Shadowing Practice: Google Pixel 11 Pro XL got… Worse? - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
1
Google just launched their new phones, the Pixel 11, the 11 Pro, the 11 Pro XL, and the 11 Pro Fold.
2
And something very strange is happening here because their flagship product, the 11 Pro XL, has had a price increase of $100 compared to last year,
3
as well as having the RAM on the base model dropping from 16 gigs down to 12 gigs.
4
Now, this stems from the fact that the memory prices around the world have skyrocketed
5
and just consumer electronics pricing has jacked up like crazy
6
but we're seeing Google launch a new phone with lowered specs and a higher price compared to the previous year.
7
Now, you do have the option of going back up to 16 gigs of RAM, but it is tied to a storage upgrade that costs $100.
8
It's not great.
9
So I was able to try these new devices at a Google event, and despite the increase in price and the drop in starting RAM, I do think there's some interesting features this year that are noteworthy.
10
So the headlining hardware feature is seemingly a cluster of lights on the back they call highlight.
11
It's on the pro devices only so the pro the XL
12
and the fold and the light is located where the flash would have been
13
and it essentially serves as a Advanced like notification light you can set it
14
so it glows in a color for specific contacts
15
But also for Gemini
16
when you're interacting with Gemini It'll have the flowing pattern as you talk to it
17
and when it responds back to you It'll be in a different pattern
18
and it's just there to visualize your interaction with the AI tools It's neat, but you do need to have your phone face down
19
And I think some people don't like leaving their phones like
20
that because you can pick up scratches You got to get cases
21
and protect the screen I don't think the idea of a
22
notification light on the back of phone is inherently bad I actually think it's good nowadays
23
because having a tool like a voice operated tool
24
that you can just look at your phone and Know that it's how it's interacting when it's interacting.
25
That's a good thing But I think they're marketing it a little bit heavily like it's just a light I love it, but I don't think the highlight is for everybody
26
and by introducing it this year they had to remove the temperature sensor
27
that we've seen on the Pixel Pro devices since the Pixel 8 Pro.
28
So that's gone.
29
Now, there's some other cool AI software features they showed.
30
In the camera, there's a new mode called Magic Capture that records video.
31
And when you use it, in addition to the video file that you would get normally,
32
you also get these still images that it intelligently selected and snapped while you were recording video without any effort from you.
33
And these images are cropped and unblurred and just tweaked to look as nice as possible.
34
Now when I first heard about this feature, I was like, this is silly.
35
Like, why would I ever want to do this?
36
If I want to take pictures, I take pictures.
37
If I want video, I want video.
38
But then I saw it in use and I realized this thing is awesome.
39
So I have kids and I have a family that like, anytime I try to take pictures of my kids and ask them to pose, it's just a goofy looking photo.
40
This allows life to just happen, things that just happen, and then it just picks up really nice moments and turns them into stills.
41
And when I saw this in use at the event, I was like, this, like I was taking pictures with this dude I'd met there.
42
And if he'd, if it'd been like, hey, do you guys want to take a picture?
43
It'd just be like two awkward dudes that don't even know each other.
44
It'd be like, you know, the weird picture.
45
But this captures something that just feels candid and just natural
46
and I think they just look a lot nicer I think this is something that sounds silly, but in actual use I think a lot of people will
47
enjoy it There's also a new teleprompter feature in the camera app where you can load up a script
48
or something and it'll just Prompt you as you go and it'll adjust the prompt speed depending on your speech It's neat, but I just couldn't help
49
but think like how many people are actually gonna use this like are there
50
that many creators that use phones to do this stuff.
51
As someone who makes YouTube videos, I've never in my life used a teleprompter, so I can't imagine like getting a phone for this purpose
52
or like if you even did use them like I don't know.
53
It was strange because this was like a launch feature
54
that they're showcasing as like hey this is what's new with the Pixel 11.
55
It's neat I guess but for a small number of people maybe.
56
My favorite AI tool that they showcase was the new voice to text feature Which is just really good.
57
It's able to take the stuff you're saying and remove the ums
58
and ahs Like we've seen that before
59
but now it's able to do like simple math and this is just the demo the guy showed
60
Remind me to get milk cheese two avocados two oranges
61
12 eggs and actually I need three avocados and I don't need milk and Can you also add banana and?
62
beef please I I love that.
63
I thought that was genuinely useful.
64
To be able to take our natural speech and then turn it into just clean, simplified text.
65
And it's seemingly all done on device.
66
I don't know how long it'll be like a Pixel 11 exclusive, but it's really cool.
67
The other thing that's new is a new live translate.
68
So we've seen it last year, I think, where you could just get like phone calls and be able to do live translate.
69
But this is now able to do with videos and podcasts.
70
And the demo was really cool.
71
There's a Google program designed to support the creators that are...
72
...that are taking the first steps on YouTube.
73
Our goal is to help you get the most out of your YouTube channel.
74
So that demo might have been sandboxed.
75
I don't know how accurate of a depiction that would be for the actual user experience, but it was impressive, right?
76
You have a Spanish video, when you click a button, two seconds later, It's coming back to me in English Interestingly the person's voice
77
was like it the English sounding voice matched The voice of
78
the original host in terms of like just the timbre of the voice
79
But also it had like an AI generated accent like she
80
had a Spanish accent instead of just like a plain English accent like it was neat, but I Don't know strange at the same time the pixel
81
11 has some new colors the hibiscus color really pops It's basically like a hot pink.
82
It's super bright.
83
On the Pro devices, so the Pro and the Pro XL, you have a couple matte frame options this year.
84
So the Obsidian and the Olive have like a matte finish to the frame.
85
And then the Fog and the Canyon color still have the polished metal frame.
86
The Pro devices also have slightly brighter screens than last year.
87
It's nothing massive, but a brighter screen is a brighter screen.
88
We always appreciate that.
89
And then on the Pixel 11 Pro Fold, the camera bars look a little bit different this year and also has the highlight on the back.
90
The fold only comes in two colors the obsidian
91
and then the olive colorway Still got the polished metal on the hinge It's a little thinner
92
and a little lighter than the previous generation
93
And google's saying that the new hinge is three times stronger than before all good to hear
94
But one thing I noticed
95
when I held it in my hands The panels are different thickness Like
96
if you look at this shot here the back panel
97
So the one with the camera bump is a little thinner than the front panel and it doesn't feel weird or anything.
98
It still feels balanced and normal.
99
And it could just be my eyes.
100
Like I was looking at this thing and I was like, I think it's thinner, but I didn't have like calipers.
101
But I really do think that the back pane or the back panel is thinner than the front panel, which I've never seen before.
102
Like that asymmetric panel discrepancy on a foldable phone.
103
Now in terms of the crease or like the visibility of the crease, it is better this year than the previous generation.
104
That one had a very noticeable crease, but it's still reasonably visible.
105
If you're someone who's really bothered by creases, you should go for something else now in terms of cameras
106
the pixel 11 as well as the pixel 11 pro fold have a new main sensor
107
so it's a bigger sensor allows more light to get in gives you better image quality we'll be testing
108
that shortly but the pro devices so the pro
109
and the pro xl don't have a new main sensor
110
but they do have a improved telephoto sensor
111
so again bigger sensor allows more light to get in this
112
now goes up to 120x super zoom keep in mind it's a 5x optical so
113
To go from 5x optical to 120 requires a lot of software.
114
Now, Google is very good at generating details with AI to kind of fill in that photo so it looks really good, but it is generated.
115
There's faster wireless charging across the board, so all four devices can now do Qi 2.2 at 25 watts.
116
And the battery sizes haven't changed much.
117
In fact, the Pro devices actually have slightly smaller sized batteries than last year.
118
I'm assuming that the Tensor G6 chip is just so energy efficient
119
that Google felt confident and comfortable to shrink the battery like this because they know that the efficiency will carry.
120
At least that's what I hope.
121
Okay, a quick note about the 12 gigs of RAM.
122
Like I mentioned at the beginning of the video, it can be argued that the new Pixel 11 Pro product that starts at 12 gigs of RAM,
123
because it has less RAM and it costs more than the previous generation is arguably a worse phone.
124
I think there's merit to that conversation.
125
But I bring this up because the way that Google has always done the Pixel experience is through a great software experience.
126
And to have good software experience, you need a lot of RAM, more RAM than is being used.
127
Like you want extra RAM just sitting there with lots of room for software to load into it
128
and not have to be removed because that just that's what makes it faster
129
and smoother right
130
so the google's uh gemini nano models those get loaded into ram there's like a certain chunk
131
or a certain portion of your memory on a pixel phone
132
that is reserved for their ai models
133
and this model grows over time right now we're at v3
134
and i think it's at like six gigs of usage
135
so a portion of that six gigs is like the model itself
136
but there's also another portion of memory that's reserved for like how that model interacts with other applications.
137
And right now, I think it's around six gigs.
138
The next version of it, so Gemini Nano V4, it's invariably going to be larger, right?
139
The bigger the model, the better usually.
140
And I feel like at 12 gigs, that is the minimum.
141
That is actually the requirement from Google to even have the proper Gemini intelligence experience.
142
Anything less than that doesn't qualify.
143
So 12 gigs is the floor and this new pro phone comes in at 12 gigs.
144
Like it's just, it's strange to me.
145
Like I get why they did it.
146
They have to have like a price competitive phone that starts at a certain price and this is how they do it.
147
But I think a lot of people are going to pick up that pro phone, the base one, 12 gigs of RAM and not realize just how they've trapped themselves into just,
148
you can only experience this model in its full glory, but the next model will likely put them over the limit and now they're like,
149
oh, you can't have the proper Gemini intelligence experience.
150
It's so bizarre.
151
It's not, I mean, arguably it's Google's fault because they're the ones
152
that are consuming the memory on the other end of it.
153
But I just, yeah, I'm shocked that Google would put this on their pro phone.
154
I'm disappointed that this is on their pro phone.
155
I, yeah, that's just the way it is.
156
But here it is.
157
First impression on these devices.
158
I will be testing these things when we get them in.
159
Hope you guys enjoyed this video.
160
Thank you.
📺 Same Channel
B22
This Mouse Makes You a Better Gamer.
Business EnglishWorking Adults
B21
Nvidia's New Laptops - RTX Spark
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B22
2026 Mac Mini - CRAZY FAST! (M5 Pro / M5 Ultra)
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B23
The New Steam Hardware is AMAZING!!
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B24
The New Dell XPS - It's Back and SO MUCH Better!
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B27
iPhone 17 Pro Max Review - Even BETTER Than You Think!
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B2The Short Samsung Fold 8 - First Look
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B2Steam Machine Review - Bad News.
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
✨ Recommend Video
B21
251 sentences
The Pixel 11 Pro Isn't Really a Phone
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
57 sentences
William Blair’s Louie DiPalma: We estimate SpaceX will spend about $50 billion on AI capex this year
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B21
49 sentences
Gemini Escapes Simulated Environment During Security Test - DTH
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B21
53 sentences
G8 ThinQ hands-on: LG's newest flagship
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
157 sentences
Claude Design just got MASSIVE Upgrades (2.0 Update)
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B2238
24 sentences
How Cell Phones Impact Our Relationships
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B21
126 sentences
2026 iPad mini - The BIGGEST Upgrade Yet!
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B21
201 sentences
What they got right! iPhone Duo
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
B283 sentences
Ray-Ban Meta Glasses Tips and Tricks You Need To Know!
Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
B21
245 sentences
New iPhone 18 Pro: Everything announced about the iPhone with the best camera and battery life ever
Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults
Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Google Pixel 11 Pro XL got… Worse?”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: pro, gigs, pixel, ram, device. This video has 160 sentences and 2205 words to shadow. The speech runs for 10:39. The speaker talks fast, about 207 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| pixel noun | /ˈpɪk.səl/ | One of the tiny dots that make up the representation of an image in a computer's memory. |
| gig noun | /ɡɪɡ/ | Originally (music), a performing engagement by a musician or musical group; (by extension, film, television, theater) a job or role for a performer. |
| sensor noun | /ˈsɛn.sɚ/ | A device or organ that detects certain external stimuli and responds in a distinctive manner. |
| fold verb | /ˈfəʊld/ | To bend (any thin material, such as paper) over so that it comes in contact with itself. |
| crease noun | /kɹiːs/ | A line or mark made by folding or doubling any pliable substance; hence, a similar mark, however produced. |
| interact verb | /ɪn.təˈɹækt/ | To engage in communication and other shared activities (with someone). |
| demo noun | /ˈdɛm.oʊ/ | A demonstration or visual explanation. |
| accent noun | /ækˈsɛnt/ | A higher-pitched or stronger (louder or longer) articulation of a particular syllable of a word or phrase in order to distinguish it from the others or to… |
| avocado noun | /ˌɑvəˈkɑdoʊ/ | The large, usually yellowish-green or black, savory fruit of the avocado tree. |
| hinge noun | /ˈhɪnd͡ʒ/ | A jointed or flexible device that allows the pivoting of a door etc. |
| nanotechnology noun | /ˌnænoʊtɛkˈnɑləd͡ʒi/ | The science and technology of creating nanoparticles and of manufacturing machines which have sizes within the range of nanometres (1–100 nm). |
| obsidian noun | /əbˈsɪd.i.ən/ | A type of naturally occurring black glass produced by volcanoes. |
| teleprompter noun | /ˈtɛləˌpɹɑmptəɹ/ | A device placed near or on a television camera that displays scrolling text, allowing a person to read a script while appearing to speak spontaneously to the… |
| matte adjective | /mæt/ | Dull; not reflective of light. |
| prompt verb | /pɹɑmpt/ | To lead (someone) toward what they should say or do. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| pick up verb | To lift; to grasp and raise. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- It'd be like, you know, the weird picture.
- At least that's what I hope.
- I think there's merit to that conversation.
- I'm disappointed that this is on their pro phone.
- I, yeah, that's just the way it is.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have skyrocketed · has jacked · we've seen |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is located · are cropped · have been sandboxed |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | someone who makes · feature Which is |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 47 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, it'll, they're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: noteworthy /ˈnəʊtˌwɜːði/, thickness /ˈθɪknəs/, mathematics /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: showcase /ˈʃoʊˌkeɪs/, notification /ˌnoʊtɪfɪˈkeɪʃn̩/, depiction /dɪˈpɪkʃən/, visualize /ˈvɪʒuəˌlaɪz/, flagship /ˈflæɡʃɪp/
- Long words — get the stress right: avocado /ˌɑvəˈkɑdoʊ/, nanotechnology /ˌnænoʊtɛkˈnɑləd͡ʒi/, obsidian /əbˈsɪd.i.ən/, teleprompter /ˈtɛləˌpɹɑmptəɹ/, notification /ˌnoʊtɪfɪˈkeɪʃn̩/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like pixel, gig, sensor.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.