Pixel 11 Pro: A faster charge, a heat problem, and a video bug too soon

What is Extreme Charging on the Pixel 11 Pro XL?

The Google Pixel 11 Pro is here, and for the first time in years, Google has given its flagship phone a real charging speed boost. But early buyers are discovering that faster charging comes with a heat trade-off — and that's not the only issue. A separate bug is ruining video audio for some users, and security researchers have quietly told people to skip the phone altogether.

Let's sort through what's actually going on with the Pixel 11 Pro, the Pixel 11 Pro XL, and whether you should still consider buying one.

How fast is Extreme Charging, really?

What this means for Pixel 11 Pro

Google’s new Extreme Charging mode is a toggle that promises to save you about five minutes during a full charge. According to testing data, the feature doesn't raise the peak power — both standard and Extreme modes pull about 41W — but it keeps the phone drawing high power for longer. In tests, Extreme mode sustained roughly 41W for 16 minutes, compared to 10 minutes with standard charging.

Here’s what the numbers actually look like:

Getting a 50% charge in 18 minutes rather than 21 is helpful when you are rushing out the door. Google advertises a 30-minute time to reach 75% from empty, and the test confirms that number. Still, “just a few minutes faster” is the honest description.

The heat problem nobody wants

The trade-off for those five saved minutes is heat. Standard charging keeps the battery at a peak temperature of about 39°C — under the 40°C threshold that battery experts consider stressful. Extreme mode pushes the peak to 42.9°C and keeps the battery above 40°C for about 20 minutes. The average temperature for the entire charge cycle rises from 35.4°C to 38.3°C.

That might not sound like a huge jump, but keeping a lithium-ion battery above 40°C for that long, repeatedly, can shorten its overall lifespan. Google made Extreme Charging an optional toggle for exactly this reason — it’s not the default. The company expects you to use it only when you need a quick top-up, not every night.

Even with Extreme Charging enabled, the Pixel 11 Pro XL still charges slower than its rivals. In a direct comparison, a OnePlus 15 with a 7,150mAh battery — much bigger than the Pixel’s 5,115mAh cell — reached full charge in 42 minutes. The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra did the same in 42 minutes. The Pixel took 64 minutes. Worse, both rivals kept their peak temperatures under 40°C. The OnePlus 15 peaked at 38.1°C; the Galaxy S26 Ultra at 39.6°C.

So Google’s “faster” charging is still the slowest among flagship phones, and it runs hotter to get there.

Video Boost audio bug: Static noise in recordings

Separate from charging complaints, Pixel 11 Pro owners are reporting a frustrating audio bug. When recording video with the Video Boost feature enabled, some users hear loud static bursts every few seconds in the playback. The sound has been described as crackling, static noise, or like a Bluetooth device at the edge of its range.

Video Boost is a Pro-only feature that uses cloud processing to improve color, lighting, stabilization, and low-light detail. It was first introduced on the Pixel 8 Pro. The bug appears to affect both the Pixel 11 Pro and the Pixel 11 Pro XL.

One user on Reddit shared concert footage where the visual improvements from Video Boost were clear, but the audio was ruined by crackling. Another user said the issue happened in about half of their Video Boost clips, even with Audio Zoom turned off the entire time. A third user narrowed it down to shooting in 4K at 60fps with Audio Zoom enabled.

The temporary workarounds are hit-or-miss. Some users have had luck clearing the camera app cache or turning off Audio Zoom. Others have switched to 4K at 30fps. Google is reportedly aware of the problem, but no official fix has been released yet.

Security downgrade: Google dropped memory tagging

While some bugs can be fixed with a software update, a hardware-level security concern is harder to ignore. Google removed Memory Tagging Extensions (MTE) from the Pixel 11’s chipset. MTE is a security feature that detects memory corruption attacks — the kind of bugs that let hackers take control of your phone. The feature was present in the Pixel 10 series.

Security researchers have pointed out that skipping MTE makes the Pixel 11 less secure than its predecessor. One prominent security-focused group, GrapheneOS, has advised people to skip the Pixel 11 entirely. The decision to drop MTE appears to be a cost-saving move, but it leaves the phone more vulnerable to a whole class of exploits.

For privacy-conscious buyers, this could be a dealbreaker. If you rely on your phone for sensitive work or just want the longest security lifespan, the missing MTE is a real step backward.

Should you wait or choose a different phone?: Pixel 11 Pro

You still have options. If you want the Pixel camera experience but don't need the very latest model, the Galaxy S26 Ultra offers better charging speeds with lower heat, and it doesn't have the video audio bug. The Galaxy S26 is also a strong alternative with comparable performance.

If you are set on a Pixel, it may be worth waiting a few weeks to see if Google issues a software patch for the static noise issue. The charging heat problem is a hardware trade-off that won't be fixed by an update, but Extreme Charging is optional, so you can avoid it. The missing MTE security feature is permanent.

For now, the Pixel 11 Pro is a phone with genuine camera strengths, but it asks buyers to accept slower charging that runs hot, a video bug that spoils recordings, and a security downgrade compared to last year’s model. That is a lot to overlook at the price Google is charging.

We’ll keep tracking the static noise bug and the charging performance as more data comes in. If you already own a Pixel 11 Pro, share your experience in the comments — especially if you have found a reliable fix for the video audio problem.