Google has just taken the wraps off its next wave of Pixel hardware, and this year there’s more of it than usual. Alongside the expected Pixel 11 phone lineup and a new Pixel Watch, Google is also launching its first proper item tracker, the Pixel Tag.
Here’s a plain breakdown of what’s actually new across all three, and how each one stacks up against what came before.
Google Pixel 11 Series
The Pixel 11 family sticks with the same four-phone structure Google has used since the Pixel 10, that’s the standard Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL and Pixel 11 Pro Fold.
The most visible change is the camera bar, which has been redesigned with edge-to-edge glass that runs into a metal frame, giving the whole range a more unified look. Every model in the series is now IP68 rated, so water and dust resistance is no longer a Pro-only feature.
Displays are brighter across the board. The standard Pixel 11 gets a 3,000-nit Actua display, the Pro and Pro XL step up to a 3,600-nit Super Actua panel that Google says is 9% brighter and over twice as scratch resistant as last year’s, and the Pro Fold’s inner 8-inch screen is 20% brighter than its predecessor.
All three phones run on the new Tensor G6 chip, which Google claims delivers 20% better power efficiency, 25% faster browsing and 15% faster app loading compared to the Tensor G5 in the Pixel 10 series.
Camera-wise, the base Pixel 11 now uses a 48MP main sensor with 30x Super Zoom, while the Pro and Pro XL get a 50MP main camera and a redesigned telephoto lens that pushes zoom out to 120x, up from 100x on the Pixel 10 Pro.
There’s also a new one-tap Magic Capture mode that handles cropping and sharpening automatically, and Camera Looks, which lets you build your own custom photo styles. The Pro and Pro XL also introduce HiLight, a ring of ambient LED lights built around the camera’s flash that glows for incoming calls or while Gemini is listening, something the Pixel 10 series didn’t have.
Security gets a bump too, with a new Titan M3 chip that adds post-quantum cryptography on top of the Tensor G6. Battery life is rated at over 30 hours across the standard phones and 24-plus hours on the Pro Fold, and the base Pixel 11 gains a new Extreme Charging Mode that prioritises getting to a usable charge quickly.
One change worth flagging for anyone comparing prices to last year, storage now starts at 256GB across the entire range, with the old 128GB entry option dropped.
Google Pixel 11 Series Pricing & Availability
The Pixel 11 will start at €1,019 for the 256GB model and €1,149 for the 512GB model. the Pixel 11 Pro starts at €1,219 for the 256GB model, the 256GB Pixel 11 Pro XL at €1,429, and the 256GB Pixel 11 Pro Fold at €2,029.
Google Pixel Watch 5
The Pixel Watch 5 keeps the same 41mm and 45mm sizing as its predecessor and doesn’t change the core hardware much. It’s still built around the Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 Accelerated chip with a Cortex-M55 co-processor, now paired with Wear OS 7.0 and 64GB of storage.
Battery life is effectively unchanged from the Pixel Watch 4, with the 41mm rated up to 30 hours and the 45mm up to 40 hours with the always-on display active, and the Quick Charge Dock still gets you to 50% in around 15 minutes.
Where the Watch 5 does move things forward is health tracking. It adds blood pressure trend monitoring and insulin resistance tracking, both due in September, plus a new Sleep Breathing Quality feature that looks at oxygen variation overnight.
In the EU, Google is also introducing Breathing Emergency Detection, which can trigger an emergency call if it detects a sustained drop in oxygen levels while you’re unresponsive. It’s CE marked for EU use but hasn’t been cleared by the US FDA, so it won’t be available in the same form everywhere.
On the software side, Gemini is now built more directly into the watch experience, with proactive suggestions based on message context and the ability to raise your wrist and ask it things directly. Google is also introducing a Stephen Curry special edition with a custom band, available in select markets.
Google Pixel Watch 5 Pricing & Availability
The Pixel Watch 5 starts at €419 for the 41mm Wi-Fi model, €519 for 41mm LTE, €449 for 45mm Wi-Fi and €549 for 45mm LTE. The watch ships with a Quick Charge Dock and Active Band included in the box.
Google Pixel Tag
The Pixel Tag is Google’s first attempt at its own Bluetooth item tracker, something Android users have effectively been waiting years for while Apple, Tile and Motorola all had their own devices on shelves.
It’s a small, IP67 rated tag with a built-in speaker, a user-replaceable CR2032 battery rated to last over a year, and support for Bluetooth Channel Sounding alongside Ultra Wideband for Precision Finding, which works up to 50 metres from a paired phone.
It relies on Google’s existing Find Hub network, the same system built from over a billion Android devices that already helps locate lost phones.
It’s a straightforward, single-purpose device rather than a flashy one, and it launches in a single colour, Fog.
It requires an Android phone running Android 9 or later for basic tracking, though the Bluetooth Channel Sounding feature needs a more recent phone running Android 16 with Bluetooth 6.0.
Google Pixel Tag Pricing & Availability
Pre-launch pricing reports put the Pixel Tag at around €35 in Ireland and the wider Eurozone, putting it almost exactly level with the Apple AirTag rather than undercutting it. Google appears to be betting on Find Hub integration and its Android install base to win people over on features rather than price. As with the phones and watch, official Irish retail listings weren’t live at the time of writing, so it’s worth checking Google’s own store or your usual retailer for confirmed availability dates.
Taken together, this is a fairly incremental year for the phones and watch, with the real story being sharper cameras, a brighter Pro display, and steeper prices across the Pixel 11 range, alongside a genuinely new product category in the Pixel Tag.
Whether the asking prices feel justified will come down to how these devices perform once they’re actually in hand, so keep an eye on TheEffect.Net for our full review
