Google's most powerful flagships take aim at Samsung's crown.

Samsung/Google/Max Miller/Engadget

Google announced its brand-new Pixel 11 smartphones today, kicking off the autumn tech season as we head toward the launch of the iPhone 18 lineup in September. But this year's elephant is already in the room, and the top-end Pixel 11 Pro and Pro XL will face off against the extremely popular Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra. We'll need to do a full review of Google's new devices to see how they hold up with real world use, but the on-paper comparison is promising.

Google's smartphones may play a distant third in terms of sales to the twin goliaths of Apple and Samsung, but they serve a vital role in the Android ecosystem. When the company that maintains the most popular operating system in the world releases new hardware for that platform, it acts as a sort of road marker for the industry. These are the devices many third-party app developers will be working with, and they often come loaded with exclusive features which may or may not make their way to other brands in the future. In the current era of burgeoning AI, Google also loads the Pixel series with its custom Tensor silicon and uses the devices to showcase new Gemini capabilities.

But the Pixel series also competes against Samsung on its own terms, with its Pixel UI presenting a starkly different vision of what Android can look like compared to Samsung One UI. And whereas Samsung has traditionally focused on cutting-edge hardware, leaving Google to flex its software prowess, the tables have turned. The latest versions of One UI are as hyper-functional as ever, yet still attain an impressive level of visual polish, while Google keeps packing AI features into its Pixel software but lacks that sheer breadth of features. On the hardware front, the Pixel 11 Pro stacks up shockingly well against the S26 Ultra for the first time. So, let's break it all down to see which of 2026's most premium smartphones comes out on top, and which is best for you.

Google's hardware game is on point, but Samsung has mastered the formula

Max Miller for Engadget

The Pixel 11 Pro XL marks a closer hardware match-up than ever against Samsung's Galaxy S26 Ultra. However, the smaller Pixel 11 Pro doesn't quite stack up.

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The inclusion of 12GB of RAM on the 256GB and 512GB storage configurations of both the Pixel 11 Pro and Pro XL is nice to see in a year where memory austerity has gripped the industry. Even better, the 1TB models will ship with a whopping 16GB of RAM. As for Samsung, it offers the exact same storage and memory configurations on the S26 Ultra.

Samsung is well known as one of the world's premiere display makers, and the S26 Ultra comes with a 6.9" LTPO AMOLED panel at a resolution of 1440 by 3,120, a refresh rate of up to 120Hz, and a 2,600 nit peak brightness level in HDR. The Pixel 11 Pro's display measures 6.3" at a resolution of 1,280 by 2,856, while Pro XL comes in at 6.8" and 1,344 by 2,992 pixels, but both have 120Hz LTPO OLED panels which get much brighter than the Samsung  — up to 3,600 nits at peak. Even so, the S26 Ultra's killer feature is the Privacy Display, which uses a set of narrow-angle pixels to hide what's on your screen when viewed off-axis. That feature prevents the screen from getting very bright, but it's quite the magic trick to behold.

The S Pen stylus remains on the S26 Ultra, though it has not recovered the Bluetooth features Samsung stripped away with last year's S25 Ultra. Still, it remains a compelling feature for anyone who likes to take handwritten notes or mark up PDFs on the go.

The main Pixel 11 Pro and S26 Ultra differences pertain to batteries and cameras

Google

The S26 Ultra rocks the same, 5,000mAh li-ion battery found on multiple generations of S Ultra phones, which lasted 30 hours in Engadget's video rundown test, but this year it gets a nice bump in charging speeds from 45W up to 60W. Support for 25W wireless charging is also here, but with no Qi2 magnet ring built into the back of the device, you'll need a compatible case for that. Meanwhile, the Pixel 11 Pro sports a 4,850mAh cell with 30W wired charging speeds, and the 11 Pro XL gets a 5,115mAh cell with 45W wired speeds. Google rates both phones for 30 hours of battery life. Both have PixelSnap, which is simply what Google has branded its implementation of Qi2 magnetic charging rings inside the devices, and both support Qi2.2 wireless charging speeds of 25W.

Camera arrays also differ. Pixel phones have always relied on computational photography to bolster their famously great cameras, while Samsung usually throws on-paper specs at the issue. The Pixel 11 Pro and Pro XL have identical camera arrays, with a 50MP wide sensor alongside a 48MP ultrawide and 48MP telephoto, the latter of which has a 5x optical zoom. The Galaxy S26 Ultra, by contrast, has a 200MP main wide shooter alongside a 50MP ultrawide, 50MP periscope with 5x optical zoom, and a 10MP telephoto with a 3x zoom. Both phones offer AI-enhanced extreme zooming, with the Pixel's 120x Pro Zoom beating out Samsung's 100x Space Zoom on paper.

There are far more subtle differences in terms of focal lengths, apertures, and so on, but we'll need extensive hands-on testing to know which setup produces better end results.

Google and Samsung have different visions for Android software

At least on their spec sheets, Google and Samsung have put up impressive hardware with this year's flagships. Software is far more interesting, with Google's Pixel UI on Android 17 taking a radically different approach compared to Samsung's One UI.

As expected, The Pixel 11 series is focused on AI features. In terms of things that actually sound useful if they turn out to work as advertised, Google is finally adding a feature it first showed off in 2018  — your phone can now use Gemini to call businesses on your behalf, showing you a live transcript and the option to take over the call yourself at any time. For anyone who wants to let their hairstylist know they're not important enough to speak with directly, now is your time to shine. On the other hand, now you get to make your insurance company speak with a robot.

Gemini will now be able to use your apps on your behalf for things like DoorDash orders or calling an Uber. Google has been teasing this for a while and rolling it out in limited capacities to the Pixel 10. Most new flagship Android devices are likely to receive the feature, though there's no telling how well it may work.

There's also a new mode in the Pixel camera app called Magic Capture, which will capture videos and select the best photo frames from them with automatic cropping and unblurring. And the camera also gets Circle to Search, allowing users to run a Google search by pointing it at a subject.

Most intriguingly, we finally see the rumored "Pixel Glow" in action on the Pixel 11 series, which now goes by the official name HiLight. It's an array of LED lights on the camera bar that can be used to convey information from apps, such as notifications or interactions with Gemini. It's really nothing more than a beefed-up take on the LED notification lights that were very common on Android phones in the 2010s, and the many users who have lamented the death of that feature will no doubt be thrilled to see it return here. At launch, it only works to show calls from your favorite contacts and to indicate Gemini activity, so here's hoping Google eventually allows for user customization with other apps.

Material 3 Expressive design language has now fully matured across the Pixel interface, though it's not unique to the new devices. With much of the industry now chasing Apple's Liquid Glass, it's refreshing to see Google pursuing a much different vision, though how you feel about it may depend on whether squiggly lines bring you a sense of whimsy.

As for the S26 Ultra, Samsung's standout software features in One UI 8.5 are more focused on customization. (Though One UI 9 launched on new Galaxy foldables in August, the update has not yet made its way out of beta on the S26 Ultra quite yet.) You can now fully edit the Quick Settings panel, moving and resizing toggles and sliders to your heart's content. A redesigned lock screen makes elements more playful and interactive, including an adaptive clock that will contort itself into shape around the elements of your wallpaper.

The most useful AI features on the S26 Ultra (aside from those housed in Google Gemini) include an improved Audio Eraser, which does feel a bit like black magic. If your favorite YouTuber used distracting background music, Audio Eraser will strip it almost completely away so you can hear the person speaking. When editing video, it can do the same to wind and other unwanted noise. It even works on phone calls, so others can hear you better and vice versa. Samsung's live interpreter is better than you'd expect, and has helped me get through a complex interaction with an Uber driver whose first language I did not speak.

Galaxy products really shine when you use the ecosystem. The S26 Ultra now has Storage Sense, which lets you remotely browse file systems on other Galaxy phones, tablets and laptops. Music Share lets friends piggyback on your Bluetooth connection to play their own jams, perfect for sharing the car stereo during a long drive. And Samsung DeX remains useful as ever for booting up a windowed desktop environment on external monitors and TVs.

The verdict: you come at the king, you best not miss

Max Miller for Engadget

Samsung still has a decent hardware edge over the Google Pixel 11 Pro, but meets a much more even match in the 11 Pro XL. While the Galaxy has what will likely prove a beefier processor, Google is moving aggressively with its own silicon, and has included a proper amount of RAM in a year when many others are cutting corners to save a buck. Software will largely depend on your tastes. Samsung is the obvious choice for customization nuts (unless you're looking to install a custom ROM like GrapheneOS, which for now only supports Pixel phones), but Google's feature set will appeal to those who prefer to let their smartphone do the thinking  — quite literally this time.

But we haven't yet talked about pricing. The Pixel 11 Pro starts at just under $1,100 for the 256GB model, the same price as last year's, but with no 128GB model available this time around. However, the 11 Pro XL begins at $1,300 for the 256GB model, a $100 increase from the Pixel 10 Pro XL with the same configuration. As for the S26 Ultra, you'll shell out $1,300 for the 256GB model, which is similarly the base configuration.

At those prices, the smaller Pixel 11 Pro is likely to bring the most bang for buck, at least if you like a more modest screen size and don't mind the slight battery hit. But between the Pixel 11 Pro XL and S26 Ultra, the latter's performance and feature set along with some truly standout hardware features help to make it the more compelling model. Unless you're looking for Pixel-specific benefits such as immediate updates to the latest Android versions and exclusive AI features that may not make their way onto other devices, Samsung may hold tight to its crown. We'll have full reviews of all the new Pixel devices as soon as possible.