Pixel 11 Launch Event Set for August 12 With One Big Modem Swap

The countdown to the Pixel 11 launch event no longer runs on rumor. Google started sending media invitations on Tuesday, July 7, for its Made by Google 2026 hardware showcase, set for Wednesday, August 12 at 6 p.m. ET in New York City. The invite confirms a four-phone lineup anchored by the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL, and Pixel 11 Pro Fold.

The invite imagery lands wrapped around a gold metal phone frame, and it arrives the same morning a French pricing leak pushed each Pixel 11 model up to a 256GB base. Together the two moments sketch the broader Pixel 11 launch story: a long-rumored modem swap that finally moves Google away from Samsung’s silicon, set against a price sheet that asks buyers to pay more for storage they might have wanted smaller.

Google Pins the Launch on August 12 in New York

The August 12 Made by Google 2026 invite details confirm that Google is returning to New York for a second year in a row. The keynote starts at 3 p.m. PT / 6 p.m. ET, an hour later than last year’s New York stage, which kicked off at 5 p.m. ET. The Verge, which also received the invite, independently confirmed the evening start time and noted how unusual the late slot is for Google hardware events.

The August 12 date lands a week earlier than last year’s Pixel 10 reveal, which took place on August 20 with a Jimmy Fallon-hosted stage show and shipped the base and Pro phones on August 28. TechCrunch, which broke down the 2025 event, noted that the Pixel Watch 4 and the second-generation Pixel Buds A-Series rode the same stage. Thurrott’s coverage flags the usual caveat: a fifth phone in the entry-level Pixel 11a will most likely wait for a separate event in early 2027. TechAdvisor’s overview of the launch cadence frames the bigger shift: Google used to announce new Pixels in October but has now moved it forward for the last two generations.

The invite’s only printed line stays short: “the next generation of Pixel.” No phone is named outright, but the four-phone silhouette matches the lineup Google has been teasing for months. Carrying four phones and a refreshed smartwatch to a single August stage underscores how compressed Google’s hardware calendar has become in just two years.

What the Gold Invite Already Spills

The invite’s biggest visual tell is a gold-toned metal frame wrapped around a phone shape. Tom’s Guide, which reported the gold hint alongside the leaks, also carried the colorways tied to the four models by tipster Dealabs. The new palette is more muted than the often loud Pixel 10 generation.

• Pixel 11: Light Sterling, Midnight Haze, Fuchsia, Moss
• Pixel 11 Pro: Light Fog, Midnight Haze, Dune, Pine
• Pixel 11 Pro XL: Light Fog, Midnight Haze, Dune, Pine
• Pixel 11 Pro Fold: Midnight Haze, Pine

The phone silhouettes inside the gold frame match the conservative direction CAD-based renders have carried since spring. TechAdvisor’s roundup describes slimmer bezels on the base model, a thinner chassis on the Pro and Pro XL, and a unified camera bump on the Pixel 11 Pro Fold that pulls the flash and microphone into the same housing. None of those tweaks disturbs the camera bar shape that has defined the Pixel line in recent years.

The one fresh design beat is an RGB LED array in the camera bar called “Pixel Glow,” described by tipster MysticLeaks in a full Pixel 11 spec and Pixel Glow leak roundup Android Central published on May 21. Pixel Glow would replace the temperature sensor on the Pixel 11 Pro models with a series of addressable LED dots, similar in concept to Nothing’s Glyph Matrix, intended to flash notifications, alarms, and call alerts on a face-down phone. Android Central’s review of the leak described the rumored implementation as a step sideways from what Pixel fans had hoped for.

The spotlight’s on that ‘Pixel Glow’ rumor. The Dot Matrix-like idea feels just a little disappointing to me.

Nicholas Sutrich, the author of Android Central’s take, wrote that he had been hoping for a light strip that wraps the entire camera bar rather than a dot matrix. Google has not confirmed Pixel Glow, and the feature still sits in rumor territory heading into the invite cycle.

The Modem Switch Most Buyers Will Care About

Beneath the cosmetic shifts sits the year’s most consequential change for actual Pixel owners. 9to5Google reported in October 2025 that Google was running an October 2025 test of the MediaTek M90 modem inside Tensor G6 prototypes, citing a command-line screenshot that identified the M90’s “a900a” baseband on a bootloader codenamed “spacecraft,” versus the Pixel 10’s “deepspace.” The leak is the strongest direct evidence yet that Google plans to leave Samsung’s modem family behind on its 2026 flagships.

MediaTek announced the M90 at MWC 2025 with 12 Gbps peak downlink, dual 5G SIM dual-active support with dual data, and a satellite connectivity feature set Google has needed on its flagships. MediaTek’s own pitch leans on AI-driven power management, a category Google has loudly prioritized across Tensor chips. The M90 also claims an 18% reduction in average power consumption versus prior MediaTek modems. Together those numbers describe why a modem swap has been on Pixel buyers’ wishlists for years.

Samsung’s Exynos 5400i modem shipped inside the Pixel 9 and Pixel 10 generations and largely fixed the overheating that defined the Pixel 6 and Pixel 7. Reports of weaker 5G performance in fringe coverage persisted, though. Dropping that part for the M90 reflects a more aggressive stance: Google is no longer willing to inherit Samsung’s modem path when TSMC is already manufacturing the Tensor G6 on a more advanced process.

The leak trail is still thin. The October 2025 report covers internal testing, not a finished modem board, and Google has not publicly confirmed the swap at any point through the Pixel 10 launch cycle. MysticLeaks’ bootloader screenshot remains the only direct evidence that the M90 is staged for the Pixel 11 build pipeline. The Pixel 11 Pro Fold, whose predecessor used an unusual modem configuration, will be the cleanest test of whether Google actually finishes the swap across the whole family.

The Pixel 11 launch event is also where Google will get its first real audience reaction. Internal testing behind closed doors is one thing; a live keynote reveal, with reviewers and carrier representatives watching, is another. A modem demonstration on stage would instantly validate the year’s most-overlooked Pixel upgrade.

Tensor G6’s GPU Looks Stale Before Launch

Not every chip decision inside Tensor G6 is a fresh pick. Android Central’s May 21 leak summary, drawing on MysticLeaks’ Telegram posts, identified the GPU as the Imagination PowerVR C-Series CXT-48-1536, a part originally launched around five years earlier. AndroidHeadlines, picking up the same leak, called the GPU “five years old” in its own report and noted that the Tensor G5 inside the Pixel 10 already suffered from outdated drivers and a lack of Vulkan 1.4 support, both of which limit gaming performance beyond simple benchmarks.

The CPU half is being upgraded aggressively. The Tensor G6 is expected to pair one ARM C1-Ultra core clocked at 4.11 GHz with four ARM C1-Pro cores at 3.38 GHz and two more C1-Pro cores at 2.65 GHz. AndroidHeadlines noted that MediaTek’s Dimensity 9500 already uses the same C1-Ultra core, suggesting Google is buying into ARM’s latest architecture on the CPU side. Fabrication is reportedly TSMC’s N3P node, with a separate rumor pointing to a 2nm process for the same chip.

Modem, CPU layout, and process are all moving forward. The GPU is the conspicuous piece staying put. AndroidHeadlines put the gap bluntly: the Pixel 10’s performance “ends up being notably inferior” to competitors using newer Qualcomm and MediaTek GPUs, and Google appears to be keeping that same architecture for Tensor G6.

If the modem swap arrives intact and the GPU carries forward unchanged, Tensor G6 lands as a study in contrasts. The Pixel launch event will need more than a fresh gold color and a TPU pitch to convince gamers and graphics-heavy users to upgrade.

EU Pricing Leak and What You’ll Get for It

The same morning the invites went out, French site Dealabs posted a pricing matrix for the Pixel 11 family across Europe. The Dealabs Pixel 11 price sheet Droid Life picked up that morning hides two stories inside its numbers: a €100 increase on the Pixel 11 Pro XL and the Pixel 11 Pro Fold at every storage tier, and a quiet shift in the base model’s entry point from 128GB to 256GB. The starting prices for the smaller Pixel 11 and Pixel 11 Pro are unchanged at their 256GB tiers.

The leaked EU table, as carried by Droid Life, lines up as follows. Storage tiers and prices appear below; the data reflects European retail and may not map directly to US pricing. Tom’s Guide pegged last year’s US lineup at $799 for the base Pixel 10, $899 for the Pro, $1,199 for the Pro XL, and $1,799 for the Pro Fold.

A second leak set, relayed by Android Central from MysticLeaks’ Telegram post, sketched a Tensor G6-era hardware sheet. The specs below are leak-sourced and unconfirmed by Google.

Dealabs’ leak ties the August 12 announcement to an August 20 sale date in Europe. Tom’s Guide reported the same timing and noted that an August 11 pre-announcement call fits the August 12 keynote. EU costs do not directly translate to US pricing, but Tom’s Guide’s straight-line projection, if Google mirrors last year’s patterns, pushes US prices to roughly $899, $999, $1,299, and $1,899. Droid Life framed the increases as part of a broader 2026 chip shortage that has already lifted prices on Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra and Apple’s flagship iPhone 18 Pro.

Pixel Watch 5 Lands on the Same Stage

Google will share the August 12 stage with a refreshed smartwatch. Thurrott, citing the same invite round, expects the Pixel Watch 5 to debut alongside the four Pixel phones, repeating the playbook that paired the Pixel 10 with the Pixel Watch 4 on August 20, 2025. TechCrunch confirmed the same package and noted that a working Pixel Watch 5 prototype earlier surfaced in unusual fashion when a scuba diver near the Caribbean island of St. Martin pulled a Pixel Watch 5 prototype off a Caribbean seabed, with the photos and chipset clues pointing to a faster in-house Tensor chip than the Pixel Watch 4 carried.

An FCC filing for the Pixel Watch 5 surfaced in late June, with Forbes reporting that the watch keeps the 1.4-inch screen size of the Pixel Watch 4 and remains a two-size line. Wearables watchers expect Google to lean on its own silicon rather than Qualcomm’s Snapdragon W5 family. Battery life is the open question; the Pixel Watch 4’s stamina was its quiet strength, and Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has flagged the Pixel Watch 5 as a focal product for Google’s year. Google’s invite does not name the watch, but the August 12 stage is the obvious place to put it in front of buyers already leaning toward a Pixel 11 preorder.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is the Pixel 11 launch event?

Google’s Made by Google 2026 keynote begins at 3 p.m. PT / 6 p.m. ET on Wednesday, August 12, 2026, in New York City, with media invitations sent on July 7.

When will the Pixel 11 go on sale?

Dealabs’ pricing leak pairs the August 12 announcement with an August 20 sale date in Europe. Google will confirm US timing on stage at the keynote.

How much will the Pixel 11 cost?

Leaked EU pricing starts at €999 for the base Pixel 11 with 256GB of storage, €1,199 for the Pixel 11 Pro, €1,399 for the Pro XL, and €1,999 for the Pro Fold, with €100 jumps over 2025 on the two largest models.

Is the Pixel 11 dropping the Samsung modem?

Leak reporting from 9to5Google says Pixel 11 prototypes are running a MediaTek M90 modem in internal testing, replacing the Samsung Exynos 5400i used in the Pixel 10 line. Google has not confirmed the swap.

Will there be a Pixel Watch 5 at the event?

Reports from Thurrott and TechCrunch point to the Pixel Watch 5 debuting at the August 12 keynote, alongside the four new Pixel 11 phones.