DXOMARK has published its camera test of the Pixel 11 Pro XL, and Google’s flagship lands on 168 points — fifth place in the lab’s global camera ranking. The score, dated 21 August, puts the Pixel behind a group of flagships that hold the top of DXOMARK’s individual category charts, most of them China-market devices.
Where the Pixel 11 Pro XL wins and loses
The headline number splits into a photo score of 171 and a video score of 162, and the gap between them is the whole story. On stills the Pixel is close to the top: DXOMARK’s sub-scores put its main camera at 178 against a category best of 184 (Huawei Pura 80 Ultra), and bokeh at 170 against a best of 185 (Oppo Find X9 Ultra).
The weak spots are the secondary cameras and video. Ultra-wide scores 160 in photo and just 147 in video; the telephoto scores 151 in photo but collapses to 119 in video, against a best of 140. On video’s main camera the Pixel manages 173 where the iPhone 17 Pro sets the best at 186 — a 13-point gap on the single most-used mode in the whole test.
DXOMARK is direct about it, saying video performance is generally good but that the device remains behind the best competitors, and naming the iPhone 17 Pro in particular. Its listed cons include exposure instability at night, residual motion visible in dynamic video, and detail loss on the ultra-wide in all conditions.
The AI caveat worth reading twice
DXOMARK’s summary opens generously, calling the camera a strong overall performer with consistent results across photo and video, and credits the improvements to new hardware plus Google’s AI processing. But buried in the same section is a line Google’s marketing will not be quoting: “However, our testing occasionally revealed visible artifacts at the boundaries between enhanced and non-enhanced image regions.”
That is a specific, reproducible cost of the AI-first pipeline Google now sells as the Pixel’s main advantage. When the phone enhances part of a frame and leaves the rest alone, the seam can show. It is a useful counterweight to the 120x Pro Zoom figure in the spec sheet, which is AI-assisted reach rather than optical reach.
The camera hardware behind the score
- Primary: 50 MP, f/1.68, 1/1.3-inch sensor, 82-degree field of view, Octa PDAF
- Ultra-wide: 48 MP, f/1.7, 1/2.51-inch sensor, 123-degree field of view
- Telephoto: 48 MP, f/2.8, 1/1.95-inch periscope sensor, quad PDAF, OIS, 5x optical zoom
- Zoom reach: Pro Zoom to 120x, up from 100x on the previous generation
DXOMARK credits the new 48 MP telephoto with 30% higher light sensitivity than last year’s unit, and its photo results back that up — the telephoto is the module that improved most. It is also the module that falls furthest behind once you hit record.
How much should a lab score change your mind?
Not much, on its own. DXOMARK’s ranking is dominated by China-market flagships that most readers in the US, Europe or India cannot buy through official channels, so “fifth globally” and “fifth among phones available to you” are very different statements. What the test is genuinely useful for is the shape of the result: this is a phone that shoots excellent stills, a strong 5x telephoto, and video that is a step behind Apple. If you shoot mostly photos, the ranking position is close to irrelevant. If you shoot a lot of handheld video, it is the one number here that should give you pause — particularly given what Google is now charging for the Pixel 11 series.
Source: DXOMARK
