The Pixel 11 Pro fixes my biggest complaint about older Pixel flagships

The brand new Pixels are lastly right here: Google took the wraps off the Pixel 11, 11 Professional, 11 Professional XL, and 11 Professional Fold final week. Highlights of the sequence embrace a brand new kind of notification indicator known as HiLight, iterative enhancements to imaging and charging, and better base storage throughout the board. After all, the sequence additionally introduces some new colorways — and this yr, Google’s Professional telephones are unusually vibrant.

It’s usually been the case that higher-end telephones like Apple and Google’s Professional fashions and Samsung’s Extremely flagships have a tendency to come back in additional subdued colours than their extra inexpensive counterparts. You may get final yr’s vanilla Pixel 10 in deep blue or sharp yellow-green finishes, for instance, whereas the Pixel 10 Professional is obtainable in white, grey, black, or a pastel inexperienced.

However the Pixel 11 Professional is available in a number of interesting finishes, and it appears like a part of a development that I hope continues.

The usual Pixel 11 is obtainable in 4 finishes. Three are pretty opinionated: there’s a pastel purple (Frost), daring magenta (Hibiscus), and a form of gold-green (Pistachio), together with a fundamental black (Obsidian). However for the primary time that I can bear in mind, the Professional model truly is available in extra fascinating colorways.

Apart from the Fold, the 11 Professional can be accessible in 4 colorways, two of that are particularly eye-catching. There’s Canyon, which is a peachy shade with coppery accents, and Olive, an earthy inexperienced with gold trim. Both of those finishes might have stood out because the “hero shade” of the lineup — assume the Cosmic Orange iPhone 17 Professional or the Lavender Galaxy Z Fold 8.

Even the 11 Professional’s less-flashy shade choices are extra fascinating than what Google’s provided recently. The impartial gentle choice this yr is Fog, a nice gentle blue with shiny silver-colored trim — hardly loud, however extra memorable than the exceedingly plain white-and-silver Porcelain end we received with the Pixel 8 Professional, 9 Professional, and 10 Professional.

The 11 Professional’s impartial darkish choice continues to be Obsidian, however it manages to face out with its all-matte end, a element borrowed from Pixel Watch’s Obsidian fashions (from Pixel 7 Professional by 10 Professional, the Obsidian colorway got here with shiny darkish grey trim). Pictures don’t fairly do these finishes justice — however in movement, I believe they’re very interesting.

Shopper tech nerds like myself have been complaining for years that base-model smartphones are likely to get all of the “enjoyable colours” whereas the high-end fashions that we truly wish to use are caught with a handful of impartial finishes and, if we’re fortunate, one vibrant hero shade. It is sensible, intuitively: the Professional branding implies a level of seriousness that flashy finishes would possibly conflict with, a minimum of in principle.

Nevertheless it appears like that’s all shifting recently. Each telephone within the Galaxy S26 sequence is obtainable in the identical six colours, and the Cellphone 17 Professional is available in each brilliant orange and darkish blue finishes (although the usual 17 does provide 5 colorway choices to the Professional’s three). With Google hopping on the colourful Professional flagship bandwagon, I believe we’re lastly there: high-end telephones not look boring in comparison with their cheaper counterparts.

Do some contemporary colours benefit dropping $1,100 on a brand new telephone? I definitely don’t assume so, and I’m nonetheless sticking with my Pixel 9 Pro for now (in Rose Quartz, naturally, the only real non-neutral colorway that telephone is available in). However I do need to admit I’m fairly envious of the brand new Olive and Canyon finishes on Pixel 11 Professional — I believe they’re the best-looking Pixels but.