Pixel 11 Has an MTE Problem | GrapheneOS

Transcript

Please excuse any grammatical errors. I used a tool to generate the transcript and haven’t had a chance to read through it yet.

So I don’t typically like to make videos on topics like this. And what I’m talking about is situations where we don’t really have all the information yet. And so we don’t really have a conclusion.

But seeing as this could affect someone’s choice to spend over $900 on a Google Pixel 11, I thought it was at least worth putting something out there.

So what I’m talking about is if you were looking to purchase a Pixel 11 that was recently released to install Graphene OS on it, you might want to wait. If you were looking to purchase the Pixel 11 and use it with the stock OS, then I guess go ahead. But you’re probably watching the wrong channel if that’s the case.

So the Graphene OS team posted a couple long threads on this topic. The findings have changed over the last couple of days, and there’s still new information coming out. But what I did was cherry pick a couple posts that I think summarize it well, and I’m going to cover those.

I will also link the full threads down below if you want to read them, but I’m not going to sit here and read the entire thing to you.

So the first post was on August 29th. 9th, 2026.

We have a partial port of Graphene OS to the Pixel 11 series after a week of work on it. We are unable to complete the port due to lack of support for ARM hardware memory tagging in software, firmware, and near certainly hardware. It appears Google cut an important security feature to save money.

So this was the initial findings for the Pixel 11. It seemed like it was lacking the hardware needed to support memory tagging, which was one of the most important security features that started with the Pixel 8.

But a couple days later, on September 1st:

We have good news about the Pixel 11. It still has at least a bare minimum support for MTE at a hardware level. We think they removed most of the hardware acceleration from the CPU cache to save money. They ruined the performance, so it ended up being fully disabled in firmware. It may still be usable.

So again, a couple days later, it does seem like the Pixel 11 has the necessary hardware, but for some reason, and the assumption being performance, it was disabled.

In that same thread, they also touched on that topic:

If the issue is simply that MTE performance is poor, then we can support the Pixel 11 with a major caveat. It will be a significant performance downgrade. Aside from MTE, Google downgraded the Pixel 11 series GPU compared to the Pixel 10 series, in addition to reducing RAM for base Pro models.

So again, we started off, it didn’t seem like memory tagging was supported at all. Then it does seem like some of the hardware was there for it, but performance might be poor. Again, still don’t know why exactly.

But then yesterday, the most recent update in the forum post:

Our own testing doesn’t show a substantial reduction in performance so far. However, we have no explanation for why the initial Pixel firmware had MTE completely unavailable and compiled out of the firmware. We also have no explanation for why it was partially added back in QPR 2 beta 4 update released for the pixel 11 yesterday which was after the release for other devices.

So this whole situation, like I said in the beginning, is still pretty fluid, but it boils down to hold off on buying the Pixel 11 at this time.

In one of the threads, the Graphene OS team even said:

We strongly recommend against buying Pixel 11 devices. Pixel 8, 9 and 10 have much better overall security for Graphene OS. Pixel 10 is cheaper with similar hardware and MTE. Pixel 11 titans m3 should improve bfu before first unlock security for users without a strong passphrase but losing mte craters after first unlock security if you need a device now go with the pixel 8 9 or 10.

You can hold off till next year, check out what comes out from Motorola, see what that looks like, but really there’s no definitive answer.

The Graphene OS team even notes here:

Google could simply communicate publicly to answer basic questions when asked. Instead, we’re having to figure out what’s going on based on leaks to us and to news organizations, along with our own reverse engineering work. The leaks indicate there are performance regressions and that hardware support was dropped or partially dropped.

So again, there’s still a lot of unknown, and this thread, which I will pin in a comment down below, is the best place to check for updates. I’m sure by the time you’re watching this video, something new will have come out.

But I just want to put this out there so that you don’t purchase something and then end up not being able to install GrapheneOS on it because it’s not supported.

And I know a lot of people in this thread like to go the conspiracy route with Google doing this because it’s easier to backdoor a device or something like that. I prefer not to go the conspiratorial routes and spread those online without proof. I know other YouTubers like to do that though.

I usually prefer to go the Hanlon’s Razor route. Never attribute to malice, that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

So… let’s see how this goes.

But I did want to end on some positive news. This post by Graphene OS on August 21st:

We do plan to support Motorola’s Razr Fold and Razr Ultra.

I’ve never been big on flip devices or folding devices, but the Razr Ultra, after looking it up, it has this horizontal folding. And if I can get a device in this form factor that folds and then I get a little puck I throw in my pocket, that’s a form factor I can get behind.

So let’s see how it goes. Again, check the official forum post for updates. And that’s all I got. Hope you have a great rest of your day and I’ll see you next time.