Google Pixel 11 Pro XL Review

The XL is the Pixel 11 Pro at the size most people actually buy, and this year it is the first one whose charging keeps up with the rest of the phone. The 6.8-inch Super Actua panel runs 2992 x 1344 at 486 pixels per inch, holds 1 to 120Hz on an LTPO backplane and peaks at 3600 nits, which is as bright as anything Google ships and readable in direct sun without a hand over it. Gorilla Glass Victus 2 and the new anti-scratch coating cover it, the camera bar is slimmer than the 10 Pro XL's, and the Pixelsnap magnets sit under the back.

The extra 22 grams over the smaller Pro are mostly battery. The cell holds 5115 mAh against 4850, wired charging moves from 30W to 45W, and wireless reaches 25W over Qi2.2, so a phone that already cleared a day now refills in the time it takes to shower. At 226 grams and 8.5 millimetres it is heavy, near enough what an iPhone Pro Max weighs, and Google has stopped pretending this is a one-handed phone.

The cameras and the chip come straight from the 6.3-inch Pro: a 50-megapixel main, a 48-megapixel ultrawide, a 48-megapixel 5x periscope and a 42-megapixel front camera, all run through the processing that has been the Pixel's real product for a decade. Tensor G6 on a 3 nanometre process is efficient and quick at the on-device model work the phone is built around, and it still trails the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 on graphics, which shows in games and nowhere else. Seven years of updates come with it. At $1,299 with 256GB it asks two hundred dollars more than the Pro for a better screen and a better battery, which is a cleaner argument than most size upgrades manage.