Pixel 11 battery capacity just leaked and it has me worried about Google's next flagship

Google Pixel leaks are a very common occurrence, and the mass leaking of specs feels like it's been an annual tradition since the months running up to the launch of the Pixel 3. I have very mixed feelings about the fact that Google's mobile division is about as secure as a wet paper bag.

On the one hand, it's quite useful to have an idea of what's coming ahead of the big launch event, but I'm also fully aware that specs alone can be misleading — and could potentially cause issues. I say this because a boatload of Pixel 11 series specs leaked earlier this week, including information about the batteries in all four devices.

Unfortunately, the news isn't good, leaving me worried that Google still isn't taking Pixel battery life seriously.

The state of Pixel 11 batteries (as we currently know it)

The leaked Pixel 11 specs came from a leaker who goes by the handle Mystic Leaks. They didn't reveal every last detail about the four phones, but the list does include battery capacities. While the figures themselves aren't too disappointing, they are all noticeably lower than those of the Pixel 10 series.

Assuming these specs are correct, the Pixel 11 comes out the best with a loss of just 130 mAh of battery capacity, while the Pixel 11 Pro ups that difference to 163 mAh. The 11 Pro XL loses 200 mAh, though it retains the respectable-sounding 5,000 mAh of capacity in the process. Sadly, the Pixel 11 Pro Fold comes out worst for wear, losing 357 mAh of battery.

Considering the Pixel 10 Pro Fold didn't have amazing battery life to begin with (12 hours and 13 minutes), that's likely going to have an impact on its daily lifespan.

I will point out that these figures are rather high for premium phones. The Pixel 11 Pro XL's 5,000 mAh cell is about standard for the largest flagship variants, but the entry-level model usually ends up with significantly lower battery capacity than its compatriots. The Galaxy S26 and iPhone 17 have 4,300 mAh and 3,692 mAh, respectively, which are peanuts compared to the Pixel 11's rumored 4,840 mAh.

In fact, it's almost unheard of for the entry-level phone to have a bigger battery than its Pro counterpart, but Google may be about to do it for two years in a row. What I mean is, compared to other popular phones, Pixel owners are eating pretty well in the battery department.

But that doesn't change the fact Google has a turbulent history with battery life, and the loss of any capacity is cause for concern.

Battery life has been a recurring problem on Pixels

There's a reason why you've never seen a Pixel phone on our best phone battery life page: the battery life on Pixel phones used to be absolutely awful. Things have gotten a lot better in recent years, but even the best Pixel batteries can't seem to hold a candle to the likes of OnePlus, iPhone, or even certain Galaxy smartphones.

The Tom's Guide battery test involves setting a phone's display to 150 nits and running a custom script that forces a phone to continually surf the web over a 5G connection until the battery runs out. Out of all the phones we've tested, the longest lasting is the OnePlus 15, which scored 25 hours and 13 minutes — a result that's aided by the phone's enormous 7,300 mAh silicon nanostack battery technology.

Meanwhile, the longest-lasting Pixel 10 series phone is the Pixel 10 Pro XL, with the 5,200 mAh battery lasting 14 hours and 20 minutes. The worst result of the Pixel 10 series came from the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, which lasted 12 hours and 16 minutes before dying.

That's still a considerable improvement compared to the Pixel 7, which only lasted 7 hours and 13 minutes when it was released in 2023. Before anyone suggests that this was due to Google adding a smaller battery, it's worth noting that the 4,355 mAh battery is only slightly larger than the one in the newly released Galaxy S26. Samsung's entry-level flagship lasted 11 hours and 28 minutes in our battery test, and while that's far from impressive, it's still leagues ahead of what Google was doing just four years ago.

Obviously, the sheer difference between the Pixel 7 and the Pixel 10 series is down to the fact Google has made huge leaps and bounds in the battery life department. Gains were made with the release of the Pixel 8 series, and we saw a huge increase in battery life with the Pixel 9 — with the momentum continuing until Pixel 10.

But those older phones were still released relatively recently, and memories of that battery life remain.

Battery life is more than just battery capacity

It's important to remember that, when it comes to battery life, the physical capacity is only part of the equation. The Pixel 7 Pro's 5,000 mAh battery and eight hours and three minutes of tested battery life is the perfect example of that in action.

A smartphone is effectively a jigsaw of various components working together, all drawing power from the same source. It only takes one or two of those components to get greedy before the battery life significantly worsens. Take the iPhone 12, the first 5G phone Apple released, which recorded a battery life of eight hours and 25 minutes.

That's pretty poor, even for 2020, and it's a considerable decline compared to the iPhone 11's 11 hours and 16 minutes. But, as we discovered in our testing, forcing the iPhone 12 to stick to a 4G connection saw that battery life increased to 10 hours and 23 minutes. It's still lower than the iPhone 11, but it proved that the 5G modem was using considerably more power than it should.

Pixel phones do not have a reputation for using the most energy-efficient components, and the modem has come under fire more than once. But things might be changing for the better, with Mystic Leaks claiming that Google will replace the power-hungry Exynos modems with a more efficient MediaTek M90. This was actually one of the first Pixel 11 rumors to surface, and they've stuck with that claim with the latest leak.

The leak also claims that Google will be building the Tensor G6 chipset on a TSMC 2nm node. That matters because the Tensor G5 was built on a TSMC 3nm node, and the G4 was built on a Samsung 4nm node. Smaller chips have greater transistor density, and this usually manifests in greater performance, power and energy efficiency.

So, regardless of the situation with the modem, the Tensor G6 might also offer some extra efficiency on its own. By how much isn't clear, but as we've seen with the likes of Apple's A-series chips, recent Snapdragon flagships and the M-series chips on MacBooks, the relative efficiency of the main chipset can make a huge amount of difference.

This means more efficient components could have a much greater positive impact on battery life than simply throwing extra capacity at the battery — assuming that Google doesn't mess it up somehow.

Bottom line

While I hope Google knows what it’s doing and won’t slip back into a laissez-faire attitude toward battery life, I can't help but worry that cutting capacity is the wrong move. That said, rumors of more efficient components offer some hope that Google is focusing on optimization elsewhere.

At the very least, Google needs to recognize that it's still lagging behind its biggest rivals. Energy efficiency is a huge part of that equation, but so is raw capacity. If nothing else, throwing a few extra milliamp-hours at the hardware certainly wouldn’t hurt.

However, we have to remember that this is all elementary until we can actually get ahold of the Pixel 11 series and test the battery for ourselves. That's the only way we'll find out whether Google has succeeded in maintaining its pro-battery trajectory, or if it's messed up so badly we have another Pixel 7 situation on our hands.

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