Chromebook Remorse: Tech Backlash at Schools Extends Beyond Phones - The New York Times

The Google Pixel 11 Pro HiLight presents itself with a sleek design and unique feature — the ability to light up certain colors while face down to indicate a favorite contact is calling you, or to ensure Gemini is listening when you make a verbal request. The HiLight LED later received a cool new feature which tacked on messages as an additional trigger for its light indicator, although this is still only available on the beta channel. However, it seems the feature doesn't entirely live up to the promise of its premise and has left some hopeful owners rather disappointed. A major complaint among HiLight owners is that the device offers a limited color selection for them to assign to their contacts. The device was initially held back by a meager five color choices. Although outlets like Android Authority provided some hope with news of future updates introducing more options, some HiLight users pointed out that, though it has the hardware capabilities to support them now, Google is seemingly rolling out new color options at a sluggish pace, rather than making them available all at once. "Drip feeding new colors as a feature is absolutely insane," another Redditor wrote.

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links. If you ever noticed that the suffix "pro" adds a strange gravitas to a product, you're not alone. Slap the word on the front of a box, bump the price up a couple hundred dollars, and a certain kind of buyer will reach for their wallet without thinking much about what extras they're actually getting. The Google Pixel 11 Pro was just released in August 2026, and it's an amazing phone with a fluid design and AI-enabled features.

There are five phones I wouldn't touch for specific reasons.