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Welcome to Pixelated episode 99. I'm your host, Will Saddleberg. It's a true double header this week as Damian Abner and myself dive into the latest rounds of Pixel 11 leaks. How big of a deal is that GPU downgrade? How much should we read into that RAM decrease? And does all of this spell trouble for Google's grander plans for mobile AI? But that's not the only hardware discussion we have this week because Fitbit has finally returned with its long rumored displayless air wearable. Wear wearable. What's it do? Who's it for? And does it offer better value than its closest competitor in Whoop. All of that and more starts right after this word from our sponsor, Proton.
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I just wanted to set that out straight away because that's in the back of my mind on this podcast. But we want we're talking I mean that in that also kind of brings to light some of the things we talk about a lot on the podcast. And we've had a leak this week about Pixel 11. What else? uh details about potentially new camera hardware tensor G6 details which I'm a little bit kind of yeah do you get what I'm saying there? Specifications as well. Uh do you think we've talked to death about the Pixel 11 yet or do you think we need to get into more? I think we need to get into more. But just tell me your overriding thoughts straight away guys. I'm
intrigued to hear what you think given we've had a fair amount of leaks already. Yeah, I mean this looks generally like what I would have expected based on the fact that they don't seem to be this seems to be a third iteration on the core Pixel 9 design family, right? Like Google is clearly taking their time and rolling out whatever is next for Pixel. And I think that is true. You can see that in these specs. What is surprising to me more than the consistency is the couple of places where uh it does they are getting downgraded. I don't know if we want to start there. I think downgraded is what I would have said it might we may be being strong I guess with downgraded but well I not on the RAM is 100% downgrade.
Yeah. So if maybe we start with that because I actually think the memory is the big conversation here even more so than the GPU. I think the memory means more to Google. Um, but basically the it looks like instead of as we saw with the Pixel 10 series where the base model had 12 gigabytes of RAM, the Pros had 16. Correct me if I'm wrong in that either of you. I believe I'm right on that. Uh, the 11 will go down to having two tiers on each model. So, the 11 will have an 8 GB and 12 GB tier, presumably centered around what storage capacity you pick, I would guess. Um, and then the Pros will have 12 or 16. So, the base models of each tier of Pixel 11 essentially will get a four gigabyte RAM decrease.
That feels like the biggest feel like the future. This does not feel the future. This is very dumb and very stupid and especially for Google. Yeah. But Google in particular, if you're going to center and this is sort of the argument I had about being frustrated over the 128 GB starting tier uh for the Pixel uh 10 and 10 Pro. If you're building an AI phone uh then things like RAM and storage matter more than ever, right? storage because you have this massive um I think relatively speaking massive uh local model that takes up sevenish gigabytes of space on your phone. That's a lot when you're talking
about 128 gigabytes cuz you don't get all 128 gigabytes to begin with. Um and then on the memory side, I think that's fairly obvious. I mean, the whole reason we're in this RAM shortage to begin with is the AI crunch. And so it's so weird, isn't it? Like well it's so circular where you're like Google is downgrading the Pixel 11's RAM like starting RAM quotas because of the AI race that they are a massive part like it just it is very funny how it loops back. It's a feedback loop. Yeah. And so but the end result is end users buying a Pixel 11 will have a you know especially the base model if you get a 128 GB 8 gigabyte base model will have a worse experience. and probably possibly have access to
fewer features compared to something like the Pixel 10, at least, you know, moving forward. Who knows what the future holds. Yeah. How Google is going to handle that is going to be really I'm really curious how Google ends up handling that in terms of how they tell people that this despite it having the same name doesn't have all the features. um as you can see with the A series but at on but on the flip side the A series people seem to be fine without it. Yes, but this is a really good this is literally what I was about to say trying to take out the words out of my mouth a little bit
there Abner is does this therefore create a bit of an issue now with regards to the A series moving forward if we have a device that let's it's not spec for spec but the core internals of the A series have been 8 GB of RAM 128 gig base pretty much by the buy numbers everything else uh give you the minimum viable product for a Pixel phone, right? Do we potentially think that this is going to cause some issues now for the Pixel 11a? Because if they have this issue where the Pixel 11 drops down to 8 GB of RAM as a base, we don't know the storage yet because this leak doesn't provide that. Does this kind of bit create a bit of a separation between what's going to be capable with regards to those AI models and Gemini moving forward? Or does
Gemini therefore get I don't know, we maybe have like a an even lighter model for the Pixel 11 versus the Pixel 11 Pro. like are we going to see some sort of like insane split between the mainline series and then does that mean that the A series even matters anymore? And I mean I personally think that Google could just roll it all into one and have the A series launch as the base anyway. But I don't know. What were you guys thinking? That's that's such a complicated question because I think Google is perhaps in the worst like space it could be uh compared to its competitors in the Android hardware space, right? Like Samsung has to worry about its raw specs on the next device and how that relates to its
um you know the essentially its price, right? like it needs to look at like when it's planning out the Galaxy S27, what can we put in this phone to achieve a price that people will be willing to pay? And that might be one $200 more expensive than the S26 series, but that's really the math that they're doing, right? Google because they are stewards of Android and the Gemini company and Pixel is the Gemini phone in a way that the S26 is really not the Galaxy iPhone no matter what Samsung wants you to think. they have to not only balance out what is the price to performance ratio we can get for customers right now that they're going to be willing to pay but also how do these specs relate to
what we want this hardware to do this year and for the next 6 years right like it's so complicated and so when you see them suddenly being like we have to dial this RAM back down to a series levels you start thinking like does this halt or slow down some of the things they might have wanted to do locally with Gemini on this on their future hardware like will the perform you know and two years ago they might have been mapping this out being like and in 2026 all of our phones will start with 16 GB of RAM and now they can't do that like I don't know that for sure but like certainly these constraints are going to also constrain the software side of Pixel I mean to play devil's advocate
though does this potential constraint trained and I do think this is what Google have done probably better than a lot of other manufacturers out there. They've been doing this since what the Pixel 3a proving that they can make an exceptional software experience with minimal potential hardware. Does this therefore I mean with regards to the A series, if the 11 if the 11A is becomes a real thing, we do get an 11A and I don't think there's any evidence to suggest that we're not going to, does this potentially mean that the A series is now going to get a leg up more than they have for a while? Because if you have the base model of the Pixel
10, uh, sorry, Pixel 11, the upcoming Pixel 11, effectively what ends up being potentially the same as the Pixel 11 A, we're just taking what we have with the Pixel 10a, almost spec identical, save the chipset. Surely this mean, and you said they're going to have to support them for six years because of the whole sevenyear update cycle. There's gonna there's potent there's potentially going to be some benefits there that we maybe don't necessarily think about, but at the same time that's going to cause problems for Google almost. Uh what would it means everything has to be in the cloud.
Yeah, basically absolutely not an issue which is absolutely not an issue. But I think Google sees it Google clearly wants the Pixel to have large a lot of capabilities that can be handled on device. Everybody else want that but I honestly don't think it's there yet on device AI in terms of the features that Google has demonstrated to date. So it's just not there yet at Magic Q. What is people's usage of Magic Q? But also it's very clear that private compute core thing where it's a hybrid model that is I still think in terms of genuine functionality and utility that's where we're going. Look at the task automation screen automate screen automation stuff that is still handled in the cloud. I generally think we're a good two, three, four
generations out before we get any meaningful ondevice AI experiences. I'm curious to see what Apple brings with the more powerful chipsets, what they can demonstrate, but I don't think we're there yet. And to continue the devil's advocate argument, it's probably a non-issue for now for this generation. But at the same time, I do kind of think that distinguish uh limiting the RAM based on storage. I feel like they shouldn't do that for their quote unquote flagships. And if anything, this is a stronger case for maybe expanding the 10A line, the A series line with a big and a small and a screen size wise, which is what people care about at the end of the day.
Yeah, that could be smart. I the only thing I want to say is not so much I agree with you like the ondevice stuff is not there today and like I um I feel like I'm the resident AI skeptic of the three of us or at least the most defin I'm willing to like like don't get me wrong like I don't think I frankly like I would uninstall Gemini uh Nano from my Pixel if I didn't have this job because it's 7 GB of space that I don't think is used well like I think you are better off giving that 7 gigabytes to your music app and having 7 GB of saved music. My thing is more that like if we are 2 3 4 years away, Abner, as you're saying, I think this slows us down even more. I think this pushes us three, four, five, six years away from
this stuff really mattering. And that matters less to Samsung than it does to Google. It matters less to Motorola than it does to Google. Like Google wants to not just be the Android device you're picking, but also the company that is pushing Gemini and AI on Android forward more so than any other company. And so I think this I have to imagine they are frustrated by this internally. Like there's no way they want to be making this change. Um and I just think it's interesting. I think it comes at an interesting time. I think it's it's so tricky for me to relate it back to the A series. Honestly, Dave, like I wasn't I feel like I didn't give you a great specific answer there, but it's because I don't I
don't know what happens. Like do they just raise prices across the board? Google's kind of the one company on the Android side of things. We haven't seen touch prices at all, you know? And I assume that's coming, but like is the next A series device $600? And what does that mean for the rest of the lineup? Does this year's 8 gigabyte 128 gigabyte Pixel 11 start at $900? I don't know. Like it's such a I mean I wrote a piece this week that was basically just like nobody's doing phone upgrades anymore and you're paying more for hardware that is essentially what you could have bought last year. Like go buy 2025 hardware at this point. Like I think that more than ever. I think I think one of the saving graces could
potentially be if um if there isn't huge uptick in pricing, maybe Google can do some software shenanigans with regards to using onboard memory to kind of overcome the shortcom with the lack of RAM. And it isn't a lack of RAM, isn't it? It's just the fact that they've gone from 12 GB on the base potentially to eight now to the base. You lose four gigabytes of RAM. does potentially not give you as much performance overhead as you'd expect. They could potentially be like um per genuine day-to-day performance degradation. Granted, I do think the Pixel 10A and the 9A specifically haven't been quite as they don't feel exponentially slower than the other devices. Even though they have a slightly lesser chip and less RAM, it does mean that there's certain
functionalities like pixel screenshots and some of the ones that Google has given exc I'm going to call it excuses to be quite honest with you, excuses for them not existing on their devices. There is nowhere to hide next time when they make it on the A series. So, it's kind of like they're making a rod for their own back a little bit where it's a case of we're having to make these changes. either it's a cost-saving measure which it sorry it is a cost-saving measure or lack of availability of the stuff that they can get on mass like maybe Samsung can potentially kind of shoulder it a bit more because they have more devices they're going to sell Google isn't going to sell in the same volume
and they can't make the same cut the same deals potentially with the companies that they need to acquire this uh memory and storage from it there's going to leave a really bad taste in the mouth for the people who potentially want to upgrade to this device you like you There is definitely a lot of people are holding on to their devices longer and there's going to be potentially a group of people using the Pixel 8 Pro, which oddly recently is our most popular device by readers and listeners of this podcast is a Pixel 8 Pro. If you were looking to upgrade after 3 years to the Pixel 11, you might be looking at it and thinking, I'm not getting enough of a big swing in internals and whatever else happens
to be to justify the upgrade this time around. So there is more than just looking at the specifications. There is a lot of things that come to play especially for the kind of enthusiastic people who have used pixels in the past and have been part of this kind of growing train of and movement of people switching to Google devices. I'm I'm in the back of my mind I'm I'm worried but I do I don't doubt Google will do their utmost to optimize for this experience. It's just yeah that they have to nail this. They have to nail the nail this out of the gate again. Uh and they have since the 9 series I think for the most part. Um but this yeah this is this feels like the a bit of a line in the sand a little bit in some respects.
Let's just get into some of the GPU stuff as well because there is another change potentially here. We may have some good news for the CPU performance. Maybe some things that don't make sense right now with regards to the GPU. Um, I guess to the enthusiast out there, you're not looking at this device anyway, but the enthusiast out there is the kind of person who's going to scrutinize this. What do we think so far in terms of like cuz we've looked at this in detail, haven't we? Over the last 24, 48 hours that this news has been available.
Yeah. Look, I'm like the wrong person to talk about the tensor GPU controversy cuz like I have not thrown anything at my Pixel 10 that has struggled to perform. By which I mean Pelatro runs fine. Um Vampire Survivors runs fine. The thing I would say is that clearly people are frustrated by this. like there is a core audience that wants the Pixel series to be a proper flagship. Um I don't it's it's difficult for me to like this is clearly not like what Google wants it to be. Now that is complicated by the fact that the rim decreases not to bring that back but also like sort of eat into the vision of Google's like this is for AI like pitch you know what I mean like if the pitch is yeah okay it's not as good as at gaming as the OnePlus
15 or the Galaxy S26 Ultra but its AI performance and its AI skills are out of this world like where does that tie back into the RAM thing where you're like well now I'm getting downgraded across the for it and who knows when I'm going to end up paying for this. Um certainly not less, right? Like they're not doing all this and then being like and the Pixel 11 is back to $700. That's not going to happen. Um so it's it's tricky for me to see it. Now that said, this seems like a really it I can't tell you if it's a downgrade outside of like I guess the model is technically like one generation older than what they're using now. Um what that means for raw performance. what that means. I don't even understand like why I guess
it's tricky for me to see what this means for performance because I don't even understand why they're making this jump. So, I have to imagine there is some reason for this. Is it cost cutting? Is it that they cuz it does seem like they have upgraded this to a 2026 variant that includes uh Vulcan 1.4 support. So, so does it, you know, is it fine in this upgraded version? Did they get a is it cheaper but providing the same performance as last generation? Like I don't know. But I think my conclusion on this I think where I am at right now with what we know is basically like I expect the GPU in the Pixel 11 to perform very
similarly to the one in the Pixel 10. And if you are frustrated by that, then I would skip this generation. But that's clearly not what Google has its priorities set on at the Yeah, it definitely feels as though it definitely feel I mean on paper obviously leaks are it is just sometimes just a list of things and a lot of speculation in between which obviously we're doing in this podcast but it definitely feels like the things that people want to hear coming out of these leaks are never seem to align if that makes sense. So if this is actually going to be based on a 2021 GPU design updated for 2026 I don't think that looks good on face value. I am sure that there is some element of internally
at Google saying we want the best GPU performance and what's what's also really weird is the fact that AI is so GPU intensive in those data servers. Yeah. On devices it doesn't I guess it doesn't matter as much. I that's just a an aside note, but I don't necessarily think people were coming and expecting well if you were expecting like exponential performance gains from GPU and gaming performance, that's not a good sign because it has the Tensor G5 has struggled a little bit this year. Um, and everyone's kind of waiting for a GPU firmware update. Yeah, it does leave a bit of a sour taste in the mouth in a lot of
respects, but at the same time, I think it when you've been around Google and Google products for a long time, you kind of understand that it isn't always necessarily the final sum of its parts in the same way that it would be with Samsung. You need every single thing running at 100% on Samsung to get the best experience. I don't think Google needs to rely on that much because the software and the optimizations do so much heavy lifting and I'm kind of hopeful that is the case this time around. But I don't think they can hide behind potentially using a 5-year-old GPU design if that is essentially what they're doing. Um, again, I'll save judgment until we finally get to see these devices and get
to test them out for ourselves and people put them through those kind of stress tests. But I'm content with Pixel 10 performance, even Pixel 10a performance because like you will the vast majority of my gaming is Batro which can run on a freaking smartwatch at this point in time. So there isn't much you can do. There isn't much you can't run that on. Um, let's The only other final talking point I think we have from this leak specifications is potentially some changes to the well how the ISP is going to work and that is related to potentially getting new main sensors on uh all of the Pixel 11s I believe. So, we don't know exactly what this sensor is going to be. Could be a return to a 50 megapixel on the base model. I like
that. I think that's a really good choice. um potentially a better telephoto on the Pixel 11 Pro and then maybe some changes to the Pixel 11 Pro 4, but again that one doesn't seem as clear. I don't know. Do we think Google is due a well overdue a big camera upgrade because we kind of it's almost like we've been working with this 50 megapixel setup across the board and I personally have to say in the last few years it almost feels as like Google hasn't really led from the front on the camera side of things as much as they probably should. Yeah, it's so frustrating that it's like Google has always been slow to provide sensor upgrades to its cameras, right? That's that's been Pixel's thing since the jump. I believe the Pixel 2 had a
different sensor, but then that sensor was used for like three generations, I think, something like that. Um, give or take a gen. Mhm. Uh I have to be honest with you though, like it's it's I so I think the thing is in a pre-tensor era, right, the Mark Lavoy era of Pixel, like yes, the sensors would be repeated for several generations at a time, but the processing would improve generation over generation. the things that were happening behind the scenes in terms of what was happening with computational photography when whenever you hit that shutter button got better from the two Pixel 2 to the Pixel 3 to the Pixel 4 and so on and in the tensor
era in a postmark Lavoy era it's they have they have repeated the process of keeping sensors the same for over generations but they have not provided in my opinion improvements or advancements to their processing they certainly you know ultra HDR etc etc but lots of those things are actually sort of the bane of my existence when it comes to modern mobile photography. Um, so I find it difficult to get excited over the promise of new sensors, particularly from any North American smartphone brand because I know it's just going to kind of like they'll they'll re they'll it'll have new hardware, but it's not going to be the leap that I want it to be to get up to the performance we're seeing on models from Chinese brands like OPPO and
Vivo. Like I that's what I think the Pixel should be doing with their camera or they should be on par with those companies. Like there's no reason Google should not be on par with an OPPO. And yet like I just know that like these phones will have new hardware and I will snap a photo and I will go may maybe it's a little better than last year's. I just like it's so much software and the hardware changes that companies like Google and Samsung make when they do upgrade their sensors are so slim that I just I find it with no specs here. I find it very difficult to get excited. I'm I mean I don't know how you feel about this ABNA because obviously we're when I have this situation where we're going to IO in a
couple of weeks time and I want to have the best camera in my pocket as possible if that makes sense. I want to be able to capture the best I potentially can even though I'm going to carry my actual dedicated camera with me and I know that that will slap a mobile phone camera to pieces. I think now I'm less inclined and this is ridiculous to say even though the consistency is so darn good on a Pixel and I think the clue is in the name of the device. You kind of have to h you kind of have to live and die by the camera with if you have pixel in the name and it's it's related to pixel, megapixel, whatever it happens to be.
There has to come a point in which Google looks at themselves and say, "We need to start making some more gains in this camera side of things." Consistency is only part of the equation. And I don't find myself wanting to take my Pixel to these kind of things like I used to. Um, and that I don't know, it just feels weird to do that. It feels weird that I'm going to go in with a Pixel 10 Pro Fold and think it could be better. I could have a better camera in my pocket. I could have a I don't know. took I could take one of the Vivo devices I've tried for the first time this year and it's insane. I don't know. I know you're an A series enjoyer.
Yeah, just speaking personally, I've kind of chilled out. I guess there one is the hassle of switching because RCS and that whole transfer thing. Neither here nor there. But I've kind of chilled out in terms of being perfectly fine with the A series uh camera and how it works. Again, my other camera is the iPhone Air, and that's just one sensor. Um, the telephoto is a pain, especially when you're traveling. You do notice that you're losing it, that you're losing the zoom capabilities. But I mean, how did you cope with that when we went to Barcelona? Because we did, like this is just behind the scenes for the listener. We went when we were at MWC, we were we did a lot of touristy stuff and I was using
the 10A at the time and then in tandem with that, I was using the S26 Ultra. I knew that if I wanted to get those kind of close-up shots, it's going to have to be the S26 Ultra, even though I do prefer the images and the image, like the kind of quality experience with the 10a. I don't know. How did you cope with that? Cuz I don't think I asked you at the time. I made my piece for the 10 camera and the iPhone air camera. It's just whatever's convenient, which is, you know, I do agree that Pixel, like given the name, they do have to bring it up. I wonder if this requires a massive
redesign if we want to start pushing those best possible sensors. If the camera bar is not big enough or whatever, I do wonder if that's that's the goal. But I do feel like in the context of to bring it back to the AI discussion, it does kind of feel like dual's priorities are heavily on AI right now. That being said, there's absolutely a case to boost up the camera stuff again. Yeah, I guess we'll have to wait and see, but the telephoto changes look like one of the most interesting to me because that's an area in which the 10 series with that pro is it ProRes zoom?
I always forget the name of it. The results can be fantastic. it for what for whatever reason from ProRes Zoom they change it to Pro Zoom mid cycle on the even on the marketing it's and the camera app it's weird I don't know what that was about if I knew that yeah c can I if I can speak anecdotally for a second let me just make a one big picture point about the camera I it's just that I remember those early generations like people like regular people like iPhone users in my life like knew of Pixel as the phone brand with really good camera. That did not that obviously did not get them to jump ship from iMessage, but they clearly did like I people in my life who do not pay attention to this stuff knew that the Pixel camera was
like very good and to like to the point where like people would ask me to be to take the photo I had a Pixel 100%. I think we've lost that in the last few years. That's it's I don't remember the last time somebody told me that. I don't remember the last time I pulled out a Pixel. I think it's because the ceiling is just so high all the I think everything in North America is basically the same. I think it's basic but I mean that in a derogatory sense like I mean that in a like it's everything is like kind of gray and we've we've removed shadows like contrast. Oh yeah, don't talk to me about that.
Dead. Nobody likes none of these companies like contrast. just have everything be evenly lit and um both softened and then sharpened and uh you know if you're on an iPhone, you can kind of tweak it with their like the most finicky like awful experience I've seen of like what is it what's it called? What's their color? People like that. I like it too. It just sucks setting it up. But I wish something like that was on pixel. I mean even stuff like that where it's like I feel that has to be at this point. M let's let some let's um I don't know like make the if you can't improve the processing anymore if computational photography has reached its end point apparently based on the last few generations of pixel upgrades and we're
not putting more impressive sensors in here to get performance out of the hardware then at least let me like make it easier for me to tweak the final output and make it more personalized to me the way Apple does. It is it's so weird to me that the iPhone allows you to essentially make more personalized images out of the gate than most Android phones, but certainly the Pixel. I don't know. Like I'm just very I am very All of this comes from a place of love, by the way. Like all of this frustration that I've had throughout this last 32 minutes, probably cut 2 minutes of this, 30 minutes of this podcast is me being like, I love this lineup of phones and I want them to do better and I want them
to be obviously the best on the market and right now it's like they're totally fine phones. Like I'm happy to recommend them to people, but I'm also like I struggle to get excited over any of this. Yeah. I think that might be a symptom though of this. We're in this kind of we're having a bit of a refresh cycle, which I think was everything Google needed to do for a long time. Try not to throw the baby out with a bath water every year. Just basically uh I don't know if you guys would have this, but this is a very football soccer phrase. It would be world class fundamentals. Do the basics to a worldass level and then everything else will fall into place. And I think that's
Yeah. So they need to do they need to continue to do that. And it I'm just ready for them to move. Yeah, I think we've seen the Pixel 9 enough times now that we kind of want to see the Pixel 12. But yeah, uh one more thing before we kind of wrap up this all this Pixel 11 um stuff before. I'm no doubt we'll we'll hear more about it in the coming months. But it does look like we are not going to get the face unlock hardware with this Pixel 11 that was kind of rumored a few months ago, maybe six, seven months ago, I think it was. I think it's is it project Tuscana? Doesn't look like that's gonna happen this time around. We're probably going to be sticking with maybe some improvements to the softwarebased face unlock.
I think that again is a little bit of a disappointment. I mean, show of hands, who you hear uses face unlock? I am not a face unlock enjoyer if I'm being completely honest with you. No, I'm on the Pixel. It's fingerprint. And actually, I prefer that over the iPhone. I'll do it. I'll be the listener out there. You didn't expect me to be the pro face unlock person, but I love face unlock the Pixel. I think it's really good. I um I have basically used it reliably since when did it get really good? Was it the nine? Uh 8 series, I think, was very good for me.
8 series. Yeah. And I Yeah. So, basically whenever they added whatever generation they added the abilities to unlock like bank apps with it um was when I felt like it got like pretty solid. I essentially my pixel is always unless it's like pretty dark like even like evening levels of light are to are typically fine. It's just in the complete dark or very dim that I have to rely on fingerprint. But um yeah, I actually really like current gen face unlock on the Pixel. I would love for it to be better, but I do think what they have now is the best on Android. Like I certainly think it's better than Samsung. I've always found curious is that when they made that when they
updated the um algorithms and using the tensor chip to do that uh flat face unlock what they never went into the technicals of it. They just said it was out there. They just said more app supported but they have never gone into the details and the specs. And I always found that curious why they never Yeah. Usually if you make that technological breakthrough whatever they would Google usually talks a great deal about it but they just haven't with this and that always struck me as odd. Yeah very it's very weird. It is very reliable and very fast. I think it definitely reminds me of early OnePlus face unlock which was the most insecure.
Uh I was going to say POS but I think that's the political way to describe it. It was literally the most insecure. you could use like a photo for it. I think Google's approach has been very odd given their kind of the solely and the way they handled it with the Pixel 4, which was fantastic. It was still the best face unlock I've experienced, even better than the iPhone. Um I'm a big fingerprint scanner enjoyer, although I'm not a big fingerprint scanner enjoyer of the Pixel 10 Pro Fold for positive reasons. It's too fast, it's too accurate, it's too quick. the amount of times I grab the phone out of my pocket and it unlocks. That's by the buy. That's capacitive.
We'll park that to the side. I feel that. I absolutely feel that. I think that I would love to see Google do some more with face unlock and it's just disappointing it's not going to be this year if they're going to give they could have just given with one hand and yeah taken away a little bit the RAM stuff and improved it with software soft hidden it with software optimizations and I would have been fine with it. I think I think this definitely is a little bit more of like a knife in the back in terms of what the Pixel 11's coming. But again, we'll save judgment. I It's just we wanted to round that one out. Last Pixel 11 bit tidbit for the week. Quite a lot to dive into and we'll have more to dive into, I'm sure, as the
months progress because it's it's definitely rapidly approaching Pixel 11 launch period and you can tell from the this deluge of information coming out there. But we have another piece of hardware which is currently just as we're talking has been dropped. It's been released. It's available for pre-order. The brand new Fitbit Air. I quite like the name. Quite like I don't know you if you guys like the I quite like it. A wearable no screen in the old school I guess in the Whoop style design. I guess maybe not in the same thing. We've also there then had Google Health which is a brand new massive launch. It's going to replace the Fit application. Um this is huge for a Thursday in May. It is preio pre-android
show. Uh Google has a new health strategy. It is they are retiring the Fitbit brand for anything but hardware. The software is now Google Health. Bring it into its fold into its usual branding fold. Uh some closely AI connections but let's start the hardware. It is we haven't worn it yet but it is very small. Google Fitbit's lightest tracker. Um, even lighter than the Inspire 3, especially since it doesn't have a screen. It is just a pebble underneath. It is a pebble that you saw eyed into a band. The band removal mechanism from what we've seen is pretty easy. Uh, $100. It the hardware is just equivalent to It doesn't have everything that the Pixel Watch has. It's missing some things, but
it's pretty close. For example, there's no uh stepped uh there's no uh floor tracking. There's no altimeter from what I can tell. And yeah, it's the only interaction that you can have is it vibrates um for to wake up in the morning and you can set any other alarm you want in the Google Health app. So, that's pretty straightforward. Um, but yeah, it is hardware-wise. It is there's not much to it. The emphasis in Google's design process was something that you can wear all day 24/7 that you don't have to think about taking off 7 days of battery life. The lack of GPS, uh, standalone GPS absolutely makes sense, but that's it is what it is. Um, yeah, it's the hard way. It's $100 undercuts
the Whoop, which I'm of the opinion that it's Google is taking a slight down market. They're going after a bit of a more down market audience where Whoop is going after the four athletes. I as seen from the Pixel Watch when they did their big health focus, I really don't think that Google wants that the highest of the high-end market in terms of addressics. This to me feels very much like a return to the start point of Fitbit. People who want to get active, they don't need all of the data points. They just want a little bit of information. And originally the Fitbit was step counts, right? Step count and heart rate.
I think the design of the band is I like the simp the simplicity and the elegant elegance of it. I think elevate it above some of the other potential devices from the likes of Xiaomi, Honor, even Huawei if you were able to pick them up in your region. There's a lot of these fitness bands out there that feel like tech. And I think this is one thing that Google seems to do better and kind of maybe understands more so than a lot of other brands out there is we want some you want something that is going to fit into your day-to-day life without standing out too drastically. Maybe the maybe they've looked at this from a situation where the Pixel Watch um series has become a time piece. I think it's an elegant piece of
technology. I think it's if I'm being completely honest, Google's best product in terms of its hardware design and some of the other elements of it. This feels very much in that mold. Take what we've learned from the Pixel Watch. What has it been four, three or four years since the Versa had an update? Like it they look like technology. So I so Abner you and I have disagreed a couple times on how much of this is a Whoop competitor but I actually I we are fully in agreement I think and maybe we just haven't said this clear enough that like I do think they are aiming down market from Whoop I think they have taken inspiration from Whoop seen so what I think this is right and I think this is a smart play
by Google is they have looked at the at the demographic of people who want something like Whoop and been like okay there is clearly a market here. But Whoop is like intense, man. Like it's it's it's if you talk to like a diehard Whoop user, it's it's sounds like a cult almost, right? Like it people who love Whoop like love and they're never going to switch. If they were going to switch, it would have been last year when they had their pricing controversy. So that's out of that window's closed. So you're probably not going to get a lot of those people. So instead, what you can do is take the pitch of Whoop, which is this device that does not get in the way of your, you know, as you guys have said, like it
it is a uh it doesn't look like a gadget necessarily. It can better blend into your typical outfits. And Whoop does this a little bit better because you can take it off the band entirely and put it into various like other pieces of clothing or whatever. But but even still, as a band, like this makes a lot of sense. Google has taken that idea and then been like we're like a we're like twothirds cheaper than Whoop or something like it's like the buyin is so much cheaper the software support is so and actually I Abner Curry do you need the premium the health premium plan to use this or is it just it's the better experience it will act as a there's no data no sensor data is locked behind a premium subscription Okay. So, so even so that like
completely undercuts Whoop, which is built through this subscription-based model that gives you the hardware. Um, I it's a really smart play because clearly Whoop has found an audience and Google being able to come in and take that idea, attach it to the Fitbit brand, and be like, "It's $100. Pay for the subscription or don't." And uh this is where I have some okay I think W when you when because everybody's is framing it as a root competitor and that's the information we had when it first reached out but and this the whole Steph Curry of it but to me RP is that subscription that crazy you're very into it you're very into your data and the other way to see what group is, which is what other people see it as, is that it's a
screenless tracker thing that's right has so it's good for Google to split to differentiate that to they are targeting the latter rather than the former. Uh so yeah, they this is this hardware is their bread and butter. It's they know what to do with it. They've been doing it for years. They just basic to be if you cannot to be less generous about it, they just took off the screen. That's all they did really. But it's so smart though because I think like I said, Whoop has proven this market exists. So for Google to look at it and go, "Okay, well, we'll keep what works about our stuff and we'll take what works about your stuff
and pair the two together." Does anyone remember the Amazon Halo Band? The name rings a bell. I do now that you've said it. Yeah, the name rings a bell. Wow. It was their like lowcost entry level like Fitbit competitor. Well, it was it was also did it. There was one screen, right? No, they had that weird thing where like you use your front-facing camera. It like measures body fat or something like it was very there's a that had a lot of ideas.
Wow. I forgot how much of this was just Whoop. Wow. Halo View. That's what I was thinking of. I think I reviewed or did a hands-on or something with the Halo View, which had a display. So, that's what I was thinking of. I forgot that the Halo started as a like I mean, honestly, it looks exactly like both the Whoop and the Fitbit Air. Like, it's it's the same like fabric band covering a little like wearable gadget, no display with like a thing you pull the strap through. Like, it's the exact same design. I think the last thing to talk about in the actual hardware is that there's no screen and okay it's not trying to be a smart band but I do okay to me the fact that it doesn't have like a basic e- in or like cheap digital watch display to show just
the time kills me that is like my line in the sand but something extremely wearable but I do think people want notifications That's at a basic level. I think people just want that I agree with you to an extent, but I've kind of as of the last six or seven months, I think like everybody out there in the entire world is trying to almost digital detox and having a device like this that is sold as I'm just going to track your health status. I'm going to put it in an application. If you want to check it, you check it. you get vibrations when certain things go on. I think whether they thought about it or not, and obviously there's other brands out there that make them, like you said, Whoop, which I think is a terrible name.
Um, there are so many smart devices out there that you can go out and buy. I think having one that just blends into the background, goes on your wrist, doesn't notify you every 25 seconds that something goes on, I think that might genuinely be a master stroke. And the Fitbit line, I think, in a lot of ways, and I dare I say this, yeah, is stronger. I think people downgrading from an app if okay, if the Apple Watch is the target is the competitor or let's say Galaxy Watch or Pixel Watch, I think people going down potentially deciding to go from that to the Fitbit Air, I think they will miss notifications. May maybe, but I can I mean Damen like nailed his six to seven month window for me. Like I am that person who has finally
turned and maybe it's because we've talked about this maybe, but like I've turned the corner and been like, "Oh my god, half of my life has been spent or like, you know, almost half my life has been spent with my wrist constantly buzzing every, you know, several times an hour." I have been I have started taking my smartwatch my whatever smartwatch I'm wearing off at like by like 8:00 p.m. because I'm like I don't I'm shaking my head because all of you are doing this wrong. Okay. One specifically in this tech racket that we have one do not have Gmail notifications on your watch. Turn those off. That's the first thing.
I'm already there. Basic. Yeah. Social media, turn that off, too. I've done all those. I have to is the problem. On your list are messaging apps. Your personal messages. Even those bother me at this point. It's true that has been so Abner, I've done all of that. The problem is that it the messaging apps are now driving me nuts. Like every like it has gotten to the point where past 7:30 or 8 I don't want to talk. Not your group chats. Not all your group chats which you are in many just like the ones that you use to communicate with your partner. I think that's like part at the end of the day like that is at the end of the day messaging notifications is the thing
that I will think people miss onetoone messaging not social media just onetoone combos that's what they'll miss if they go downgrade to this form factor from a smartwatch I don't think you go back to from a smart watch I mean I can see it from both sides I can definitely see it from both sides because so can Google that's why it works with the Pixel watch finally cuz I think Google wants people like me who are being like I'm so tired of my watch buzzing at night. Like I don't even want to and but it's also it's like I don't really want to be on do not disturb cuz I don't want to be that disconnected from the world but and I don't want to really build like 14 focus modes or whatever. Like I just want like I it is so much easier
for me to be like you know what never mind and like throw the watch back on its charger and be like see you tomorrow. And that is what continued airplane mode. Yeah. I to me it's just I guess I have reached the point where I am tired of playing in the company's playground. It's built for me to be like don't worry like we've we oh are you feeling overwhelmed by your Instagram notifications? Just spend 5 to 20 minutes in the settings app and you can make it all go. You can finally figure out what you want. And like I think I am not alone in this.
Um, you know, may maybe in the enthusiast space, but certainly not in the real world space. I don't think I'm alone in being like I'm just man, you know what? I'll just take the watch off. And this is great because it does split if you have a Pixel watch. It does split the difference. It does allow you to be like, I can continue if I go for an evening walk at 8:30 now that you know the we're approaching summer. It's like I can slap this thing on, keep my fitness tracking going, and be completely disconnected without having to ever open the settings app to mess with what notifications are coming to my watch.
I think Yeah, I can see it from both sides. I think the bigger cell Yeah, I don't think Abner's wrong to be clear. I think it's No, it's definitely correct. I think I was very much of the same. I think I'm just trying to disconnect a lot more from things. I deleted all my social media for a year. I'm going to see how I get on with that. And it has helped. It means I'm not I mean, don't get me wrong, I've just It means I've migrated to Instagram reels and I'll scroll scroll them three or four hours a day. Reddit's been the trap for me. I've had to get myself off Reddit cuz it's so easy to replace like Twitter with Reddit. You got You can't do it.
This is why this beautiful new Google Health redesign is perfect cuz we're going to spend all of our evenings looking at our Google Health stats. So, I mean, I have to say this has been available in public preview for a while now, ABN, hasn't it? Yes. Since October. And I genuinely think the new look at the new look is something that this should have been the case a long time ago. I'm glad they finally decided to make these changes because visually it looks so much better than it possibly could have done. The Fitbit application was kind of a halfway house and Google Fit was being completely um I mean just eradicated and abandoned. So it's kind of nice to see that Google has decided to amalgamate it all into Google
Health. Um I mean is this a kind of data are we going to get this kind of in-depth data from the Fitbit band? Is it going to be accurate enough for someone to be really get a picture of the health? I'm unsure. But at the same time, I quite like that they've gone and maybe learned from the mistakes others have made and they've made in their own applications and said, "Let's just start from scratch." It is this is absolutely the most straightforward take on this. It's not trying to squish all the health data into one tab. They evenly split across four. Um, so let's let's talk about the Fitbit app sans the health coach because
and it's pretty straightforward. It's a good redesign. Well, it's I'd say they have a solid fundamental idea behind it. The premise is solid. Uh, this four tab layout. Um, they made some good redesigns. Um, let you customize it a great deal with the data you want to see all the time. So, that's solid. Um, have any of you been using the Health Coach? No, I'm not. No. I'm going to be because I'm reviewing the Fitbit Air. I see it. I don't know. The Health Co. Okay, this is a funny anecdote, but if you use the Fitbit when you were using the public preview, if you used it without
the health coach without a premium subscription, it was kind of like so simplistic in a nice way like they there's no ask coach button. There's no it's so much less information at you. And it was kind of nice. So much so that I c as a premium subscriber I kind of want the option to remove the coach but that's either here or another again but yeah the coach I use Gemini for health stuff I talk to it about health stuff to find information but I just can't replicate that behavior with the fit with the fit coach with a coach interestingly yeah it definitely feels like one of those things where it doesn't matter how they sugarcoat these functionalities.
They're never going to be quite what everybody wants. It's kind of can be a bit too broad. And I know that you can use AI and the that you can set these set goals. I think to me personally, I find when I go to the gym mostly. I don't do I'm not like a runner or anything like that. I maybe would play a bit of football here and there. Um I'm kind of approaching the age where I'm going to have to retire, which is quite sad to say. You can kick it. You can kick, you can bend it. But this Yeah, this is the thing. I think very much that um bend it like Damian.
The thing I mean I'm looking at the application now and I'm like how would I benefit from this? It's like I think for the kind of people who just go do cardio maybe there is elements of this that can be applied to your workouts. I think if you do like a kind of a more of a split hit workouts is a bit more tough to kind of get a true um kind of yeah you can't really ascertain what you what your goals should be because it's like oh I want to do progressive overload I maybe want to increase my V2 max that kind of stuff. It's like an application is not really going to help you with that purely on its own. You're going to have to use other services and maybe have a personal trainer in person to reach certain levels. So yeah, I'm kind of I'm not
sold on these. I'm not sold on I'm not necessarily sold on the thing like to go big brain AI for a second. It is the promise of AI in the context of fitness is giving everybody their own coach, their own trainer. That is something that couldn't be done in at an advanced level pre large language model. So the premise here is that AI can give everybody a personal trainer and I think that on paper is not a bad idea. It helps people stick to their goals a bit more. Uh that customizes the workouts as best as it can. So on paper that's a good idea, but I don't know. I feel like how do most people exercise if like they watch one of those workout videos, they stick to
those they find a program. So the question is how seamlessly can you integrate somebody else telling you real time feedback on your progress? Will people cuz I don't like I kind when I've been using fitness apps for years and when I see those prompts about like feedback when I work out I just kind of ignore them. So maybe because there I know there's an AI behind it. Maybe I listen to that a bit more but I just do what I want to do exercise wise. Yeah. I think for the sake of 10 $10 a month as well, you kind of invested to listen to it a little bit more maybe. I don't know.
There's maybe a little bit of element of how the heck do you debalance that? I know that you can get this part of the is it the AI pro plan? Is that the middle one? Is that about $100 a year or something like that? I think I'm trying to convert it from my uh pound sterling brain into to freedom bucks. So I think for free you are I know we get it for free anyway. So I think if that was part of it, I don't know why they don't do that in the US to be quite honest with you. I think that would make Now they are well it makes it a more sellable asset. I think is part of a Google ecosystem play. I think this is probably the most sensible way to do it.
Again I do wonder how many people are going to utilize the personal coach aspect of it. I think yeah I'm not sold yet. I haven't seen anything in terms of how AI is going to be utilized to help you improve your workout plans more so than anything else. Maybe we need a maybe you do need something like a or like a really high-end wearable to really get this to be useful to you. But I guess in the next few weeks, we'll find out how that pans out with the Fitbit Air. And I'm sure Will have some thoughts when he's treading the pavement, what lack thereof in uh in the US. Um, yeah. God, we keep oscillating between like beautiful like 72° sunny days and like 41°ree rainy and windy days. So, keep your fingers crossed for me that I get more of the former than
the ladder for what I'm testing. Just put the windbreaker on and just go for it. This is definitely me running in like 25 30 mph winds being like, "This is great. I love I'm having a great time." Yeah. I reviewed the charts the Fitbit Charge Six with a cough. I have to I took like cough medication before doing the final exercise one. That's awful. Well, I'm excited to see how this pans out. I think this is one of those products that it's it's probably going to be a sleeper product. I think this is the kind of thing and I'm seeing it from the UK side of things is that you would go into we our big box retailers is Curry's. Um I think they might be the biggest still. There
isn't many brick and mortar stores you can go into. And I can imagine seeing this on display with all of the fitness wearables. people going in. Oh, it's under £100. I think it's £85 here in the UK, £99 in the US. And I think it's that perfect price point where people like, oh, do you know what? Around that Christmas period, holiday period, birthdays, even I mean, if you're a bad partner, anniversaries, you might get someone one of these. Um, I think that is going to be a big beneficial aspect of this Fitbit piece of hardware. And it doesn't help that Steph Curry's wearing it. I know you basketball enjoyers out there probably will buy it off the back of Steph Curry's approval. But yeah, uh I'm sure we'll
have more to talk about this in future. We haven't touched on the Android show yet. It has been announced that is happening on Tuesday, the is that the 12th of May, I believe. Um we will have more to say once that's been and gone. I am excited to see just what Google has in store for Android ahead of IO. Wait, is our episode 100 covering the Android show? It will be. Yes. I didn't want to Thanks for spoiling it. Yes. So, it's a very special episode. Tell your friends, tell everybody you know to tune in next week. It's going to be a bumper episode. 100 episodes of Pixelated. Uh, and I couldn't have two
better people with me to talk about Android. So, thanks guys for joining me as always. Oh, wait, wait. One, one thing, one, one thing quick. Um, if you or somebody you know is an Amazon music listener, if you prefer listening to your podcast on Amazon Music, this show Pixelated and The Side Load are both on Amazon Music Podcast. Now, that came from actual requests for both shows that I got in my email. So, uh, if you were one of the people reaching out to me, congratulations. You got what you wanted on Amazon Music and you can pick up your Amazon Halo at the same time. Thanks guys for joining us and we will speak to you very soon. I'm excit I'm genuinely vibrating with excitement for this episode next week. Android is our bread and butter
and we are be well being teased by Google it's going to be one of the biggest years for Android. So stay tuned. Stay tuned and I'll speak to you soon. Bye-bye. Thanks for listening to Pixelated, a 9to5 Google podcast. If you enjoyed the show, we ask that you rate and review it on the podcast platform of your choice and help spread the word by sharing the show with friends or on social media.
