The best thing about the upcoming hardware season might just be colors. I feel like the most exciting thing about the new Pixel 11 series are the colors — and that may extend to the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro and the rest of this fall's hardware season. That's not to knock the Pixel 11. Price bumps aside, the Pixel series continues to be one of the best Android options, and the last few have been among the best-looking phones.

This year Google went bold: the Pixel 11 Pro comes in a lovely light orange ("canyon") with gold accents, while the magenta Pixel 11 is a hot pink that stands out from nearly every other smartphone. In a year of iterative improvements, fun colors are what catch my eye most. Even Apple is rumored to put more life into the iPhone 18 Pro with a new "dark cherry" and lighter blue, though the dark cherry feels like a step back from last year's "cosmic orange" iPhone 17 Pro.

Samsung is an outlier — the Galaxy S26 series is charitably described as "subtle," and the Z Flip 8 and Z Fold 8 are similarly bland. This feels like a missed opportunity to convince fence-sitters. I realize this is superficial, but if we're spending more on devices and keeping them longer, they should be exciting to pull out of your pocket. For some, black or white fits the bill — I'm just glad Google is giving us a swath of other options this year.