Google has announced four new Pixel phones, if you’ve been keeping tabs on them for a while, then you’d know they are: The Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL, and the Pixel 11 Pro Fold (Why they continue to this the Pro Fold is beyond me).

They have also announced the Pixel Watch and the Pixel Tag.

New to the Pixel phones is the HiLight. It is the light fixture in the camera bump, which is designed for two things. The first, is to let you know Gemini is listening–actively, at least. And the second, is to let you know that a favorite contact is reaching out–this way, if your phone buzzes, you can ignore it if it’s someone you deem unimportant (LOL).

The hardware aspect of these devices are nothing to write about. Sure, they use a Tensor G6 processor, which we can guess is probably fifteen to twenty percent more efficient. Their screens have about 3000 or more nits of brightness, which is only ever really useful while outdoors against the sun. You’d probably never want 3000 nits of brightness in the middle of the night. That would be like getting banished to the Shadow Realm, Seto Kaiba style (Yugioh, anyone? Can’t be that old, am I?).

Instead, Google does what Google does best, which is software development. The Pixel phones are running on Android 17 and get the full support of Gemini, which Google is now dubbing Gemini Intelligence. This includes AI agents that can book rides. So, imagine launching Gemini to tell it to book you a ride to your destination, without you launching the app itself and typing in where you need to go.

Google says Gemini Intelligence will be capable of doing things, thanks to its contextual awareness. For instance, it can read your Gmail, and understand you need certain things, and it will add them in your shopping cart. It can check your calendar and let you know if you would be available on free dates when you get messages of friends wanting to hang out. It’s all about saving a minute or two of your time, to do something else, I suppose, like, doomscroll. Rather, it’s all about doing things for you so you don’t have to, think, about it.

Rambler is also a new feature, which lets you record your voice to text, and it can automatically remove filler words, like all those ums and, like, you know, just the words that anyone typically mutters when vocally forming their sentences.

Circle to Search is available through the camera app. So you can just point at something and circle to search it, without the need to actually capture a photo. There is also a new thing called Magic Capture, which captures videos and photos of “moments,” which Google says allows users to “live it.” For instance, concerts, so you don’t have to stare at the phone when My Chemical Romance arrives later this year, as the Magic Capture will automatically capture and clean it up for you.

Then there’s Camera Looks, which is basically a set of filters based on films. This was probably born out of that attempt to replicate a Wes Anderson color-style that blew up a few years ago.

Perhaps one of the new things introduced in the Pixel 11 series that is genuinely impressive and useful is the sign-to-text. This is sign language. The Pixel phone can translate sign language into texts, which makes communication accessible for people who use it. I cannot wait for this feature to expand to other devices, because this is actually a solution to a problem. It’s something some users may never get to use, but the option for it to be there is very much a welcomed one.

The Pixel Watch 5 specs sheet, like the phones, we can view as being fifteen or twenty percent more capable. Google says Pixel Watch 5 can track blood oxygen and insulin resistance, and improved sleep tracking data.

And finally, the new Google product, the Pixel Tag, which is a bluetooth tracker. You can track it not just with your Android device but also through your Pixel Watch. This can be handy for travellers to keep track of your belongings.

Officially there is no Google store available in the Philippines. But we’ll be keeping track of stores that sells them locally if you want to check them out for yourself.