Google’s own store is going to spoil Google’s own event. The Pixel 11 preorder countdown on the Google Store homepage runs out at 10AM ET Wednesday, roughly eight hours before the Made by Google keynote actually begins. Which means the specs, the prices and the colors will likely be public property long before Trevor Noah walks on stage to host.
That’s the strangest detail about this year’s launch, and it’s worth sitting with before we get to the phones.
The event itself is also scheduled oddly. It kicks off Wednesday at 6PM ET / 3PM PT, an evening slot rather than the mid-morning or early-afternoon window most hardware companies use. You can watch it live on YouTube.
Four phones, and none of them look new
Google is expected to announce the Pixel 11, the Pixel 11 Pro, the Pixel 11 Pro XL and the Pixel 11 Pro Fold. The company has already teased shadowy glimpses of the Pro and foldable models in its own event promos.
Leaked images suggest they’ll look largely the same as the Pixel 10 lineup. The camera bars appear to be black all the way across now, and the colors look good. That’s about the extent of the industrial design story.
The one genuinely new visual element is a rainbow glowy light on the camera bar, which Google has already shown off on the Pixel 11 Pro without saying what it does or what it’s called. Code found in Google’s contacts app points to the name “HiLight,” and indicates that within that app the light can be customized with different colors to signal when specific people call you. Presumably other apps get access too. A translation of a leaked Pixel 11 Pro Fold image suggests HiLight will also illuminate when you’re talking to Gemini.
The 2nm race with Apple could come down to weeks
Inside, a new Tensor G6 chip looks likely. The rumor is that it uses TSMC’s 2nm process, which is expected to deliver performance and power efficiency gains.
If that holds, the Pixel 11 series would be the first phones on the market built on 2nm. Barely. Apple’s chip for its next Pro phones, which presumably launch in September, is also expected to use the same process.
More storage, less RAM, higher prices
Google is rumored to lift the starting storage on the base Pixel 11 and base Pixel 11 Pro to 256GB, up from the 128GB floor on the Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro. Good.
But early Pixel 11 Pro listings say the Pro will ship with 12GB of RAM. That’s a step down from the 16GB in the Pixel 10 Pro lineup, and it’s the kind of quiet subtraction that tends to surface in year-three performance rather than day-one reviews.
Prices are going up across the lineup. A Google VP recently attributed the coming pricing “adjustments” to the memory crisis.
A Borderlands developer leaked the watch first
The Pixel Watch 5 has been confirmed to exist for months, and not by anyone at Google. Randy Pitchford, the creator of Borderlands, posted two images in May and said a friend found the watch underwater while scuba diving.
Google has since briefly teased the watch for an August 12th launch, so the official version arrives shortly.
Leaked renders show colors including black, polished silver, yellow gold and a brass-y shade, with a design that reads as close to the Pixel Watch 4. Specs obtained by MyMobiles list 41 and 45mm screen sizes with battery life rated at 30 and 40 hours respectively, which matches the Pixel Watch 4 exactly. Storage doubles to 64GB from 32GB.
The watch’s real pitch is software, and it costs more
Marketing materials obtained by MyMobiles put Gemini Intelligence, which Google revealed earlier this year for Android phones, at the center of the Pixel Watch 5. One slide describes it as a “personal, proactive assistant” that surfaces helpful information on its own.
A feature called “Proactive Suggestions” is meant to help you answer messages with “context-aware replies” drawn from the conversation. The same materials promise Google’s “most accurate sleep tracking yet,” a claim that has accompanied roughly every wearable launch of the past decade and deserves the usual skepticism until someone straps two of them on for a week.
The price moves the wrong way. MyMobiles reports the 41mm Wi-Fi model may start at $399, up from the Pixel Watch 4’s $349.99, and the 45mm Wi-Fi model could start at $429, up from $399.99. That’s roughly $50 more for identical battery life and a familiar design.
The earbuds are getting a paint job
Google first launched the Pixel Buds Pro 2 in 2024. Two years on, the company appears to be shipping a new color rather than a new product.
An apparent marketing image leaked by Evan Blass shows earbuds in an olive green that matches other Pixel 11 renders Blass and others have surfaced. Otherwise they look like the Buds Pro 2, and they’ve reportedly already appeared on a Google Play rewards page under that same name.
Maybe next year for the Buds Pro 3.
An AirTag rival, minus the specs
The one potentially new product is Pixel Tag, an item tracker in the AirTag mold. An image recently obtained by outside sources shows an oval shape rather than Apple’s circular puck.
It should presumably work with Android’s Find Hub network. A machine translation of a now-removed listing referred to the “Find My Device” network, which is what Google called Find Hub before the rename. Detailed specs and pricing haven’t leaked.
What isn’t showing up Wednesday
Leaks for new Googlebook laptops have surfaced recently, but Google said at announcement that they’d launch in the fall. The smart glasses and Android XR glasses are on the same fall timeline.
Google could still throw a curveball. If you’re deciding whether to set a calendar reminder, though, the countdown clock on Google’s own store is the better appointment: set it for 10AM ET Wednesday and you’ll probably know everything before the show starts.
