Pixelated - Made You (Camera) Look

Episode Date: August 21, 2026

Welcome to Pixelated episode 113. This week, Damien, Abner, and Will dive into their thoughts and reviews of the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro and Pro XL, and the Pixel 11 Pro Fold. Enjoy the episode? You can listen to our brand new weekly members-only Pixelated Pro bonus episode by signing up for 9to5Google Pro! Sponsored by Proton Unlimited: Pixelated listeners can save 30% on an annual subscription to the company’s suite of privacy-friendly services by signing up using our link. Thanks to Proton Unlimited for sponsoring the podcast. Subscribe YouTube Podcasts Pocket Casts Spotify Amazon Music Apple Podcasts Overcast

Welcome to Pixelated episode 113. I'm your host, Will Saddlebird. This week, we're going long on the Pixel 11 as we dive into everything we love and everything we don't about Google's latest smartphones. It all starts right after this message from our sponsor, Proton. Grab your phone and take a look at your app drawer right now. You've probably found yourself relying on these same old apps and services since the Nexus days.

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team, and so, so much more. It's what's best for your current phone, not whatever you were using back in 2013. Upgrade to Proton today and save 30% on your annual subscription by heading to Proton.me.m.m.5 Google, or by clicking the link in the show notes. That's Proton.me, slash 9 to 5 Google. Thanks to Proton for sponsoring Pixelated. I forgot to say this last week because I was delirious and all that, but Google did not play like G6 at the event. They blew it for me. Yeah, they wasted opportunity. LG didn't do it however many years ago, and you know what happened to them? Google didn't do it. It's over.

that song can't be expensive, right? Like, it's not, you're not talking about the Beatles. I mean, what I mean? I don't think it would have fit with the rest of the aesthetic of the event. It would have been really out of sorts, like playing like really chill. Nobody cared. Nobody cared that. Nobody cared about Pink Panther's on stage performance.

Like, it was so quiet. And I feel like she kind of got annoyed at the end because, like, there was no reaction. either. So she just walked off stage at the end. That's true. That's the one time, anytime I would go to these tech events, I'm not,

I'm not there to applaud. I'm not there. Like, I'm there to report. Yeah, no, I know. Right, exactly. But except for, like, if there's a musical guest or something similar to that, it's like, I'm not, I'm not a jerk.

Like, I will clap for you. Yeah, that's rude. I mean, we've, so we've had, we've had a week, haven't we? It has been a week, since we've seen a keynote that we talked out in depth last week. Oh my God, yeah, the keynote

was only eight days ago, wasn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, and we now lucky enough to have devices in our hands for that period of time. I think my retail unit from the UK store has arrived about two hours ago. It hasn't been on box yet. The Pixel

11 Pro, I nearly call it 10 Pro, 11 Pro. But you've been testing it, right? Yeah, yes. And I got a retail unit at 11 Pro Fold yesterday. We'll talk more about that a bit. But yeah, 11 Pro was my... Let's just sound off on what we have. I reviewed the 11 Pro fold.

Sorry, I reviewed the 11 pro, Damien. The base 11. And Will has. I have the Excel with my full review coming next week. Well, I mean, that's good because we're covering all three of the main bases, aren't we? I guess the fold is that little special extra

that you real nerds are going to be buying. But yeah, no, that's pretty good because we can all share some genuine thoughts about devices that hit in that the Goldilocks we'll find the Goldilocks phone by the end of this episode. But a week's not a long time, is it?

To review a phone, I think I've worked that out. After many, many years of doing this, I think sometimes a week, sometimes within two days, you know exactly what your feelings are. I think maybe the fact that we discussed it at length previously

that there was so many similarities with this and the Pixel 10, it has made it more difficult because you try to ascertain where the gains are being made I guess with the 11 you have the physical difference with the bump

and I do also have a review of that and I have to say it's the rightful the reduced the thinner camera bump is the rightful I'm pretty jealous of that this year on the pro XL this is the first XL sized phone I've used since the 8 Pro

and first XS size pixel I should say And, you know, it's nice having that big screen. Like, I missed it all. It's a great, it's a great display. But, man, it's so big and heavy. It's such a big and heavy phone. I genuinely, I never do this.

I don't have a case on it right now because the only case I have is the clear Google case that they sent with it, which is horrible. Do not buy that. It's $50. Oh, yeah. It's $50. It's bad. Don't buy it. Like, it's, it is, I think it is, I think it is,

a little worse than Spiegen's clear case and that is, when I bought it on Amazon 17, that's the other one I have. They all feel the same. They all feel the same. So don't spend 50, spend $17. That I can agree with, but in terms of like, it's a clear case, Google made a queer case. I'm worried it's going to yellow. It's already noticeably

more yellow than the Spigen one. I will say that... I lasted one day with it. So that's... You're not a case guy, though, are you? Abnaud. We know neither of this are. You hate anything that is protecting your phone. Okay, when you put it that way, but no, yeah, because because highlight you need to, it has to be face down flat.

And no, I just, I rastered the day with it. I couldn't. It just, touching plastic versus metal is no bruno. I've been relying on a pop socket. I hate to admit it. I'm not a cop socket. Who let someone's grandma in this podcast? Why is the pop socket?

It's just like so heavy. It's not even the size. It's just like everything together. I'm just like, I'm going to, it's the, it's the, it's the size. the weight and the fact that the frame is slippery because it's polished. Like all three of those together, this was not a thing I had to do on my, on my, when I had the nine pro, which was the last, you know, the last pro. I had a regular 10, so I'm not going to, but I didn't do it on that one either.

Like both of them, both of those phones I would consider heavy, but this, this one, the added size and I'm like, I need something to grip and I don't have a good case for it. Like, I just, I don't know. Like I, I wish I had the black Excel. I think that would probably be enough. It's honestly interesting that we all want them to go mad, but none of us personally chose that review unit, that cover, that model.

No, I didn't get a choice. Oh, you didn't get a choice. I did not get a choice this time. I got given the candy on. If you guys think I should cut this, I will. But when Google sent out the form to request the colors of your review unit, I don't believe the matte black thing had leaked yet. Like, we didn't know.

And so I just default. Like, I, I don't like taking photos of black phones. Like, I think it's really annoying. Yeah. So it's so, it's so annoying to have to clean up, like, smudges every shot. So I, it's always the one I select last. And then, like, three days later, the black color leaked. And I was like, damn it, that's the one I would have picked.

I have no idea. I could have probably changed that aren't. It's, it's not a big deal. I still wanted to see what ended up being a canon, even though I'm a little, little milder on it than I was hoping. Well, let me go back with my anecdote. So I didn't get to choose my. color. So I was given the Canyon

pixel. I nearly called it 10 Proxel again. Pixel 11 Pro XL. Yeah, no. You see that's been hard.

I know. It's been especially difficult. 11 is such an awkward phone model number. It is. It's like, you know, 11?

Who's the last company to do an 11? Because Samsung didn't do that. They went straight to 20s. Apple did an iPhone. iPhone were the last one with an 11 in the name. Maybe HDC. 11.

U11 is in my brain somewhere. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so 11, we've worked out 11 is not necessarily the best number for numbering your phone, but... Are you talking about the HDCU 11 ruled, right? So good. Everybody bought one.

Okay, I won't disagree with you on that one. I cannot say I had many experiences with HEC that were particularly exceptional post their multiple demises, but yeah, 11 is... I'm finding 11 real difficult to say, because 10 rolled off the tongue and we've been saying it for a year. It's just short. It's just that. Well, I mean, let's get into some of the specifics about the phones that we like then. Because I guess this is, this is our initial review episode.

How are you guys feeling in terms of like, because I kind of went in with a mindset this year of being like, okay, where am I going to find the differences between what I've experienced with the nine, the nine to the ten, specifically talking about the base model, was enough because he had a telephoto And I think they've made some improvements to the screen. This time around, they've made the camera slimmer. They don't have highlight. The screen's the same. The design is almost one to one save that camera bar.

It has been really difficult to ascertain where this sits in terms of like the new product portfolio. I think, yeah, it's been confusing. And I think after a week, I'm still not 100% certain where I sit. I don't know where I feel, how I feel about it. If it is a major, well, a side step or a step up, I think it probably is in the grand scheme of things. Again, I physically appreciate the swim ball, especially the case. I did put on the case and it feels kind of like the A series.

Colors, the pistachio is that is like, that is not accurate. That is not an accurate description. It's like pea green at best. and it borders on puk, honesty. Avocado, in hindsight, from Andrew was, that's what his perceptual, he called it, is accurate. But I have positive connotations about avocado, and I don't have that any positive connotations about this color

when you actually see it in the hand. But I don't know, Habiscus looks very fun. Is that what it's called? Habiscus, yeah, yeah. It's really, really bright in person. I was like, I'm kind of glad that, in some respects, I'm glad I didn't get that one because it would have been a bit too. It might have been too much.

I agree. It's not a, it's a darker shade of pink. It's a hot pink, I guess you can call it. I probably would have avoided that too. Well, this is, I think this is the thing with these, with the base model. I don't know why Google doesn't just go and do six or seven colors. I think four or five is quite inhibiting in terms.

But again, They probably have the marketing or the evidence to suggest people put them in a case anyway. But at the same time, they've released a clear case, which I have similar thoughts to you, Will. I think it's vastly overpriced and I think there are better options out there for a clear case. But yeah, why make a clear case for the base model and then have only one really out there standout color, which seems a bit weird? I mean, I don't understand. I don't really understand what Google is doing on the accessory side anyway. They used to be the best first-party case manufacturer,

or at least the most interesting first-party case manufacturer. I agree with you. I think the first-party cases have... I'm not... Okay, do you know what? I'm going to change my opinion in real time, like I do in every friggin episode of this podcast. I do it every bloody week.

I think that what Google has done is, yes, they've got rid of the fabric cases and they were all really cool, but if you've ever been anywhere, and trust me, this happened to my Pixel 5, which was the last one I had with the fabric case. I think I went out for something to eat,

and I didn't realize the table I was sat on hadn't been wiped or it had been wiped for something. They picked up, it was like red, it was like a red, I think it might have been a strawberry daquery, like an iced strawberry daquery that was on the table. Those were expensive cases. Yeah, and it stained it, and that was it.

I was like, okay, that's done. I can't use that case anymore. I'm not saying they had to stick with the fabric. It's just, it's like, it's like any sense of innovation they had on the cases they just threw out the window. I think you kind of, you answered your own question. I think people buy a phone,

and then at this point, they inherently train to buy the cheapest case. Like, they go to buy a case. So from Google, no, any first-party accessory must have that premium, which is whatever, they're right, they fail. But at the same time, I think they know that people just buy third-party ones because they're cheap. And there are like just enough third-party pixel cases

that I don't feel like it's overly limiting in the way that I'm going to use 1 plus as an example even though Yeah, that's a really good, really good comparison. But that would be my example of like go try to buy, you know, rewind the clock a year and then go try to buy a 1 plus 13 case on Amazon and like there are options, but they are not first,

they're not the brands you have heard of and they're not particularly good. And, you know, pixel is nowhere near an iPhone or a, you know, flagship galaxy device in terms of third-party support either. they're somewhere in the middle. And I guess I just wish that there was, if, you know,

while Google is getting more case attention, but maybe I just wish there was a little bit more effort on their part to like make cases that can compete with the highest end iPhone and galaxy cases. Because that is kind of the market that is not there right now. The lower to mid-tier case makers all make pixel cases at this point, but some of the higher-end ones are still like every iPhone and then maybe like the S series for Samsung.

Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, don't get me wrong. I agree with you on the case situation in terms of the high end, but I can't fault the... Is it Silicon? What is it called, for sure, case? Let me just have a look at the packaging what they actually call it on the packaging.

The non-clear one? The non-clear one. Mine is in French, for some reason. It's a twigoo pixel Google snap. I don't know, pixel Google Snap. Did you just say to go a funch accent? No, that's how you say. It says a twee

A Tweed Google PixelSnap on the side of the packaging for some reason. So it's the PixelSnap case. I think they're great. Polycarbonate shell is what I'm seeing. It's a polycarbonate shell with recycled plastic and other recycled materials is what the website says.

It's a little... It's a little... This just says maybe I'm making a point for you will. I haven't even opened it yet. Basically, the phone doesn't go in a case until later, but my official one that came with the Pixel 10 last year has managed to get a bit gummy you know like because

they're dropping in out of pocket which is a little bit they fall apart they start with it's oh god it's and the problem is now that they've moved into an August god this is so deep like niche

but now that they moved into an August territory I get fooled every year that I get one of these where I'm like oh why don't I like this case more like I why don't I use this more every year and it's because I'm now that they launch in the summer

I'm wearing like shorts and the second I'm like the second I wear one pair of jeans in like late September and I pulled the thing out and it's covered in like gene pocket lint. I'm like, oh right, this is why I don't like this page. Yeah, no, that makes sense. That makes sense. But let's talk about the phones inside this then. We've, we've had this little period of time and we kind of briefly alluded to it with the 11. You guys have been using the pro. I want to hear more about the pro because I have just put my SIM card into the

pro Excel today. It might go into the pro, my retail unit very, very soon as well. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with that, but we'll work it out as we, as we chat about it, basically. How are you guys feeling in terms of like all of the specifics of this phone? We've had a couple of technically a couple of pro tier runs. This is, for one of a better word, where Google's really making their money in terms of their device lineup, the regular pro and the pro Excel. How are you guys feeling in terms of like where it's sitting in the market, where everyone else is probably, whether maybe it needs to be some improvements, what you've enjoyed, all that kind of jazz.

So I guess highlight is the elephant. We have to get out of the room. Okay. All right. All right. I'm taking the gloves off. I'm taking the gloves off. I'm taking the glove. So I guess my, like, the main thing I use highlight for, which I was not expecting, was that I, well, use is probably generous. I see the Gemini status rights on my nightstand when I flip over the table and it's charging every night.

And I give it the command to turn off my rights. That's like the main thing. It's basic, like I've said before, it's like a smart speaker. And I'm not going to lie. I do find it like a degree of whimsy. And I like whimsy. So it's, I like it. But I like seeing it.

But for the phone functionality, I haven't, like in the past week, it hasn't come up organically. It's just been used purely in testing. So it's not refractive for anything. But yeah, that's been my The Gemini rights are fine. Highlight is going to join, for me, a very exclusive club of things Google did that are complete self-owns,

just complete self-defeating product launches, of which the first example that comes to mind, the most obvious example is the pixel tablet, where every issue I had, or the biggest issues with the pixel tablet were all things where it's like, what do you mean you didn't make the DAC a, castable target when the when the tablet is not like on the speaker like why didn't you do that right

that's how it's even worse on highlight where i'm like you put like you you spent the time and the money and the r and d to test lights in the camera flash that like rgb lights in the camera flash and then you gave it two software things one of which is is straight up just and like like i i totally i agree with your whimsy point abner but like it is it is decoration 50% of it is decoration. The other 50% is, is like, how many colors is a total? Four, five?

Five and one is white, right? Four and one is white, yes. Yeah. So you can assign up to five contacts with those colors for phone calls. A thing that, like, let's be real, not, like, is not the main way people communicate today.

So I don't, I just like, and it's, even with the pixel tablet, it's like, okay, you guys made a decision not to put this component, in the speaker dock or whatever, like whatever you would need to do that. And that's obvious because they never fixed it in the software update.

With this, it's like, this is, you already, the hardware's there, it's just 100% like the software telling the lights what to do and you have just not done it. I don't understand. Yeah. So the color I'd add about the, the color out about their TIPIED colors, ironic, is that what Google told us is that they optimize the colors

to be visible to all users. in terms of on an accessibility reason. But yeah, maybe they can expand that on the future one. But yeah, five colors is everything. And I guess the other way to use the lights would be to assign each Catholic friends, get one color, family, get one color, et cetera. That gives you more use out of it, maybe. But, you know, to your point and to the broader point in my review,

this it's not ready for prime time messaging should have been out of the gate that that's how most people communicate that being said I do think that phone calls are kind of coming back or they've always been there for people older than us I've said my bit about how people my friends know not to call me before without texting

ahead of that whole thing but maybe you're not going to see the text though because highlight won't light up. I know, right? So, yeah, I guess we can be, it's pretty obvious and like the entire internet is pretty obvious about how they feel about high, right? Yeah, I've said my piece. Like, I don't have anything else to say. They just, they botched it. Yeah. They can fix it in a software update, but like this is the first impression people are getting a list. You only get one chance to make a first impression. I firmly believe that and they brew it. Yeah. So when talking to Google, it seems like they have a lot of ideas.

They were very explicit that messages is coming. Like, the turnaround for me is that messaging needs to be out like today, if in any way possible. The best time to launch messaging support for highlight was yesterday. The second best time is now. Basically. Okay. I'm going to quickly push back up against that. I wonder if messages, the reason why they didn't put it on launch, is because of the

digital well-being aspect of it, and a lot of people get more messages. So you think about it, I remember back in the day with my RGB LED notification, whatever it is, it would just constantly ping. It would just constantly going green back on WhatsApp. I get hundreds of messages. I believe that's a consideration they have, but still, however long, they should have figured out a solution to that way before launch. And give people the option to be like, I don't care that it's constantly flashing.

I want to be able to... It'll be kind of amusing. I think that would be fun if I see it constantly. Yeah, well, this is a broader issue I have with Google, and maybe we should talk about this on an episode outside of the full review cycle. But they are, they really are in their, like, Apple mindset of just, like, we don't want to give people too many options, except for when we do. Like, Camera looks has a lot of options.

But largely speaking, Google's pixel experience is really in the, like, we are making a like personalized like a hotel I think that's starting I'm not actually talking about at a glance I'm more thinking about

the way they allow people to personalize the phone so like icon support or even just I mean the launcher itself is just not particularly flexible again not really talking about at a glance

I appreciate that they're doing that but Attic Lance has never bothered me it's a thing I like about the pixel launcher but it's just kind of like Like, you know, and even I was reading, I think it was, was it David Amel sat down and talked to Google at the verge about, about camera looks? I don't know. I was reading something about that when he talked about camera looks. And like, even in that piece, the product lead on it was like, yeah, we had to like have a meeting with like higher ups at Google to like get permission to put this many like options in camera looks because it's so many like things you can customize. I just don't know where this has come from on Google's part. Like I, Android. has always been the like make it your own operating system and Google has never shied away

from that. They did a whole advertising campaign about it. So I just, I wish they would give people like, I can't believe I'm saying this, but like kind of lean into the Samsung-esque option of just like put some deeper customization behind like a developer options menu or something. But give me a little bit of a little bit of flavor. Hmm. Hmm. Hey folks, if you're enjoying pixelated, don't forget to sign up for 9 to 5 Google Pro to gain access to our weekly bonus show, pixelated Pro. This week, we discussed whether iOS really has better apps than Android, why the Android ROM scene isn't what it used to be, and plenty of additional pixel 11 thoughts. We went for nearly an entire additional hour this week, and I promise you won't want to miss out.

Sign up today at 9 to 5 google.com slash pro. Let's talk about camera looks as well then because I mean the software experience is almost identical to the pixel 10 I can barely tell a difference on the pro tier but I know in the fact no let me correct myself there having used the pixel 10 last year the 128 gigabyte version now we have this 256 gigabyte version of the pixel 11 and therefore that means that it's using UFS storage

the reason being that you can't get 128 gigabyte UFS 4 4.0 modules, hence why we didn't have it last year, probably a cost cut in measure. The reason is it noticeable step up. Like last year when we moved from the pixel 9 Pro to the pixel 10 Pro, you can see a slight difference, apps load faster, it definitely feels smoother. That I really liked. That was something that I think, as someone who ordinarily uses the pro version, I could definitely foresee myself using this now because it's step for step.

The parity is almost the exact same as my 10 Pro Excel. and I didn't feel a noticeable difference like I would if I went from the 10 per Excel back down to the 10. That's fantastic. So yeah, kudos from finally making that decision. It does soften the blow of the fact that the RAM, sorry, the price has increased.

There's no kind of shortcut in a RAM. You still get 12 gigabytes. So there's technically parity with the previous version. So in terms of like, if you look at it as like downgrades, I know a lot of people have been complaining about that. And obviously, rightfully so. it's what you do with your money is very important. I do think the Pixel 11 does start to become a little bit more of a,

like an added value prospect, because there isn't as many knockbacks. Does that make sense? Yeah. So in that respect, it feels good. Even after a week, I've noticed that,

that's one thing that's instantly struck me. The rest is kind of like a mishmash of the same feelings. I think we all had last year with the pixel 10, which is good and bad. Yeah. Yeah, it's trick. It's the fact that the starting, the base model pros

have less RAM than if you go one storage tier up make it a difficult like that's the model I have the hardest time recommending because I'm like I'm almost in the boat of like either just stick to the base 11 and you know assuming because like the sensors are better on the on the pros but like if you know I don't know

I think it's I haven't used the 11 but you're probably in a safe enough hands based on my experience with the 10 or you have to jump up to like the 512 pros in my opinion. And like Google is clearly aware of that because that's the model they send all the reviewers. Yeah. Yeah, it's good as well that the camera looks that we're going to talk about right now, which is probably the standout feature, I think.

A hundred percent, in my opinion. And I know you've done a really nice piece about it will, so I want you to get into that in a minute. But it's really good that they haven't shortcut, sorry, shortchanged anyone who picks up any 11 series device. It's probably more complaints about. that laid down the line, but I think getting all of the camera looks and being able to use those features and magic camera, which I have some thoughts about, which is pretty down good,

is very, very nice. Being able to go in and have all those functionality at your fingertips is really, really good because ordinarily I would have expected that to be a pro, pro phone only experience. Like, what have you guys been, have you guys been testing out camera looks at any great length? Abner, I know Will has, sorry, I don't know why I'm asking. Camera looks are just, they're just fun. I kind of had some experience with SnapSeed just before this, but it's a power of the defaults. The fact that it's right there means the double tap gesture is so that is how I launch the camera these days.

They're just fun. I can't. It's like Will said in his piece, waiting for years and I think the UI is better than the eye phone's weird grid thing. Yeah, it's a little overcomplicated, but it is definitely better than the grid thing. And it's overcomplicated in a way that, like, has a steep learning curve, but once you spend 30 minutes playing around with it, I do think you kind of walk away and you go like, okay, I do know how to use this now.

And that is not, I don't think that's true on the iPhone. Like, I think the iPhone's UI and, or UX, I should say, is terrible on that end. Yeah, I mean, look, I'm the poster child for this needs to be in the default camera app because every third-party camera app I've ever tried has lasted three or four days with me and that I inevitably, usually because of the short, you know, whatever the shortcut is to launch the camera, end up going back to the default experience. Yeah, man. Like I, I've probably said that this is exactly what I wanted on like countless podcasts over the last two, three years as I've grown a little bit tired of the most. modern pixel photo aesthetic. Although it,

you know, whatever they changed generation over generation, I will say, even this year, I was more forgiving of the like default, camera processing than I, than I was on the 10, I would say.

I don't know, maybe that's because I moved up to the pro. I don't know. But I was, I was happier with it. I still probably prefer, I think I said this in the piece that I'm, I'm probably somewhere between shadows and vanilla

in terms of the four default styles. I think the thing I've liked the most so far is putting it on shadows but then kind of messing around with the color temperature to make it a little bit warmer because the shadows tier is a little bit dark and shady and cool I'm still on which camera look

for the default this is referring to the HDL look but I'd say the shadows is my consistent with my last one Interests see and this is what I like about it though because I don't think there's a wrong answer I think it's a complete personal preference thing.

Now that makes reviewing this camera harder than ever before because it's like, okay, if you don't like the default aesthetic, you can probably tweak it to where you want it to be and never have to touch those settings again because it is a good camera system at its core. But yeah, the only critiques I really have, again, it's a little, it's got a learning curve. And I do kind of wish, I just, again,

this kind of comes down to the like take the training wheels off Google like let an advanced user go into the settings and you know go into advanced preferences deep in the settings menu of the camera and let them select a velvet or or classic or minimal or black tie as their default aesthetic if they really want it like keep those four prominent those four original ones prominent but then let I just don't see a reason to not let people do this if they really want to do it um as opposed to having to select the more specialized camera looks every single time, either from the looks menu or you can turn on a pro quick access controls thing, but even that is a little, it can be a little overwhelming.

But yeah, I'm really into this. This is the happiest I've been with a pixel camera system since at least the 8 pro, if not, if not even earlier. It's the stand-up feature. The other thing I'd say, I think it's really disappointing that this isn't coming to older pixels. I know Tenser G6 has a... Is that to do with the processing pipeline of the images or something? Yeah, I don't know if this is, if it's an ISP limitation in Tensor G6, but I just can't, like, the, you know, I cannot imagine that this feature would not work on the pixel 10 at the very least. Like, I'm speaking a little bit out of my ass here, but I just don't see the enough of a difference in any other performance mental. trick between TensorFlow G5 and G6 that I'm like, oh, but clearly this is three ISP generations ahead now.

Like I think Google could figure it out. And it's a pattern with them that they do tend to keep stuff like this back on pixel for at least the first few, you know, back on the newest pixel for at least the first few months. And then a November pixel drop comes around and suddenly it's on older hardware. So I don't know. I wouldn't be shocked, shocked if this came to the pixel 10 in a few months. you know, maybe early next year even. But I think either way, it's really disappointing.

I think this could have come to older hardware. Yeah, it is a shame because I do, I agree with you. I think the idea of being able to play around with the camera and it is, it is one of, it is the defining feature of pixel, isn't it? I mean, the clues in the name, isn't it? I think it's very, very nice to see that Google is willing to make this change that. It's a shame it's taking this long, but I think that the implementation's fine. It could get a little bit bit more.

snappy like you said that I'm not a huge fan of the tapping twice to access the four panel pro controls to then scroll up and down I find that a little bit finicky but um it is it's just fun to have a camera that you can I guess I guess it's weird as well Google take the training wheels off like you said and it's almost been a camera you can set your watch to for years yeah you just take the picture it does well it's fine maybe HCRs a bit of a loan you want to tune after the fact go do it. I think doing it in camera is kind of nice to be able to do that and it's putting pixel back, putting a pixel back in it, I guess. But yes, really fun. If anyone is under any illusions of us to what their camera's currently doing and they've got an old device,

this could be the one that makes you get out there and take more photos. I'm excited to try this when I'm on travels. Yeah. I'm going to take more photos. Definitely, yeah, and I don't take enough photos as this, I think. It's make me do it more. I want to shout out. I love that there's a grain setting here. I think that's awesome. Like, in terms of Google kind of, you know, we're talking about if phone calls are coming back or whatever. Like, I think it's good that one of the things Google made sure was here, because this is not on the iPhone, is the ability to add a little bit more texture back into your photo because, again, like the last five or so years of not just, not just pixel photos, but mobile photography in general has largely been very ultra-clean, ultra-smooth

aesthetics of like let's let's make sure that there is absolutely no artifacts in this image whatsoever. It's like, you know, actually, I do like a little bit of grain. I like a little bit of like, make it feel tactile and real in a way that like, you know, certain like certain processing, like very default processing aesthetics don't, don't necessarily add. Yeah, it is, it is cool to see. It's nice to have. Once we get it refined, I'm sure Google will refine up. up a time and improve the experience. But it's just a shame that Pixel 10 uses you're not going to get this and maybe Pixel 9 as well.

Yeah, maybe we'll get it in a QPR release. Let's keep our fingers crossed. But in terms of the rest of the camera stack, what you're thinking in terms of, there's a new sensor on the Pixel 11. I think that's pretty good. But I don't really have any strong thoughts yet. I think the color tune is quite nice.

If you don't care about the color tuning on the base Pixel 11, you can just use the default option and it's pretty down good. Everything looks pretty solid. I think skin tones have improved again. It's nice and sharp. And I'm glad that they've made a return to form with an all borderline flagship camera system, which is something that I think has been really disappointed,

was really disappointing last year and made it hard to recommend. The telephoto was good enough, but the main sense of being an A series, really disappointing. But I'm glad that there's nice depth to images again from the base pixel 11. But everywhere else just feels like business as usual.

You're going to get that picture. and I think magic camera, let's discuss what I think this is magic capture. Magic capture? Magic capture? Magic capture? Magic capture. So I don't know if you guys have ever been with family members, friends or anything like that, and you've been like, here, take a picture of us, and they absolutely ruin it.

They ruin the moment. They take a terrible photo. So for me, this is the give it to your grandma, give it to your dad, to give it to someone who's incompetent. Give them this. Just press and record the video, let Gemini take care of the rest. Genuinely, this is one of those features. I think I didn't really have that much, many strong opinions of it

until I was playing around with it, my dog chasing a ball around a garden. I'm a convert now. I think this could be the ultimate, like, Dad Cam. I'm calling it Dad Cam or Grandma Cam. It just takes the pressure off missing that moment. So I don't know. I can imagine someone at a wedding for instance. and throwing up a bouquet, record it, you get a short video, might not be the best quality,

but the photos you'll get will be just as good as anything from Topshot. I absolutely agree, because zooming out, Google's not really advertising this is an AI feature for various reasons. It's, it's, you'd think that I feel like if this were a restored or two years ago, it would embrace the AI aspect of it a little bit more, but, you know, for obvious reasons. at the moment but I think this could be the default mode sooner than later I wouldn't by default I mean okay so at the moment you can set new this year at the pixel camera you have in version uven.o you can choose whether opening the

app or double clicking the button opens the photo video mode or magic capture mode, that to me is like the biggest sign that Google is serious about thinking, believing that magic capture could be the default out of the box and people can always change it back or whatever. But it is, this feels like an inherently modern thing of why separate video and camera, video and photos. People argue that if you want to preserve a moment, video does it better. You get you get the full actual moment, full posterity. But as the people who still like pictures, who want to take photographs,

magic capture really makes it a bit of a more no-brainer. Or maybe the thing that Google Ventry does is make magic capture the defaulting in video mode. I want to shout out, it's not live on the site as we're recording this, but it will be by the time this comes out. Daniel Bader's feature on the

Magic Capture feature which comes down to looking at it through the lens of being apparent his headline is Pixel 11's Magic Capture perfectly solves a very modern parenting dilemma but what I really want to read is the last

line of his piece which is I'd rather have a few seconds of mediocre video and AI selected photos than miss a photo or video entirely because I couldn't make up my mind I think that's the key right there and I think Google if If Google doesn't, you know, if they are not currently filming an ad for this set around parenting, I don't know what they're doing because that should be on every, that should be in the middle of

every NFL game coming up over the next four months. It's like parents, I think they know they have something with magic capture here. And you have to use it before you, you have to have a proper subject before you can really get that. you find the value of it like where it clicks to you I think for example like going to for me like going to a concert

and like keeping starting magic capture and keeping the phone against my chest so I can actually watch what's happening I feel like that's I think you just need one good moment in magic capture for you

for it to automatically click how this works but again Again, to show how much Google they don't want to be responsible for missing a moment. There's a physical capture button in the magic capture UI. I think they're very serious about getting this right, and I would not be surprised if this became like the standard bearer pixel camera feature going forward.

Yeah, I think as someone who, the reason why it click for me straight away is, I think as someone who records video a lot, and you shoot high frame rate video, usually you can take stills from a 60 FPS 4K clip and they look indistinguishable from a regular photo. So I think if they continue to improve this, maybe if they can somehow improve the video capture, so like 120 FPS or something like that,

and even higher frame rates, is it around 400? For some reason I thought it was 500 the other day, but it's 400 or so in an average clip that it analyzes and takes image of. And they are tack sharp. So I don't know if you guys, if any of you out there have listened, of Topshot is very much reminiscent of this,

where it's tack-sharp image, completely still subject. They could be sprinting across whatever it is or like a child falling over, anything like that. Yeah, it's incredible that it manages to capture those moments so crisply. And like Daniel in his piece alludes to, you don't want to miss these moments. A grainy video is better than no video, isn't it? And then the photos to go with it is just the icing on the cake.

So I think, yeah, give it a try if you happen to have picked up your pixel 11 or you're due to get one very, very soon. I have noticed it's a little bit better on the pro series because you can zoom in slightly further with the video, up to 10X. It's limited to four or five, I think, on the regular level. The fact you can enable this video boost to me, It's like that's the reason I will and now enable video boost.

You can use video boost with this feature? Can't you? That's what I thought. Ah, it doesn't work on 11. Doesn't work on 11? Yes, that's, yeah. Yeah, that's why I haven't seen it. Okay.

It's the one set thing for video capture to enable video boost. Okay, well, definitely going on it. We're already enabling that right now on our phone. So there's another tip for you. Make sure you go enable that. Click the little settings button in the bottom left if you've got a ProT device.

Sadly, it doesn't appear to work on the, on the base 11. but video boost is limited to the pro series anyway. So that doesn't come as a great shock. But yeah, definitely go try it. Really, really enjoy that functionality. I think it's really good to see that there's some holistic approach to photography and video as well.

It's great getting new camera sensors, but I think the way that you use them is very different. And I quite like that Google's thinking about it from both ends of the spectrum, the less competent potentially, and those of us who want to really tune our images. And I think Camera Lux is a good sign of that, and so is Magic Capture.

As for everything else, what are we thinking in terms of like our wrap-up of the Pro series and the 11 series? Where do we see it? Because I know we haven't got initial verdicts. We haven't got a full final verdicts out there. So to touch on the Gemini Intelligence of all of it, so it's now Gemini Intelligence,

Magic Q. Last year is not now called proactive assistance, even though it's called proactive suggestions on the watch, whatever reason, but we'll get there. To me, in terms of like the A-I-ness of it, I think the biggest, most reassuring sign is that Google iterated on Magic Q with the big, quote-unquote, innovation,

or change the U.S., is that tapping a suggestion in Google messages, now brings up a sheet with more context info, be it Google Maps, be it showing your calendar to make sure that the AI is correct and the spot of time somebody asks for is actually free or seeing your flight details, that kind of stuff.

I think that's like, instead of just relying on a one-tap suggestion, the fact that you now get a UI with it, that to me is, it seems simple in hindsight, but yeah, it's a better way to do it to give more context to reassure people these are accurate. The fact that availability is still not that widespread and it is, it's so much around messaging. That's a systemic issue. They need to improve eventually. But I think Gem 9 intelligence is promising the umbrella, that umbrella term. Meanwhile, LAMBLA, how have we been

using Gboard of Amberla? Yeah, Rambler's interesting because I both think it's impressive and I'm like, there's work to be done here though. Like I don't think this is a complete feature and I hope they continue to improve it. Because as much as like I've had some decent luck with it in terms of messaging,

but the second you try to take anything beyond that, I was trying to annotate notes for the Dungeons and Dragons crew that I've been DMing this summer. And I was trying to use Rambler to take notes for it instead of typing. It got a little too aggressive with the, let's simplify what you're saying and summarize it. And it took out stuff that I guess it thought was me like changing my mind as I was speaking. but it wasn't. It just didn't put it in. And so, I don't know, I'm of two thoughts

because I would want it more for longer form voice typing than just messaging. It's nice to have for messaging, but it definitely works better in short bursts right now, I would say. I've used it on and off for trying to make lists and stuff, and it's okay. It's pretty good. It's pretty good at picking up your voice vocal ticks

and kind of stutters and stumbles. I'm just kind of a non-offer. that it isn't real time in terms of like you can see the text going in. Yeah. That's one thing that's preventing me from using it more regularly because while it's good, I still potentially would, you potentially would talk for a minute and then I want to see what I've said to then continue what I'm saying. It's very, very difficult.

It's very very difficult to just continue talking for nothing. Absolutely, absolute hard agree with it. And so this is just the higher level architecture that this is, you're saying something that's processed in the crowd, it gets back, it turns, it's transcribed for you. It's not real time like the previous voice typing experience. That's...

Hopefully there's a technical workaround, but it just hasn't stream. The results don't stream in real time and maybe model improvements will change that. But at the moment, I'd say, for messaging, yeah, it's probably better suited for messaging. I think it's optimized for messaging rather.

though I have used it for like note-taking purposes. But again, to your point, Will, the notes have been, and it are being shorter because I can't see the transcript. But it's something you get across. But that being said, the accuracy, I haven't had a typo with it. I haven't had to go back. No, no. It's more of, yeah, it's the issue is the simplification more than anything.

And compared to system voice typing, I don't. My complaint was originally that you can't mix and match input methods, like with the previous typing experience, you'd say something. And then if there's something long, you'd edit it with the keyboard while the microphone stays active. But to Lamber's credit, I haven't had that issue. I haven't had to make as really any, like maybe once in the past week. That's a very high success rate. I'm sure there's like a good technical reason, at least at launch, that this doesn't show the words. appearing live on the screen as you type.

Like I'm sure it's more... I'm sure it's complicated. It is a complicated tool to launch. I'm hoping that they figure it out eventually because I would probably use it more if I could see that. But even right now, like God, I accidentally stumbled on this

where I accidentally rotated my phone while it was active. And the UI actually goes away. It must be a bug. But it's still listening, but the purple bar that listens disappears. And so for the first time when I accidentally did that,

I thought it had completely crashed. It hadn't. It was still listening, but the, it's just that the indicator that it's listening was gone. Please know, Will, that we're all judging you for not turning auto-rotate on immediately. Disnaboring auto-rotate, rather. I don't, I'm pro-autotate these days. I feel like, I feel like auto-rotate is totally fine. That way I can watch a YouTube video without having to hit the button.

No. No. No. Disagree. You're an animal. Okay. No, no, we're not moving past this. What is the, what's the issue?

You turn it off, it's never fucking accurate. Yeah, you never have it. This is awful. Why? It's just bad. Because I don't know. I'm not moving pasting. I mean, actual reason.

No, I don't know. It's bad. Which is something that sounds established in 2014. No, it's not a new platform. It's not good in any platform. Yes, you should. You should feel bad. You should press the button.

You guys are not giving me a real, answer. What's wrong with it? It's never accurate. It's never accurate. You have to do like... Auto-rotate is not accurate. No.

No. Because it's not because the feature inherently is not accurate or compared to everybody. It's just you move your phone so much in the course of the day. I don't have this issue. What? I don't like... I don't have this issue. I think you're lying and you should be feel about.

Not enough for me to turn auto-rotate off. No. No, no. We will turn this all or not say off going. No. Are you guys just constantly laying down in your offices? Yes. What are you doing?

This week we have been, yes. Hold the phone. We have. This is crazy. Of course we're lying down. Okay, say you're walking. That, but say you're walking around that. You're just walking in the world.

Walking. And your phone and you don't want your phone to constantly go back and forth to rotate. it does it I does it I swear to God guys I don't have this issue it does all right

well right into the show if you're in the discord leave a comment in the discord tell tell us who you think is right me or these two yeah we need to preface it we need to preface he is

yeah he's completely wrong we're all to take off gang oh my god you know what it is it's the pop socket you guys are giving me shit for that's what it is the pop socket fixes it possibly possibly I can't wait until you become an otto-box guy on a belt clip.

I'm not going to be an auto-box guy with a pops-up clip. I have a pop-off. Or rotate on. You know, when did the show just become bullying me? When you said you don't use autobote, when you use autorotate, it's, no, you're not, you're minutes away from an auto box. I think with Rambler's one of those features that, like, it feels as though it can improve. drastically.

Yeah, yeah, and it feels like it can improve quite drastically. I mean, it's not like voice dictation wasn't already exceptional on pixel phones with G-Bod particularly. It was already phenomenal. But to have an extra layer on top of that is kind of cool. But I'm not the kind of person who's going to use it because I'll just send a voice note if I'm talking. I'd just rather said a voice note. And then all those vocal tics don't matter that much. But yeah, I can definitely foresee someone who's, and I want to give a shout out, actually, to sir.

I don't know if anyone out there was as aware of C Scott Brown. When he texts me or I text him, it was very much a case of he would always voice dictate. So for someone like that, who only sends messages like that, that voice takes messages, they'll love it. I'm indifferent.

The C stands for criminal, because that's what I think of this. I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding, Scott. I'm just kidding. But yeah, it's pretty good. What are the other highlight features that you guys have been experiencing that? that I cannot think of off the top of my head right now

in terms of AI stuff that is being sold as the key components of this Pixel 11 series. It's... Lamberler is really the main thing for most people and I think proactive assistance, the caveat if you're a big Google Messages user and you have all your things in your calendar, the buy-in hasn't changed.

I have not had it appear on my phone because I don't really use... I don't really send a lot of text messages and I'm very... I'm very European in that way, Damien. Good man. Thank you. I like it.

Yeah, it seems like two or three fairly modest little things. I don't think they've gone overboard. I guess now I'm going to be confused because I'm tired and also I might confuse my launch. But was it the Pixel 9 that was the first one that were like, we're going to throw really a lot more AI into this device? And I think maybe since then it's been a case of consolidation. Last year, Magic Q, I mean, let's be honest, it didn't really hit the heights that it probably should have done until. midway through the year when they decided finally we're going to add cloud processing

but I think proactive assistance so far my experience has been positive like the testing I've done with it like asking for photos from people in messages which is rare for me is worked it seems to have worked and I've been testing it out messaging

between two devices it's been pretty darn flawless yeah it is these kind of things which you don't necessarily think about and you experience them for the first time I'm like, wow, that could potentially be something I'm going to use on a more regular basis, but it seems as though Google's trying to do it just sneakily is the wrong way to describe it, but just kind of like enhanced the experience of things we've already using on a day-to-day basis.

So yeah, it's good to see. AI functionality. I don't think it's the B-all now and all. I think that the phone runs pretty darn nice anyway. I think from what I've experienced so far, 10 to G6 seems like a little bit of a bum. The phone does feel just as smooth as a 10, but the phone. sometimes things are a little bit faster than I anticipated. Like the boot times faster.

If you reboot your phone a lot, it definitely boots sometimes five, six seconds faster. Do you reboot your phone a lot? It's a work thing. Yeah, sometimes through work purposes or like if... I'm just looking for things to give you shit about after that. Yeah, okay, yeah. Okay, Popsocket guy.

That's it. Now, you're the Popsocket Autobox beltcase man, so there's not much you can give me now that I can't deflect back at you. Yeah, I think... What do we think in initial verdict then, guys? Because my opinion on the Pixel 11 is a tough sell, unless you can get at a discount, because of the similarities last year. But if you're coming in with fresh eyes, I still think it probably is not a bad buy.

Okay, who should upgrade? Okay, let's do that way. Yeah, I think that's what it is, right? It's just, it really, oh my God, I hate saying this because it's such a lame answer, but this has kind of been my feeling on the last two, maybe even three years of phones, which is, and not just pixels, but like, do you need to, upgrade? Does your current phone feel slow? Are you out of storage and you wish

you had more? Like is the battery bad? Like this is a totally fine phone. Now if you're coming from 10, don't even think about it. Nine, almost certainly don't think about it. Eight, you can start to think about it, but I wouldn't be surprised if like the Pixel

8 Pro has aged fairly well to be honest with you. I wouldn't be like you could probably wait another year and be fine. Seven, you should upgrade. TensorFlow G2 was a bad chip and you will get a lot out of this phone that you do not have in your current phone. And obviously, you know, same applies to going older. That's what I would say.

Similar idea if you're coming from like a non-pixel and you're looking to buy this. Like three, if your phone is three years, I would think about it. If it's four years or older, definitely go for it. Yeah, definitely. I think there's definitely a case for someone who is, their phone is on its very, very last legs to be looking at these devices. And I guess maybe that's because we're so intrinsically tied to what's going on with pixel and phones in general that we see it from such a top-down,

we don't necessarily see it from this top-down perspective all of the time. We're just kind of in the weeds. And someone who's looking at a phone like, hey, it looks nice. I can get decent accessories. Like I like this version of Android. The camera is pretty darn good. The battery seems pretty good as well so far. Can't fault the battery.

I think it's been. I agree. I'd say exceptional, but it's not quite, it's almost there. Google's really making gains. I'd love to see a silicon carbon battery in the next version, but yeah, that's by the by. But I can't find any obvious nitpicks apart from all the things that have swirled around it. Yeah. The only thing, the only other thing I really have to say about the non-foldable pixels is that Google made a big deal, or one of the big selling points of this is that they've improved their anti-scratch coding.

and I don't not believe them on this, but I will say, from experience, do not take that as this thing cannot be scratched because I was being a little less cautious than I normally am over the weekend while I was replacing the window in my bathroom. I had a little metal flashlight in my pocket with the phone for probably five or ten minutes,

and I did pick up, I'm pretty sure from that picked up a scratch, but I did pick up a scratch on my screen. So don't treat this, Don't think you can do whatever now just because Google's saying it's It's much better. You know what you need? You know what you need?

I don't know which way we're going to go here. Damien? So go ahead. I definitely think it's time for the auto box and a belt clip. You can't go scratch nothing with that, boy. You know, honestly, the amount of labor it took to replace a bathroom window,

I agree. I probably needed the otter box. probably would have kept the phone a lot safer. I'm honestly a little surprised I only picked up one scratch because that was an entire 10-hour ordeal. Well, that's good, isn't it? If he's only picked up one scratch in that instance, I suppose so.

Yeah, I wouldn't have put the flashlight in my pocket with the phone at all if I hadn't thought about the anti-. So you know what? If anything, I'm just doing my due diligence as a reviewer. I'm just putting my model through its paces for the listener. So you guys try to bully me for that. So far, I don't have any scratches.

So, like, to test out highlight, I've been putting painfully phone down on a glass desk on my glass desk. It's not, like, a realistic, real condition, arguably because I'm, like, actively testing it for highlight, but nothing yet. But, again, that's not realistic or anything. No, no. I mean, I wouldn't have expected anything after a week. I don't have any touchword. I haven't had any damage so far or anything. So durability is up there. I think the big change to the square boxy design. I think it's made a big difference to durability of these phones, which is good. Speaking of durability, foldables, I think some people are on the fence about foldables due to durability. What we're saying about the pixel 11 prod, I haven't had the opportunity to spend much time with it, because I don't have one, which is for first and foremost.

So the right edge when it's open is slightly thinner than the left edge, which Ben noticed immediately doing our hands-on last week. It's there. I don't think it's whatever. It does feel thinner. The phones do feel thinner. Like I said, I've only had my personal unit for like 24 hours. But the fingerprint sensor and the volume marker do feel thinner, maybe too thin.

I don't know, we'll have to reassess, but yeah, it does feel a little bit thinner. I don't, I wish, so Google focused at this year's hardware upgrades on the more durable hinge on boosting the size of the outer display. I really wish there were more improvements on display on the actual panel technology

because I don't think there are any. So you will have a crease, as always. But it looks the same. It feels the same. Yeah, it's not that much to say about it yet. Yeah. I guess it's one of those devices that is still really niche even within Google's lineup. I think it's very much a case of it feels businessman like. And probably in the in the ballpark of someone's viewpoint for their AutoBox case. So yeah, I think I think we'll save judgment for that once you spent a little bit of more time with it, Abner, but we'll talk probably more Pixel Watch 5 in the coming days. If you're wondering where our talk about Pixel Watch 5 is, I have yet to spend a decent amount

of time with it to give you any sort of like a firm verdict on it. I'm testing the 4-21 millimeter for the first time in a while. I'm usually a 45-millimeter guy, so that's going to be interesting. And I know you spent time with the 41-millimeter as well, Abna. So we'll finalize some thoughts there and bring them in our next episode, hopefully, and have a section for you there about the wearables if you're wondering where that is. But yeah, I suppose that kind of wraps up a little bit of our initial thoughts. I know we're a bit scatterbra in probably more than we usually are, but forgive us.

We've been spending a lot of time talking pixel and preparing for our review and hands-on content over the past week. We're going to head over now to the pro tier. So if you're 9-12 Google Pro subscriber, come join us, we're going to shoot the shit, we're going to talk random stuff. We're going to get into some things. And maybe we'll bully will a bit more about his. accessory choices.

If you want to come over, have a good time. Come join us. We'd love to have you part of the crew. Thanks guys for joining us. I know it's a long old week, and it's always fun to chat to you, even if this one's simply a little bit more ad hoc than usual. I'll speak to you soon.

Bye. Auto-rotate is fine. Thanks for listening to Pixelated, a 9-to-5 Google podcast. If you enjoyed the show, we ask that you rate and review it on the podcast platform of your choice and help spread the word by sharing the show with friends or on social media.