Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Google Pixel Buds Pro Review: Just Get These!”.
So the pixel buds a series, the cheapest ones right now – cost 69 nice, but the old retired, 2020 pixel buds before they stopped being sold were 179 dollars, and i really like them. I reviewed them. I thought they were nice, but they did lack active noise cancellation and so they sort of fell a tiny step behind the most premium best wireless earbuds that were out – and so i mentioned this at the end of my review. This is exactly what i said. Maybe later they’ll do a some next-gen or a more premium, pixel buds pro and they’ll be 279 and they’ll do a noise cancellation and a bigger battery and it turns out. Well that’s exactly what we have here.
This is pixel buds pro active noise cancellation, larger battery except they’re, only 1.99, and actually, if you’re cool with any color other than coral they’re, literally already on sale on amazon for less than the price of the last pixel buds. So, just to get out of the way right off the top, these have nailed it from every single turn from the case to the fit to the sound to the features. You probably just close this video right now and just pick up these, but don’t do that because then you’d ruin the watch time on this video and then that’s no fun. So how about how about i take you along and i’ll, show you why these are so good. So, first of all, the case that these come in is basically the same as before, which is to say, underrated like so many wireless headphones have annoyingly, thick or larger cases. This is a nice compact, clean well-made case sure the white might get a little dirty after a while, but it’s got this super satisfying, magnet to open and close. It is ipx2 splash resistant as a case, and it has a usbc port at the bottom, but also has wireless charging, so you can pop it on any qi, wireless charger you already have or on the back, your phone if it supports power sharing and that’s all In a package that fits in the coin pocket in my jeans, an all-around, absolute win in the case, but it’s what’s inside the case that we’re here for and the pixel buds pro have this new shape to them.
They’Re, mostly a matte black plastic and they have a sort of colored cap at the end. That’S either fog colored, which is what i have it’s kind of a light: blue or coral, a yellowish, green or black. So just like any other wireless earbuds, you pop them out of the case. You give them a quarter twist to lock them into your ears and while they don’t stick out of my ears too bad, like maybe the sony wf-1000xm4s, it isn’t the lowest profile. I’Ve ever seen either it’s somewhere in between just a little bit bigger than the last pixel buds, but the main difference for me is these: don’t have the wing tips anymore? The wing tips have their upside in the downside, the upside is, they would absolutely stay locked in my ear, much better. I could run around and jump and they wouldn’t fall out, but the tip of it when it was in my ear for more than about an hour or two would create this pressure point. That would get more uncomfortable over time, and i didn’t really like that too much. So these don’t have that anymore, which means they’re not quite as locked in my ear, but they are more comfortable.
Of course, earbuds are different for everybody and when i switch to the larger earbud tips like they really do still stay in my ear, fine for walking around normal everyday activities and things like that, but yeah, that’s worth noting honestly. I think this is the right move. Also, the buds themselves are ipx4 rated, so if you still want to work out in them, they’re sweat proof, but i just probably won’t so once it’s paired up, and these are in your ears. There are a lot of different features in here, thanks to the pixel buds app, but i’m just going to start with the sound you just listen to music.
How do they sound, and i think these sound really really good. Now i’ll spare you the bunch of descriptors and audio file terms that i could use just to tell you. Basically, i really like the sound from these new 11 millimeter drivers. Once you get a nice seal in your ear, you can tell they’re really crisp and clear. They aren’t too shrill or tinny. They don’t distort very much, and the noise cancellation does a great job of getting rid of white noise and there’s, basically, no perceivable bluetooth lag at all when watching videos or gaming.
There’S just two slightly odd things that i noticed one. These just have a much stronger bass than the last pixel buds. I kind of noted that as a weakness in the previous pixel buds review like they were a little bit weak on the bass, not these. The bass on these is so much stronger and punchier, and just a more full low end that it’s a real character highlight, like so hip hop music. Anything with a lot of that lower end frequency sounds really good, but in like podcasts or other genres, or just things where i don’t need all that bass. I was looking for an eq to even that out, but the pixel buds app doesn’t have eq and the pixel phone also doesn’t have an eq.
I actually got a buds firmware update. While i was testing these – and i thought it was about to add an eq in the sound settings, but all it added was this volume eq setting, which basically just makes things a little punchier at lower volumes. So if you do specifically want to adjust the sound signature of these, maybe your phone has eq settings built in some of them. Do maybe the app you’re using for audio has eq settings built in some of them do but yeah pixel buds themselves, don’t have eq built in yet and neither does a pixel phone.
But google has thankfully said that there is a full five band eq coming later. This year, hopefully soon, but then the second thing i noticed is these also have a slightly lower overall volume than any other buds i’ve tested in a while. It’S not problematically low, but i did find myself almost always listening, either right below max volume or like two to three notches below the max volume, because that was the comfortable listening level. Usually max volume is way too loud for more than a few seconds of listening on most earbuds, but not here.
It feels like it feels like the bottom 40 of the volume slider is basically useless. I can barely hear anything. That’S that low, but yeah. I am definitely impressed by how little distortion there is and how clear and thumpy and great it sounds at or near max volume. So that’s worth noting every pair of noise-cancelling earbuds shall have a transparency mode at least seems like they all. Should it’s like an unwritten rule of these things yeah! These are transparency mode built into the pixel buds pro and it’s okay, it’s gon na, let in sound from the microphones and pump in your ambient noise.
So you can hear what’s around you, but it’s not the best. I guess airpods are still in a league of their own when it comes to this, but i’d rate, these transparency mode like a b minus, basically it’s better than leaving them off, but it certainly still sounds muffled and i’m hoping i’m hoping stuff like this gets better In the future, i hope they can push firmware updates to also improve transparency mode, but the pixel buds real advantage to me is still definitely the software and all the features that are built in. I still love having google assistant like a hold away or a tap away anytime. I want to ask a question.
I literally just hold it down and say how tall is the taj mahal? It’S like a superpower. I can just just start opening light shades and turning on smart lamps and things and just yeah assistant everywhere is great and in the pixel buds app in the settings you can customize what a tap and hold on each side does so right now i have the Right side hold to trigger the assistant, but the left side hole toggles between noise cancellation and transparency mode. Pretty much every pair of earbuds nowadays also has some sort of touch controls on the outside. For your media, these are no different. It’S touch wants to play. Touch two times to skip forward three times to go back the one thing i couldn’t quite get to work as smoothly as i’d like is swiping to change volume.
These they’re, just not a big enough surface for me to like reliably get a good swipe in. I kept trying to do it, but this was like the most inconsistent thing for me. Basically, i just end up like wobbling it around. In my ear it works sometimes, but again, it’s not a big surface. So what i ended up doing is, i just end up reaching in my pocket and blindly like changing the volume on the volume rocker on the phone in my pocket, which turned out to actually be totally fine. As long as my phone was on me so and there’s a bunch of other features too multi-device support, so these buds are paired to both my phone and my laptop at the same time and seamlessly switch back and forth as advertised no problem. I love that and then they have a find my device feature in case they get lost. They have in-ear detection to automatically play and pause when you take them out and put them back in and they even have this ear tip seal check, feature which analyzes.
How well the microphones are actually canceling out sound for you and if it’s not working so well, it can recommend a different size, ear tip to improve the seal. It’S smart. The only thing missing might be the like adaptive, sound feature which listens to your environment and then automatically bumps up the volume when your environment gets louder. I didn’t really use that very much, but i noticed it wasn’t here so that isn’t in the pixel buds pro, but it’s also apparently coming other than that.
It’S not really missing. Anything like these have every feature that i’m used to having with earbuds and the cherry on top, as they did also with this slightly larger body, improve battery life. So you’re going to get seven hours of actual listening with active noise cancellation on which is far longer than i would ever listen to earbuds.
That’S up to you! If you want to do that 11 hours with anc off, that’s a huge advantage so for 199, should you just get these probably yeah? I mean this is easy to recommend. There are some other options out there so for around this price you’re. Looking at you could definitely get air pods if you’re into that, but you can also look towards if you specifically want better sound. There are better sounding earbuds, but also something like samsung’s new buds, 2 or pro they’re 229.. I haven’t gotten the chance to hear them. Yet because they just came out and samsung didn’t, send me any, but i imagine considering how good the previous ones were, that those might also be really good and then also as far as like working out in headphones or fit in the ear. I still prefer a wing tip in the ear for like actual workout stuff, so like beats fit pro beats studio buds.
Those types of things stay in my ear, better, so worth considering that stuff, but as far as like everyday buds, you put them in your ear. Every day you take meetings on them phone calls, you walk around with them. You just have them on all the time. Google assistants, your super power yeah. These are great uh. These are the these.
Are the ones i’m gon na put in my backpack and keep around with me everywhere? I go well done. Google thanks for making these please push that eq feature. I’M gon na be waiting for it. Thanks for watching catch you in the next one peace, .