Google's New Pixel Phones, Foldable, and Watch: What Just Launched
Google announced its new Pixel 11 phones, a folding phone called the Pixel 11 Pro Fold, a Pixel Watch 5, and several new accessories at a livestreamed event on August 12. The event aired on the Made by Google YouTube channel and the Google Store starting at 6 p.m. Eastern (Mashable).
Trevor Noah hosted the event, the second year in a row Google has used a celebrity host. Jimmy Fallon hosted the 2025 show (The Verge; CNET). Athletes, including NBA players, also made appearances (PCMag). The Verge's Victoria Song attended in person, and The Verge ran a live blog as the announcements happened (The Verge).
One detail stood out before the event even started: reporters and video creators were allowed to publish their hands-on impressions of the new Pixel hardware hours before the livestream. The Verge noted that the keynote was expected to target everyday buyers rather than the tech enthusiasts who follow that early coverage (The Verge).
The Pixel 11 starts at $899, and the Pixel 11 Pro starts at over $1,000 (CNET). Google reduced the camera bar on the back of the Pixel 11 series by 40% compared to earlier models, so the phone is nearly flat when paired with a Made by Google case (Google Blog). Google also announced new accessories, including a Pixel Tag, a small device you can attach to valuables to keep track of them (Google Blog; Google Blog).
Google also announced the Pixel 11 Pro Fold, which it called its most advanced folding phone yet. The company says it is almost 10% lighter and about 1mm thinner than the previous Pixel 10 Pro Fold (Google Blog). The Pixel Watch 5 rounds out the hardware announcements (The Verge).
Google's software continues to arrive alongside the hardware. At the 2025 event, the company introduced a "Take a Message" feature for Pixel, and a June 2026 software update brought additional features (Google Blog).
Google's decision to let reporters publish early hands-on impressions before the livestream is worth pausing on. The approach effectively split the announcement into two phases: a detailed phase for tech press and a spectacle phase with a celebrity host and athletes for the general public. The early coverage handles the spec-level questions from the audience that cares most about those details, while the keynote itself can focus on lifestyle demos, camera features, and brand storytelling aimed at buyers who may never read a hands-on review.
That split makes practical sense for a company whose Pixel line still competes against Samsung and Apple at the high end of the phone market. The $899 starting price for the base Pixel 11 and the $1,000-plus Pro tier place Google's phones firmly in premium territory, and the mainstream-targeted keynote needs to justify that price to a broader audience than the one reading technical comparisons at 9 a.m. The celebrity-hosted format, now in its second year, reinforces that intent: this is a consumer show, not a business briefing.
The 40% reduction in camera bar thickness addresses a complaint that has persisted across recent Pixel models: the camera bump on the back made the phone sit unevenly on flat surfaces. Google's claim that the phone becomes virtually flat when paired with a first-party case also ties the hardware improvement to an accessory you buy from Google. The Pixel Tag enters a category that Apple's AirTag and Samsung's Galaxy SmartTag have filled for years, and its inclusion signals Google's interest in building out its own accessory lineup rather than leaving that to other companies.
What stays consistent across Google's Pixel strategy is the yearly pattern itself: new phones each August, a folding variant, a watch, and gradual software improvements delivered through periodic updates. The Pixel 11 Pro Fold's weight and thickness reductions over the previous model suggest Google is refining its folding phone step by step rather than doing a dramatic redesign. The broader direction is steady improvement in hardware quality and ecosystem breadth, year over year, at prices that require it.
