The New Google Pixels are Pretty on the Inside - DTNS 5330

**Tom Merritt** (0:08)
This is the Daily Tech News for Wednesday, August 12th, 2026 We tell you what you need to know, give you some important context and try to help each other understand.

**Sarah Lane** (0:17)
Today, the new Pixels are here and we have all the details, of which there are many.

**Tom Merritt** (0:23)
There are quite a few, although they don't look that different. I'm Tom Merritt.

**Sarah Lane** (0:26)
And I'm Sarah Lane.

**Tom Merritt** (0:27)
Let's start with what you need to know with that big story.
Yes, indeed, Google will hold its Pixel event later today, as we are recording this with celebrities like Trevor Noah, but the details on the new Pixel line broke this morning. So let's run through everything we know. They look pretty much the same, with one exception on the back that we'll get to. And everything that's in the Pixel 11 is in the Pixel 11 Pro, so we're just going to start with the Pixel 11 and just know that unless we say otherwise, it's all the same in the Pros, and there's stuff in the Pros that is not in the Pixel 11 The Pixel 11 starts at $899. One big difference off the top is Wi-Fi 6E, whereas the Pro models will have Wi-Fi 7 But all the new Pixels are using Google's own Tensor G6 processor. Now we don't get specs on this, but Ars Technica says from what people are saying out there, it's most likely a custom 7-core ARM chip, has one fewer CPU core than the Tensor G5, and Google keeps talking up its power efficiency. Base storage is up. We're going to talk about how they are not really increasing the RAM, in fact, decreasing it in one case, but base storage on the Pixel 11 starts now at 256 GB. That's double what it used to start with. Android 17 comes on this. You get 7 years of updates.
Gemini can now interact with more apps on the Pixel, so there's more things you can tell it to do as an agent. It can also place calls to businesses for you, which I know Google has had versions of that, but now it's like full on there. They are going to install Rambler, something they announced not too long ago, a voice-to-text service that isn't like putting every single thing you say, every um and ah. It's going to summarize things when you repeat. It's going to get rid of your verbal pauses. It's going to make nice clean text out of your rambling.

**Sarah Lane** (2:26)
So like Tom, you know, Tom, like Tom, you know, that kind of stuff.

**Tom Merritt** (2:31)
Right, it's going to get, it would be like...

**Sarah Lane** (2:32)
Get rid of it.

**Tom Merritt** (2:33)
That's the promise. It would have transcribed that as, so Tom, and just gotten rid of everything else.

**Sarah Lane** (2:39)
That would be helpful for me, actually.

**Tom Merritt** (2:40)
Yeah, Google DeepMind launched SL2T, which will run on all the Pixels. It translates ASL, American Sign Language, into text using Gboard or Live Transcribe. Google says it's the first time someone has done sign language to text. The camera bar is 40% thinner and all glass across the width of the phone. So it looks pretty much the same. It's a little slimmer and on the Pixel 11 fits in your pocket a little better. Slightly larger camera sensor in there to collect more light. Expanded digital zoom up to 30x on the Pixel 11 Magic Capture is a new feature that uses some Gemini magic to pick the best photo frames. So you capture video and photos of the moment without trying to think too much about it, and then it will automatically pick the good frames, crop them and unblur them for you. Creator Suite includes a teleprompter feature, updated speech enhancement capabilities, an option to automatically save clips in an album dedicated to a certain project. Camera Looks is a more authentic or traditional photo filter, and it's not applied after the fact. It's actually implemented in the HDR Plus pipeline.
Google claims you're gonna get 24 plus hours of battery life on all the Pixels, and you can charge it pretty fast in the first 30 minutes, or even faster using the new Extreme Charging Mode.
So there you go. That's all the stuff that's in the Pixel 11
I know you're not a Pixel user, but as an iPhone user, Sarah, does the Pixel 11 sound like a compelling phone for someone?

**Sarah Lane** (4:24)
Yeah, it definitely does. And you're right, I didn't have the Pixel 10, so I wouldn't know in everyday use how much the 11 is that much better. I did find, of all these specs, and they seem pretty great, and we haven't gotten to the pro yet, I know. But some of the stuff, it made me chuckle a little bit, like the more authentic traditional photo way that the camera is supposed to act now, because I think they went too high into, let AI make your picture better than ever.