Pixel 11 Pro XL review: Snappier cameras can’t hide an iterative upgrade

Another new addition to the feature set is Magic Capture, which lets you initiate a video clip and use AI to pull out top moments from the clip that could be saved as photos. This is great for capturing wiggly things like babies or pets, or action shots, as in sports. There are a few limitations, though — the mode doesn’t do well with moving subjects and saves photos only in 12-megapixel resolution.

I have two cats and a dog, so I am going to use this feature frequently! I’ll leave you with a picture of my cat trying to catch a feather, saved by Magic Capture.

Unfortunately, the component crunch has forced hardware companies to raise device prices. Google scrapped the 128GB base model, and while it priced the 256GB model the same as last year’s version for the Pixel 11 and the Pixel 11 Pro, it reduced the RAM size from 16GB to 12GB for both.

The Pixel 11 Pro XL also got a $100 bump from last year’s price.

Because of this, the new Pixels don’t incentivize gadget enthusiasts to upgrade from last year’s phone, despite being solid devices. The camera improvements are notable, and Rambler is great, but some of this will likely trickle down to older Pixels in the future.