After higher Galaxy S26 prices, and a likely more expensive Galaxy Z Fold 8, it looks like the RAM crisis has claimed another victim: Google’s Pixel 11. The main reason to buy a Google phone: its comparatively cheap price, may soon be lost.
Deleted Amazon listings, spotted by an Android Authority reader and corroborated by Droid Life, reveal the base Pixel 11 starting at $899 for 256GB, $100 more than the iPhone 17’s $799 starting price. An Apple phone being cheaper at launch than a Pixel is a collector’s item.
That’s a real problem for Google’s pitch. Yes, the base model jumps from 128GB to 256GB, which explains some of the increase. But the main reason to buy a Pixel for the last decade has always been its price and camera, although Apple has caught up on the latter. Take the former away and Google needs a different argument.
Gemini Intelligence On The Pixel 11 Is Google’s Winner
That argument is almost certainly Gemini Intelligence, Google’s agentic AI suite that can handle multi-step tasks with minimal oversight, booking reservations, managing your calendar, or pulling items from your notes into a shopping cart.
It goes further than simple voice commands or app shortcuts, the whole pitch is a phone that can reason through a task across multiple apps on your behalf: checking your emails, drafting a reply, adding the result to your calendar, and confirming a purchase, all without you tapping through each step yourself.
If Google can’t win on price anymore, expect the pitch to shift hard toward claiming the Pixel 11 can actually do things for you that an iPhone can’t…yet. And if it turns out to be true that Gemini Intelligence will be restricted to only the latest Samsung and Google phones, that argument becomes more persuasive.
There are risks with agentic AI suddenly being available on millions of Android phones, though. Prompt injection attacks, where AI is tricked into ignoring its rules with hidden text prompts, are a real threat that hasn’t been fully resolved yet.
Watch my video that shows how easily AI browsers are tricked into spending your money on a scam site here.
Google has its own deep defences here, layered rules and an AI “critic” model checking the agent’s actions. Google also said users will be given the final say before anything is purchased.
But I still have questions, such as what if a user is presented with the final say on a scam site because the AI can’t tell the difference? Also, Open AI said in November 2025 that prompt injection attacks remain a “challenging research problem.” It will be interesting to hear Google’s detailed plans to protect its users.
The Pixel 11 Should Come Down In Price…Hopefully
The Pixel 10 has been discounted almost every month since it launched, as has almost every other Pixel before it. It’s even on sale now, with the Pixel 10 Pro $300 off, down to $699.
The question is whether Google can afford to keep doing that. Memory and component costs are up industry-wide, the same pressure is forcing Samsung and Apple to raise prices this year too. Google has always treated Pixel hardware less as a profit centre and more as a way to get Gemini and Google services into more hands, which gives it more room than most to eat that margin.
Whether that room still exists in a year where everyone’s supply costs are rising remains to be seen, and one we’ll only really answer by watching what Google actually charges once the discounts start.
I’ll be reporting on Google’s Pixel 11 pricing the second it goes live, subscribe to my free newsletter for first-look coverage and exclusive deals.
