Get Them Here: Google Pixel Buds Pro 2: https://amzn.to/3YjJZYV
So these are the Pixel Buds Pro 2, and these are the most Conviente premium ANC earbuds for any Android user, period. They basically tried to copy everything that the AirPods Pro 2’s could do, and thats fine. And personally I was shocked to see just how small these new earbuds were compared to the Pixel Buds Pro. Nonetheless, lets see what the Pixel Buds Pro 2 are all about and lets see how they compare to these other premium ANC earbuds like the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, Sony WF-1000XM5’s and the Bose QC Ultra.
So first theres price. The Pixel Buds pro 3 retail for $230… not bad cause for comparison sake, both the AirPods Pro 2 and Galaxy Buds 3 pro retail for $250, and the Sony WF-1000XM5’s, Bose QC Ultra Retail and Sennheiser Momentum 4 retail for $300. Nonetheless, if you want to pick any of these earbuds up they’ll be linked down below, or you can always press on the YouTube shopping button.
So first theres the case, now the Pixel Buds Pro 2 have the same egg looking case as with past Pixel Buds… and this case is great for every day. Since this case is so rounded it easily slips in and out of your pocket, the lid opens and closes very easily and this case has very strong magnets in it, so taking your earbuds out or putting them back in is super easy. And just as you’d expect, this case charges via a USB C port and it has wireless chargning. And size wise, this case does very well as well. Now this case is a little larger than your AirPods 4 case or the AirPods Pro 2’s case. Specifically, the Pixel Buds Pro 2’s case is a little thicker than the AirPods Pro 2’s and it has a slightly larger foot print… but honestly I feel that the size difference here is negligible. I also feel that the Pixel Buds Pro 2’s case is neck and neck with the Sony WF-1000XM5 case… but this case is much smaller and a lot more ergonomic than the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro’s case… and Sennheiser’s cases and Bose’s cases are huge compared to the Pixel Buds Pro 2’s case.
But another major thing about the Pixel Buds Pro 2’s case is that it has a built in speaker, just like the AirPods Pro 2’s and AirPods 4… so for when you eventually lose your earbuds… not only can you track it down using Google’s Find My network… you can also make the case play a sound so that you can more easily find it. And the built speaker in this case will also play sounds when you plug these earbuds in to charge or when the battery is running low… but more importantly, its going to be easier to find your case when you eventually lose them.
But also, the Pixel buds Pro 2’s also have a really good battery life to case size ratio… cause these earbuds have a combined advertised battery life of 30 hours with their ANC turned on. The earbuds themselves can go for 8 hours and the case can supply almost 3 charges. So with their ANC turned on, the Pixel Buds Pro 2 have really good stamina already… but if you want you can also extend the battery life on these earbuds if you use them with their ANC turned off. They have a combined battery life of 48 hours, which is insane. The earbuds themselves can go for 12 hours plus those 3 charges from a the case.
And in general the Pixel Buds Pro 2’s are up there when it comes to battery life to case size ratio… cause they have a comapbinedh battery life of 30 hours while still having a small case, similar to both the AirPods Pro 2 and Sony WF-1000XM5’s… but like the AirPods Pro 2’s this case also has a built in speaker… which is something the Sony’s dont have. And the Pixel Buds Pro 2’s easily out shine the Galaxy Buds 3 Pro’s, the Sennheriser momentum 3’s, or Bose’s cases which dont have built in speakers, their cases are larger and they might not have as much battery life.
But with the case out of the way lets talk about the earbuds themselves. Now first I will say that I was shocked at just how small these earbuds out, cause the original pixel buds pro were pretty big… but even when compared to these other earbuds, the Pixel Buds Pro 2 are very small. Now these are in ear earbuds, but they dont go in as deep into your ear canals as a standard pair of in ear earbuds like either the Galaxy Buds 2, Sony WF-1000XM5’s or the Linksbuds S. These are shallow fitting in ear earbuds… but they aren’t as shallow as either the AirPods Pro 2’s, Galaxy Buds 3 pro or the Linkbuds Fit. The Pixel buds Pro 2 are shallow fitting in ear earbuds that go in a little deeper into your ear canals like the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro. So with the Pixel Buds pro 2’s these give you a good mix of comfort and lock down. They’re comfortable cause they dont go in super deep into your ear canals… but since they go in a little deeper they dont wiggle out as much as AirPods Pro 2. However dont expect these earbuds to stay perfectly in place cause they have their built in ear fins. Quiet honestly, I feel that these built in ear fins dont do all that much, they are just too small for me and you can’t swap them out. But overall, the Pixel Buds Pro 2’s are a pair of very comfortable earbuds for casual use and they do a really good job os staying in place. And I really like how super low profile they are. But I wouldn’t recommend them for working out.
Now when it comes to connectivity, each earbuds estbailshes a connection with your phone, so if you just want to use one earbud at a time, you can use either one, it doesn’t matter. Now if you have multiple Android devices you can easily hot swap between your devices… or you can also set these earbuds up so that they can be connected to any two Bluetooth devices at the same time, regardless of eco system. So this is really good because if you’re a power user with devices from different eco systems, you can still hot swap between them. So you can easily hot swap from lets say your pixel 9 to your iPad or iPhone.
Latency is also not a problem for these earbuds so you can use them to watch videos with on your phone… and when it comes to audio codecs, these earbuds only have support for SBC and AAC, which is fine.
But now lets talk about actually lisnteing to music with these earbuds… and these sound and perform similar to lets say the Galaxy Buds 3 pro and the Bose QC Ultra. As in, these earbuds are going to be better suited for someone that likes a brighter sound signature cause the bass on these earbuds doesn’t hit as hard as the Bass on the Sony WF-1000XM5’s or especially the AirPods Pro 2. The bass on these earbuds resonates well… but it doesn’t get super deep and in general these earbuds earbuds do put an emphasis on the treble. Now you can always go into these earbuds’s app and you can either choose from a few pre made EQ’s or you can make your own, but even if you were to raise the bass all the way up on them, they aren’t going to hit as hard and they aren’t going to resonate as deep. And even though these earbuds have strong treble… they dont put a strong emphasis on the vocals like AirPods do. These earbuds do a good job of keeping everything on the same plane… but if theres too much bass or too much treble the vocals can get drowned out a little bit. Overall these earbuds sound fine and they certainly get the job done… but these aren’t my favorite sounding earbuds… and if you really like bass than you’ll might want to look at something else. But personally I do like using these earbuds with their bass boost EQ.
But when it comes to the media controls on these earbuds, they’re using touch pads… and since these earbuds are so small, it is very easy to accidentally have false inputs when you’re adjusting these earbuds, which can be very annoying. But these touch pads have both swiping and tapping gestures. So you can tap to skip though your music, you can answer or reject calls, you can press and hold to adjust your ANC settings and you can swap up or down to raise or lower your volume. Overall the pixels buds have very robust touch controls cause you also have the support for swiping gestures. And if you’re using these earbuds with an android device, you’re also going to be able to just activate your voice assistant with just your voice, and you have your standard issue proximity sensors as well.
But then theres the active noise cancelation on these earbuds… and dont get me wrong, the ANC on these earbuds is useful, but it certainly isn’t their strong suit.
Now when it comes to my 2024 ANC earbuds ranking list, in first place we have the Sennhesier momentum 4 which block out a ton of noise, but they also go in super deep into your ear canals. right below them are the AirPods Pro 2 which are a lot more comfortable. Below them are the Sony WF-1000XM5’s which aren’t as comfy cause of their foam ear tips, right below them are the Bose QC earbuds, below them are the AirPods 4 and below them are the Bose QC Ultra earbuds.
Then right below them are the Sony Linkbuds S, below them are the Pixel Buds 2 pro, below them are the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro, followed by the Galaxy Buds 2 pro, below them are the Galaxy Buds 3, below them are the Sony Linkbuds Fit, below them are the Galaxy Buds 3 and below them are the Beats Studio Buds Plus.
So obviously, these aren’t all of the ANC earbuds on the market cause there are a lot, but I think that these are some of the most important ones for late 2024. But more importantly, the ANC On the Pixel Buds Pro 2 is trialing behind a lot of these other earbuds. Now the ANC on these earbuds is going to help reduce road noise or chatter… but if active noise cancelation is very important to you, then you’ll might want to look at something else.
And then theres the ambient mode on these earbuds… and again the ambient mode on these earbuds gets the job done and their microphone carry does a really good job of blocking out wind noise when walking out doors, and people’s voices always sound very clear… but the main problem with the ambient mode on these earbuds is that there is a very noticeable hissing in the back ground. And I feel that this is a very biog shame causing hissing isn’t very common any more. It was normal to hear a little hissing in your earbuds like 2 years ago… but now a lot of other earbuds have fixed that.
Mic Pixel Quiet
But finally heres the microphone test, and I feel that we have a bit of a problem here. Now while in a quiet room my voice sounds okay, but it doesn’t sound super focused.
Mic AirPods Pro 2 Quiet
Cause with the AirPods Pro 2’s these do a much better job of focusing on my voice.
Mic AirPods Road
But the big problem here is that the Pixel Buds Pro 2 dont do a great job of dealing with noise pollution. Cause right now the AirPods Pro 2’s a doing a great job of blocking out all of this road noise, cause for comparison sake, if we were to switch over to my lapel microphone, you’re going to clearly hear all of this road noise, but if we were to switch over to the AirPods Pro 2, it is severely reduced and my voice sounds very clear.
Mic Pixel Buds Road
where as with the Pixel Buds pro 2’s… these are blocking out this road noise… but my voice has a lot of interference.
Mic Pixl buds Chatter
And its the same thing when it comes to chatter… the pixel buds pro 2 are blocking out this noise pollution but there is a lot of interference going on with my voice.
Mic AirPods Chatter
Where as with the AirPods Pro 2’s these do a much better job of blocking out this chatter and keep my voice very clear. Cause again if we were to switch over to my lapel microphone, you’re going to clearly hear all of this chatter, but if we were to switch back over to the AirPods Pro 2 it is severely reduced and my voice still sounds very clear. So with the Pixel Buds Pro 2’s these really struggle to block out noise pollution and this is the case whether I am using an iPhone or my pixel 7a. Now maybe these earbuds perform better when used with a Pixel 9… but if you’re someone that using the Pixel Buds Pro 2 with something different from a Pixel 9… then these dont have the best performing microphone.
But with all of that being said… Unfortunately the Pixel Buds Pro 2 drop the ball when it comes to their microphone for phone calls. Which is a shame because previous pixel buds have great performing microphones on them regardless of what phone you were using. But everything else about the Pixel Buds Pro 2 is really good. First off these earbuds excel when it comes to battery life. Their combined battery life is very impressive, the earbuds themselves have amazing stamina, and they have a small case that also has a built in speaker. Battery life is perhaps the main selling point of these earbuds. Fit wise these earbuds are also very comfortable thanks to their shallow fit, and they look very sleek as well. And the Soundquality that you get out of these earbuds is good too, but these are better suited for someone that like a brighter sound signature. And then theres the active noise cnalceiton and the ambient mode on these earbuds… its okay, but I can be better. So hopefully google can improve them through a firmware update… but what google really needs to fix is that mic.