None of that means much if the phone is dead by 3 p.m. because it spent half the day fighting to keep a signal in a concrete parking garage.<\/p>\n
After years of testing Pixel phones, I\u2019ve become pretty good at ignoring the software hype and paying attention to what the phone is actually like to live with.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why this rumor matters. Leaks suggest<\/a> Google may finally drop Samsung\u2019s modem for the Pixel 11 and switch to MediaTek\u2019s M90 instead.<\/p>\n If that leak holds up, it could be one of the more meaningful hardware upgrades the Pixel line has seen in a while.<\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n \t\t My Pixel wish list for 2026<\/p>\n The culprit behind Pixel\u2019s signal and heat issues<\/p>\n When Google moved the Pixel 6 to its in-house Tensor chips, it relied on Samsung Foundry to build the processors and used Samsung\u2019s Exynos modems for cellular connectivity.<\/p>\n Fair or not, that modem choice has become part of the Pixel\u2019s reputation for bad battery life<\/a> and thermals, from the Exynos 5123 in the Pixel 6 through the Exynos 5400 in the Pixel 9 and 10.<\/p>\n The issue is the 5G hunt. Essentially, cellular radios are always checking the signal-to-noise ratio of nearby towers.<\/p>\n In areas with weak coverage, some Pixel phones cling to 5G instead of settling onto a more stable LTE connection and push transmit power to keep the 5G alive.<\/p>\n That kind of behavior can increase power draw. More radio activity means more heat, and more heat usually means worse battery health and thermal throttling.<\/p>\n MediaTek isn\u2019t the budget option people still assume it is.<\/p>\n The M90 is a flagship-level baseband, and it goes right at some of the Pixel\u2019s longest-running weak spots. I\u2019m going to get a bit technical here.<\/p>\n If you read the press materials<\/a>, MediaTek leads with claims like 12Gbps peak downlink speeds and 6CC carrier aggregation. You can ignore most of that. Nobody needs a 12-gigabit connection.<\/p>\n The real day-to-day advantage of the M90 is efficiency. The key feature here is Rel-17 Paging Early Indication, or PEI.<\/p>\n In normal 5G use, your phone periodically wakes to check whether the network has data waiting. Those wake-up cycles chip away at battery life.<\/p>\n With PEI, the network sends a small alert to the modem before the scheduled wake-up. If nothing is waiting, the modem can skip that wake-up call. MediaTek claims this cuts idle power use by 15%.<\/p>\n The M90 also includes the company\u2019s UltraSave 4.0 architecture, which MediaTek says can reduce average power use by up to 18%.<\/p>\n Satellite support also looks more promising. The MediaTek M90 supports both 3GPP IoT-NTN for low-data messaging and NR-NTN for higher-data services.<\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t mean the Pixel 11 will definitely ship with full two-way satellite texting or voice support, but at least the hardware foundation for better satellite features<\/a> is there.<\/p>\n The modem change can also improve Pixel\u2019s security<\/p>\n Most of the tech press will probably miss what may be Google\u2019s most important security upgrade in five years.<\/p>\n Cellular modems are still one of the least transparent parts of a smartphone. They run proprietary real-time operating systems and handle incoming radio traffic before Android is even fully up and running.<\/p>\n So a serious modem flaw is never a minor issue. Samsung\u2019s Exynos modems have a rough history here.<\/p>\n Google\u2019s Project Zero disclosed<\/a> multiple Exynos modem vulnerabilities in 2023, including internet-to-baseband remote code execution bugs.<\/p>\n The risk gets worse when the modem is built into the same die as the main processor, which is the setup Samsung used in its Exynos-based Tensor chips.<\/p>\n If Google really does move to a discrete MediaTek modem, that could also improve separation between the modem and the rest of the platform. This also lines up with rumors<\/a> that Google could introduce a Titan M3 security chip.<\/p>\n You will likely pay more for the Pixel 11<\/p>\n All of that engineering is going to cost you. Leaving Samsung Foundry for TSMC\u2019s 2-nanometer process is expensive. Adding a flagship-level MediaTek modem drives up the bill of materials.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/a-hand-holding-a-blue-google-pixel-phone-with-an-alert-icon-and-icons-representing-camera-audio-and-.png\"\/){kind=icon}
<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\tI’ve had enough \u2014 Google still has these 5 Pixel problems to sort out in 2026
\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n![\"samsung-exynos-the-end-ap-hero\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/samsung-exynos-the-end-ap-hero.jpg\")
\n Credit:\u00a0Samsung<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/nexus2cee_MediaTek-IC-close-up.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/an-android-mascot-on-a-smartphone-screen-surrounded-by-a-blue-security-shield-icon-and-a-floating-ke.png\"){kind=icon}
\n Credit:\u00a0Lucas Gouveia\/Android Police<\/p>\n