Now that the foldable fever is dying down after the launch of the iPhone Duo, let’s focus on slab phones this week. Surprisingly, Pixels are on sale – Google phones rarely get discounts to name a few, but this week is an exception.
The Google Pixel 11 Pro starts at $800 with a solid 27% price cut. Upgrading from 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage to 16/512GB costs $120 – Note that this year’s 256GB Pro and Pro XL models have less RAM than the higher storage tiers. This was not the case with previous generations. That aside, the new model brings decent upgrades over its predecessor – better battery life with faster wireless charging, an improved (but still flawed) chipset and 4K60 HDR video recording.
The vanilla Google Pixel 11 has a smaller 22% discount, so it starts at $700. However, with only $100 separating the vanilla and Pro models, we recommend the Pro. The extra cash buys you better hardware – an LTPO display panel, better telephoto and ultra-wide cameras, plus the option for 16GB of RAM.
That is unless you want the larger 6.8-inch display of the Google Pixel 11 Pro XL, up from 6.3 inches on the other two. In addition to the larger screen, the XL model has several other advantages, including significantly faster charging and nicer speakers.
Other than Google, the major Android brands in the US are Samsung and Motorola. Moto doesn’t currently have an interesting slate phone (and the Razr Fold isn’t for sale), so we’d say wait for the Signature 27. With that said, let’s see what Samsung does.
The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra still maintains a high price. A few weeks ago, a 256GB unit was $950 and a 512GB was $1,050. Now the same capacities cost $155 and $105 more, respectively, leaving a big difference between the S26 Ultra and the Pixel 11 Pro XL.
The same does not apply to the Samsung Galaxy S26+. The 256GB variant is slightly cheaper (-$25) than it was a few weeks ago and the 512GB upgrade costs the same. The phone is thinner and lighter than its Ultra sibling and it’s cheaper, though the Ultra wins the overall comparison. Also, there are some improvements over the S25+ – faster chipset, more battery life, better speakers and some camera improvements.
The vanilla Samsung Galaxy S26 is back to a $730 starting price for a 256GB unit and the 512GB upgrade is now cheaper than it was two weeks ago – $810, down from $890. This puts it $70/$110 below the equivalent Pixel 11 Pro configurations. The S26 runs on a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, which is a massive upgrade over the flawed Tensor G6. Battery life is almost identical, but the Galaxy has slightly faster charging (although not magnetic, unless you get a special case).
The Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold is on sale – we don’t see that too often. With a 13% discount on the base model, it’s $250 cheaper than the base Galaxy Z Fold8 Ultra. The chipset situation is again strongly in favor of the Galaxy. The Samsung phone has a better main camera (200MP 1/1.3 vs. 48MP 1/1.56″), but its telephoto lens is shorter (10MP 3x/69mm vs. 10.8MP 5x/112mm). The displays are quite similar – 6.5″ cover and 8.0″ is thinner – but the Galaxy is 0.9mm lighter (215g vs. 239g).
The wide Samsung Galaxy Z Fold8 is closer to the Pixel 11 Pro Fold, but it’s a different class of foldable – it has a 7.6-inch 4:3 inner display and a 5.5-inch cover display with a close to 16:10 aspect ratio. This is missing the 200MP main camera of the Ultra and it has no telephoto lens at all. Here’s a more detailed comparison between the Z Fold8 and the Z Fold8 Ultra.
The Z Fold8’s real competitor is the Apple iPhone Duo. Cupertino’s first foldable is currently in short supply and to make matters worse, some units have a display issue. Apple replaces units with problems, but given the current situation, we don’t expect a discount on the Duo anytime soon – it’s selling faster than Apple can make it.
If you’re buying a Pixel phone, you might want to protect it with a Pixelsnap case — this is Google’s branding for the magnetic flavor of the Qi 2. The cases for the slab Pixel 11 models cost $40, while the more complicated case for the foldable is $65.
You’ll also want to add a pair of TWS buds to your accessory list. The Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 are a notable upgrade over the original Pro – the new buds are more comfortable, have better audio quality and stronger active noise cancellation.
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