Google launches five new Pixel devices, array of Gemini Intelligence features
SiliconANGLE Maria Deutscher ● Covered by 5 sources
Google rolled out five new Pixels, including a foldable and a watch. The big story is Gemini getting baked into the hardware, from cameras to sign-language text.
Based on reporting by SiliconANGLE, Maria Deutscher — read the original for the full story.
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Google has refreshed its Pixel lineup with five new devices: a foldable phone, three regular smartphones and a smartwatch. All of them arrive with an upgraded version of Gemini Intelligence, the company’s AI feature set for mobile that it introduced earlier this year.
The headliner is the Pixel 11 Pro Fold, an 8-inch handset that folds book-style around a hinge. Closed, it uses a 6.5-inch outer screen made with what Google calls ultra-strong ceramic cover glass. Google product manager Justin Savich says the new hinge improves the crease and that both displays are 20% brighter than last year, hitting 3600 nits.
The rest of the phone range includes the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro and Pixel 11 Pro XL. The first two are 6.3-inch devices; the XL stretches to 6.8 inches. All four phones use Google’s Tensor G6 chip, which the company says has an AI accelerator with 50% more computing power than the previous generation. Google also says on-device AI models can run up to 3.5 times faster, while using less energy.
That extra silicon is doing a lot of work. Google says the Tensor G6 helps deliver 30x zoom on the Pixel 11 and Pixel 11 Pro Fold, while the Pixel 11 Pro and Pixel 11 Pro XL, with a more advanced telephoto lens, go to 120x zoom. There’s also Magic Capture, which can record two-minute videos and save the best frames as photos, plus improved low-light video thanks to a new image signal processor.
Not everything here is about photos. The base Pixel 11 gets a heavily upgraded Gboard that uses an AI model called SL2T to turn sign language into text, letting users talk to Gemini, search the web and do other tasks that way. Google says the feature will spread to more devices later. The Gemini app is also getting a preview feature that puts location-specific data on the lock screen, and some apps will show “glanceable cards” that can surface actions like booking a restaurant table with one tap.
The Pixel Watch 5 joins the launch too. Google says it has 50% more memory than the previous model and a CPU with a 12% performance boost. It also gets Gemini Intelligence Proactive Suggestions, which can pull information from apps and show it on the watch face. The phones start at $899 and rise to $1,299, the Fold is priced at $1,899, and the watch starts at $399.
My take — AI-written commentary, not fact-checked reporting
Google is doing the modern platform-company thing: wrap the AI in hardware, call it helpful, and make the best bits just useful enough that people don’t mind the lock-in. The sign-language feature is the most interesting part here, because that feels like actual access, not just another shiny camera trick. The rest is the usual premium-phone arms race with better numbers and a nicer story attached.
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