- Huge bass and sub bass
- Twist-lock provides a strong fit
- Good playback control options
- Outstanding battery life
- Small size makes swipe controls tricky
- Multipoint is buggy
- Noise cancellation could be better
It’s been a while since a piece of tech made me smile, but the Pixel Buds Pro 2 ended my streak just 23 seconds after I tapped play – because that’s when the bass and sub-bass kick in on Childish Gambino’s “3005”. And despite their stellar performance down low, they still manage balanced mids and trebles, which is a rare feat.
They have solid battery life, good EQ adjustments, a full suite of playback controls and a comfortable, secure design. Most of the downsides are really just nitpicks or occasional glitches with the controls, except for poor multipoint performance.
If you want the TL;DR, these are some of the best true wireless earbuds around right now – the only real competition that springs to mind are the Apple AirPods Pro 2, but they only have full functionality with Apple products.
Big, balanced sound
The Pixel Buds Pro 2 pack a lot of sound into a tiny space. Their biggest strength is sub-bass, which is rare to find in any quality in a pair of buds, let alone this good. And standard bass audio is also a big drawcard, bringing tracks like "Blinding Lights" (The Weeknd) and "Roygbiv" (Boards of Canada) to life in a way most buds simply can't replicate.
But despite this, they’re not tuned too far towards the bass end of the spectrum, so mids and trebles don’t come through muddy, which is a prevailing problem with bassy buds.
With the default EQ settings, high mids and low trebles were a little piercing to my ears, but this was easily fixed with one tiny tweak in the Pixel Buds app’s treble slider, located within the Sound menu.
There’s no sibilance to speak of, even on particularly dire tracks like Portishead’s “Humming”. And the clarity and separation of different instruments is downright impressive.
Overall sound quality still isn’t going to compare to a great set of over-ear headphones. But even in such an unfair contest, they do better than some similarly priced competition (I’m looking at you, Sennheiser Accentum Plus).
Small package
These are small earbuds. The control surface area is a tiny 1.6cm across. Now, that’s only a few millimetres smaller than some other buds out there, but it makes a noticeable difference for something you stick in your ear. It’s all the more impressive, given their battery life and audio performance.
The small size also means they're a low-profile addition to your fashion toolkit. Ours were the Wintergreen buds, but you can also get Porcelain (off-white), Hazel (more of a dark grey with a hint of green), and Peony (bright pink).
Lock it in
Google’s “twist to lock in” feature is an elegant design choice, and is more comfortable than it sounds. Boiled down, there’s a little plastic tab that treats your ear as if it’s a threaded screw hold. The more you turn the buds, the further they burrow into your ear.
It means you can wear them comfortably loose most of the time, but also be confident they won’t fall out while exercising.
Impressive design aside, they did fall short in one elementary department: the silicone tips. The included tips come in four sizes: XS, S, M and L. The XS tips seem to be the same size as S, and the L tips aren’t particularly “L”. For example, I’m usually a second-biggest-tips-in-the-box kinda guy, but I can’t quite get a perfect seal in my right ear. It’s not a deal breaker, but it does affect ANC performance and, to a small degree, sound quality.
Active Noise Control
Noise Cancellation isn’t a strong suit of the Pixel Buds Pro 2, but it’s passable. Transparency mode is better, lacking the sibilance and problems with white noise suffered by many a set of headphones.
But perhaps most importantly, you can turn all Active Noise Control (ANC) off. It’s too common for a modern pair of headphones to have two options: Noise Cancellation or Transparency. If you want neither, you’re out of luck. But disabling ANC can seriously lengthen battery life, not to mention some people find it uncomfortable or annoying. It’s also great when you just have one bud in and don’t want a different amount of pressure placed on each eardrum.
Battery life is fantastic
Google claims up to eight hours of continuous playback with ANC turned on and up to 12 with it off. If you include the case, those numbers go up to 30 hours and 48 hours, respectively. Now, 48 hours is a long time to test accurately, but Google’s estimates feel right based on regular usage over a few weeks. It’s honestly easy to forget they need charging at all.
When they do need juice, they charge pretty quickly. A five-minute boost gave us roughly an hour of listening time, which is in line with Google’s specs. They also make a sad little noise when you put the buds away into a case with low battery, which is handy given you won't be charging them on a regular schedule.
You can ring the case
If you’re the kind of person who misplaces their earbuds or can’t find the case, I bring good news.
The case for the Buds Pro 2 has a little speaker you can ring from the app, which can save you a few minutes (or more) of searching before finding it tucked away deep within your couch. This is an uncommon feature, and is new to the Buds Pro 2.
You can also ring each bud individually, making them play a call tone at maximum volume. It’s not exactly loud, but it's about as easy as finding a phone that’s set to vibrate – better than nothing.
Conversation detection is a bit of a bust
The hot new feature on the block is conversation detection, also present in the Apple AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2. This allows your earbuds to detect you’ve started a conversation then automatically switch from Noise Cancellation to Transparency mode. It’s a nice idea, but it needs some work on the Pixel Buds Pro 2.
It often takes awkwardly long to kick in, then switches back to Noise Cancellation too quickly. So you can get an out-of-step effect where Noise Cancellation is on and audio is playing while the other person is talking, and the buds switch to Transparency and lower the audio volume each time you speak. You’re better off doing things the old fashioned way and tapping your earbud to pause or tap and hold to switch to Transparency mode.
Controls
The Pixel Buds Pro 2 have a full roster of playback controls, which is a luxury too few people have experienced.
Most earbuds have gaps in their options – maybe they have volume control but not skip forward/back, or perhaps only play/pause and ANC toggling. Whatever your preference, the result is fiddling with your phone more than you ideally would, which can be a pain if you're doing chores or out for a run.
With the Buds Pro 2, you can go for long stints without needing to touch your handset. The controls are: single tap for play/pause and answer call, double tap for skip ahead or reject call, triple tap for skip back, swipe forwards/back for volume up/down, and long press for ANC toggle or voice assistant.
The long press command can set to either activate your digital assistant or to toggle between noise control options, which can be done per bud (e.g. ANC toggle on the left bud, and voice assistant on the right). You can also customise your noise control options so that only two of the ANC modes are cycled through (Noise Cancellation, Transparency, and Off).
But the compact size of these buds can make them a little fiddly at times. Missing your target by a millimetre or so can be enough to turn a triple tap into a double, or a swipe into a tap. But it’s well worth the trade-off for the compact and lightweight design.
Best used solo
While the Pixel Buds Pro 2 can connect to two devices at once, doing so introduces some annoying problems with playback, so it's best to not bother with it. This is the only real problem we had with the buds as a whole.
With multipoint enabled and two devices connected, the touch playback controls can sometimes stop working. Either they freeze and won’t accept input, or they acknowledge the command with a sound, but don’t send it to either device.
Sometimes one or both buds refuse to play audio, even when we disabled automatic audio switching to ensure we had full control of which device was connected. And occasionally the two buds would fall out of sync, creating an echo effect.
We didn’t run into any of these problems when only paired with one device, but keep this in mind if multipoint is an important feature for you.
Google Pixel Buds Pro 2: Final thoughts
Right now, these are the earbuds to beat for non-iPhone users. At $379, they're not cheap, but they deliver. Of the buds we've used, only the Apple AirPods Pro 2 can compete in terms of bass and overall sounds – and even then the Pixel Buds Pro 2 come out a little ahead in the sub bass department. And while the AirPods Pro 2 only fully work with Apple products, the Pixel Buds Pro 2 aren't picky.
Sound quality across the rest of the spectrum is great, as is the clarity and clean separation of instruments.
Noise Cancellation could be better, but Transparency mode is solid and the ability to turn ANC off is a breath of fresh air. It also adds significantly to battery life, upping the total 30 hours of ANC playback (including case charge) to a borderline Methuselahn 48 hours.
The one big fault is the buggy multipoint connection, but that's only a problem if pairing with more than one device is important to you. For anyone else in the market for premium true wireless earbuds, you'd be hard pressed finding a better pair than the Google Pixel Buds Pro 2.
These are the most popular mobile phone plans on our website right now with at least 15GB of data, sourced from our database of 28 mobile providers:
|
#1
|
TPG
Editor's Pick
25GB Small Plan
$12.50
Per 1 Month Renewal
|
|
#2
|
TPG
100GB Large Plan
$22.50
Per 1 Month Renewal
|
|
#3
|
iiNet
25GB Small Plan
$12.50
Per 1 Month Renewal
|
|
#4
|
Belong
25GB Mobile Plan
$30/mth
Min. cost $30
|
|
#5
|
SpinTel
$22 Mobile Plan
$14/mth
Min. cost $14
|
|
#6
|
felix mobile
felix 25GB Mobile Plan
$25
Per 1 Month Renewal
|
|
#7
|
Dodo
Editor's Pick
$28 Mobile Plan
$28/mth
Min. cost $14
|
|
#8
|
Boost Mobile
$26 Prepaid
$26
Per 28 Day Renewal
|
|
#9
|
felix mobile
Editor's Pick
felix 50GB Mobile Plan
$30
Per 1 Month Renewal
|
|
#10
|
Tangerine Telecom
25GB 5G Mobile SIM
$29/mth
Min. cost $29
|
Find a better phone plan
Thousands of mobile phone plans unpacked. All the facts. No surprises.
Related Articles
Sign up for telco news, money-saving deals and more.
