Google's Pixel 11 line ships August 20, with 256GB as the new starting point

If you're buying a Pixel this year, the entry point has moved: the Pixel 11 is $899, the Pixel 11 Pro is $1,099 and the Pixel 11 Pro XL is $1,299, which puts each of them $100 above the equivalent model from last time, although the base configuration now starts at 256GB of storage instead of 128GB. Pre-orders are open. The phones reach shelves on August 20.

Google showed all three at its Made by Google event on Wednesday, together with the Pixel 11 Pro Fold.

Memory scales with storage on the Pro models, starting at 12GB of RAM for the 256GB version and rising to 16GB on the 512GB and 1TB variants. The Fold's arrangement is not settled. One account says the Pro Fold always gets 16GB, even on the 256GB model, while another puts 16GB only on the 512GB and 1TB tiers of the Pro, Pro XL and Fold alike.

The most visible new hardware trick is HiLight, a set of colored LED lights built around the camera flash. In Google's description, it glows to notify you of timely, glanceable information, so the back of the phone becomes a status light.

On the Pro Fold, the cover screen grows from 6.4 inches to 6.5 inches, a small change next to the durability claim: Google says this generation is 3x more durable than the Pixel 10 Pro Fold. Battery life runs past 24 hours by Google's own testing, and 30W fast charging takes it to 50 percent in half an hour.

Security gets a new pairing. The Titan M3 chip works with the custom Tensor G6 processor to bring post-quantum cryptography to secure boot on the device.

Every phone in the lineup carries seven years of OS, security and Pixel Drop updates, which is the number worth holding onto when you compare the $100 step up in price against how long the thing stays current.

On the software side, two things are coming. DeepMind's new sign-language-to-text model is coming to all of the new Pixel phones. And Google Assistant disappears for good in September, fully replaced by Gemini.