The Pixel 11 is a good phone but an expensive phone. One that is tough to evaluate without all the other market factors that make it such. In a few months, it’ll become a much better buy by virtue of discounts and sales, as it has always been with Google hardware for better or worse.
Ultimately, the Pixel 11 Pro is a fine phone waylaid by narrative and circumstance (RAMageddon) more so than any specific faults. The hardware, software, and AI – they’re all quite good.
There are a couple of factors really holding me back here. First, there’s the hardware itself. Google is objectively two years behind the competition in regards to overall fit and finish. I could also throw in moderate complaints around the cameras and the display crease, but neither of those really bother me personally. The biggest complaint so far has been battery life, and it might be a serious problem.
While none of these pieces are final reviews — we prefer to take our time rather than meet a company’s embargo if it’s a short turnaround — they echo what many others in the industry are saying.