Google Pixel Buds Pro

An above average pair of wireless earbuds with ANC.

TL;DR

An above average pair of wireless earbuds, hitting above their weight class for the price. Other options may be better but are likely significantly more expensive.

Review

As noted in the Google Pixel Buds A-Series review, I was looking for something with a little more oomph, especially on short trips (~1hr flights).

I wanted something with noise cancellation, but something that wasn't too bulky. Best Buy was having a sale, and I needed to get on a plane in less than 24 hours, so I decided to pick up a pair and have been using it on my short haul flights since.

Once again, here's a short list of pros and cons.

Pros

• ANC
  • It works pretty well, although the seal sometimes doesn't seat properly (see cons)
• Volume control
  • Something I was missing from the A-Series, was volume control. Volume control exists on every other one of my headphones/earbuds, so for some reason not having it on the A-Series seemed like a big oversight.
• Transparency mode
  • This is a super neat feature, that I utilize a lot of the time in order to hear the person at the register, or the flight attendants. It works fairly seamlessly.
• Wireless charging
  • I haven't used this yet, but this is a pro that was missing from the A-Series. I'm sure some people would be happy that it exists, and if I had a wireless charger, I might be just as happy.
• Google integration
  • Setting it up with a Google Pixel was extremely easy, easier than some other Bluetooth earbuds I've used. I don't know if it was from the latest Android updates or the Fast Pair changes that Google has made, but it was fairly frictionless to pair (with the exception of my phone still failing to detect that these were no longer the A-Series after pairing).

Cons

• No wingtips
  • This is actually a really big con. I've found the earbuds to slip out of my ears on occasion more than once, and had to swap to the larger silicone tips, but it hasn't helped much. I had to either reseat it a few times or twist it strangely in order to get them to stay. On top of that, if I seat it at the wrong angle, the fold of my ear sometimes triggers the outer touch sensitive panel and causes whatever playing to start/stop.
• Gesture control
  • The gesture control, while it's good that it exists, is really finicky. Since I have to seat it in my ear at a weird angle, I have no idea the orientation of the bud, as I try to either change the volume or perform any of the other gestures. For the most part, I have given up on using the gestures, and resort to just using the gestures to start/stop/swap transparency modes.
• Non-Google integration
  • Just like the A-Series, I assume it will suffer from the same last of configuration when on a non-Google device. I haven't needed to do so yet. The multi-point connectivity is also a bit confusing and doesn't seem to work that well.

Things that are just ok

• Sound
  • It sounds...fine. I'm not an audiophile, but it certainly sounds better than the A-Series, bassier and more voluminous.

The Update

Supposedly, the Pixel Buds Pro 2 fix my one big issue with it, namely wingtips. However, we've entered the AI era, and we'll have to see how the new version does.

Summary

While a significant improvement over the Google Pixel Buds A-Series, there are still a few significant flaws that don't give it the full rating, namely the lack of wingtips and poor gesture control. However, for a mid-range set of buds with noise cancellation, it's not bad.

Additional Links / References

• Google Store