New Delhi, Aug. 16 -- Every year, Google's Pixel phones promise something. This year, the promise costs more.

the Pixel 11, Pixel 11 Pro, Pixel 11 Pro XL, and Pixel 11 Pro Fold. Google's own Tensor G6 chip powers the entire lineup, alongside the new Pixel Watch 5 and a Pixel Tag tracker. What made the unveiling immediately complicated is a price increase of roughly $100 over last year's models, even as the Pro variants ship with less RAM than their predecessors.

That tension between paying more and getting less memory is the central question hanging over the Pixel 11 launch. Google's answer is Gemini Intelligence, an upgraded and more proactive version of its AI assistant, which the company says makes raw RAM counts less relevant when t...