Google Pixel 11 Leaked: A Sneak Peek at the UK’s Next Flagship Phone
Did Google Just Leak the Pixel 11 in the UK?
With the plethora of information emerging from the Google I/O keynote, one tiny but potentially significant moment almost escaped our attention – did Google just give us a sneak peek at the upcoming Pixel 11 in the UK?
The blink and you’ll miss it moment comes at around the 19-minute mark of the developer conference address, as former-game-designer-turned-AI-wizard Demis Hassabis guides us through the reality-warping potential of the new Gemini Omni in the UK.
As the world morphs around Hassabis, phone in hand, something odd happens. The rim of the camera module on his unspecified Pixel device starts to glow like an LED light, showcasing the potential of the Pixel Glow feature.
A Pixel Glow preview in the UK? As we reported around this time last month, Google is said to be working on a ‘Pixel Glow’ system for its forthcoming flagship phone, which could be a game-changer in the UK market.
Rather like Nothing’s Glyph system, it would see the rim of the camera module lighting up in accordance with incoming notifications, providing a unique user experience in the UK.
There’s mention of the system in the Android 17 beta, along with a description of “subtle light and color on the back of your device to inform you of important activity when it’s face down”, which aligns with the Pixel Glow feature.
If you’re visualising such a system right now – and we’ve run it through Google’s AI assistant if you’re struggling – then it probably looks a lot like the phone that Google’s AI chief is wielding in this video, potentially showcasing the future of smartphones in the UK.
Closer inspection of the phone in Hassabis’s hands seems to suggest that this is the Google Pixel 10 Pro XL, which could be an engineering prototype with an early Pixel Glow system fitted to a Pixel 10 XL phone.
Is this perhaps an early engineering prototype, with an early Pixel Glow system fitted to a Pixel 10 XL phone? Or is Google just trolling us here in the UK?
Whatever the case, this is pretty much exactly what we’ve been imagining Pixel Glow will look like, and we await enlightenment (in more ways than one) when the Pixel 11 is announced sometime in August in the UK.
