Considering the new Google Pixel Buds Pro? You've come to the right place.
Google's Pro-suffixed Pixel earbuds are finally here, and we've put them in our ears after pairing them to a Google Pixel 6 Pro phone and a Samsung Galaxy S21 – which means we have formed some early opinions on the design, specs and sound. This is not a full-fat TechRadar review, you understand (that is coming) but we certainly have a few points to make…
Firstly, fitting them isn't as joyous an experience we might have hoped for, even when we downsized to the smallest of the three sizes provided, because the sort of thumb-shaped units just don't feel particularly suited to our ears. We did manage it, but that "ah, now they're secure" moment still isn't happening. What we're saying is, a few hours in and we still wouldn't want to go for a run or start dancing… so for fit alone, they don't rank among the best true wireless earbuds we've tested, and nor will they be joining our best workout headphones guide.
As if in coquettish disagreement, the Pixel Buds app initially runs me through a 20-second fit test, tells me I passed and that my 'earbuds sound great!'
I'll be the judge of that, Google, thank you…
Also, for a Pro-suffixed set of headphones costing $199 / £199 / AU$299 (Pro means added noise-cancellation and stepped up features, we all know that in 2022 – see the new Honor Earbuds 3 Pro or Huawei FreeBuds Pro 2), the feel here isn't exactly premium: there's not even a USB-C cable in the small and unremarkable packaging, so that particular rumor has proved genuine.
Now, some good news: the touch controls are very good here, and there's on-ear volume control by swiping forward or back which works very well – so there's a feature you won't find on the AirPods Pro, Apple users – plus you can customize it so that a long press on the left earbud is a physical way to summon Google Assistant, and the right scrolls between noise cancellation profiles.
And the big news is that, even after only a few hours of listening, the sound quality when listening to music is an improvement over the cheaper Google Pixel Buds A-Series. Active Noise Cancellation? Yes, it's good, as is transparency. You cannot tweak the levels of either further than 'on' or 'off', but that's acceptable here given the efficacy of each.
AirPods Pro-killers though? The jury's still out…
Google launched the original Pixel Buds back in 2020 and followed them with the more affordable A-Series variants mentioned above. But with these new earbuds, Google will once again be hoping to provide some serious competition for the AirPods range. Will the gamble pay off?
We're… not convinced. On the one hand, there's much that used to be the sole preserve of the AirPods-with-an-iPhone that Google can now provide on Android, including super-speedy pairing where the buds simply pop up on your home screen asking to be friends, 'find me' features, a dedicated app and newly-added multipoint technology with automatic audio switching, so the Pixel Buds Pro can stay connected to two different devices simultaneously and switch easily between them. We tried it with the Google Pixel 6 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S21 – no problems whatsoever, provided you switch multipoint on in the Buds' settings (it's off by default, but this takes seconds to toggle on).
So what's the 'but'? Aside from the poor fit, for us, there is a big question-mark over the sound. In our early tests (and please please remember, it's an early listen) when deploying 'HD audio' (which here is defined as AAC audio codec, ie. better than MP3 but still lossy) we didn't get the clarity through the leading edges of notes we'd hope for at this level. The detail simply wasn't there, to the point that the sound felt a little woolly and bloated, even through the midrange – and of course, there's no scope for head-tracked Spatial Audio as there is within Apple's high-walled private garden…
While this early look at the Google Pixel Buds Pro is carefully considered (we're an esteemed member of the audio press, you know), we're going to need to spend a lot more time with these wireless earbuds ourselves to figure out whether they're worth the cash Google wants you to part with for them – and whether or not they might upset the Apple cart.
For now though, we're not sure these are contenders for our best noise-cancelling earbuds list. But we could be wrong…
