Does the Pixel 11 finally fix Google’s modem issues? Yes — but with a catch

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The reception to the Google Pixel 11 series may have been slightly muted, thanks to relatively minor upgrades and a higher price tag, but there’s one fundamental change this year that a lot of us Pixel fans have been waiting for: a new modem .

As rumored before launch, the Pixel 11 series ships with a MediaTek modem for the first time. Google has completely ditched Samsung’s Exynos modem on its latest Pixel phones in favor of a MediaTek modem, with Google claiming the new modem is more reliable, faster, and more power-efficient.

On paper, the new modem should outperform what we’ve seen on previous Pixel generations. It should also help address some of the biggest complaints we’ve had with Pixel phones over the years, including overheating, battery drain, and poor cellular reception.

But rather than taking Google’s word for it, I wanted to put those claims to the test. So, I put the Pixel 11 Pro against last year’s Pixel 10 Pro across a few different tests to see whether the new modem actually makes a noticeable difference.

Before we move on to the test, it’s worth noting that I used the same SIM card on both devices and tested them under similar conditions to keep things as fair as possible. I also disconnected both phones from Wi-Fi and relied entirely on cellular data throughout the test.

Lastly, I made sure both devices were running the latest available version of Android 17 before testing, so any differences should be primarily due to the modem rather than software.

The first and most basic test is the actual signal strength both phones are receiving. Android does a slightly weird thing here, where the signal bars in the status bar don’t necessarily reflect the actual strength of the cellular connection.