SeekerGoogle Pixel Buds
Despite the promise of helpful voice assistant features, with its Pixel Buds, Google combines an uncomfortable design, mediocre performance, and a high price tag for an unappealing pair of wireless headphones.
-- As reviewed by PCMag
Product details
- Pixel Buds A-Series have custom-designed 12 mm dynamic speaker drivers that deliver rich, high-quality audio
- With a flush-to-ear design, three eartip sizes, and a stabilizer arc, the wireless earbuds stay in place and create a gentle seal for amazing sound
- Get up to 5 hours of listening time or 2.5 hours of talk time with a single charge, or listen for up to 24 hours with the charging case[1]
- Play music, get directions, check the weather, or have notifications read to you just by using your voice; or press and hold the earbud to talk to Google[2]
- Pair the Pixel Buds A-Series with your Pixel or any Android device in just one tap[3]; or quickly and easily connect to iOS or any other Bluetooth 4.0 plus device[4]
- The wireless earbuds are water resistant, so rainy days and sweaty workouts are no problem[5]
- Adaptive Sound adjusts the volume as you move between quiet and noisy environments, so you don’t have to[6]
PROS
+ Visually attractive.
+ Includes battery case.
+ Solid bass.
CONS
- Google Assistant and Google Translate features aren't any better than just using the phone apps on their own.
- Uncomfortable earbud design.
- Sound quality does not measure up for the price.
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Expert reviews and ratings
By PCMag on October 05, 2017
Despite the promise of helpful voice assistant features, with its Pixel Buds, Google combines an uncomfortable design, mediocre performance, and a high price tag for an unappealing pair of wireless headphones.
40
By The Verge on August 25, 2020
Google’s new Pixel Buds are greatly improved over the original version. They’re now truly wireless, have better sound quality, and let you use hands-free Google Assistant voice commands.
70
By The Verge on November 16, 2017
Fiddly, frustrating, yet sometimes incredible
50
By Tom's Guide on April 29, 2020
Deep Google integration and improvements in design and sound make the Google Pixel Buds 2 the company’s most inviting earbuds yet.
80
By The Guardian on December 04, 2017
The Google Pixel Buds are an interesting but flawed set of wireless earbuds. The smart features, battery life and sound are good, but the volume control is poor and we’ve moved past the need for a cable to connect wireless earbuds.
60
By TrustedReviews on February 13, 2018
At Google’s last big conference, the company made a wide range of hardware announcements. The new
40
By TechAdvisor on November 28, 2017
The Pixel Buds are a curious failure. They have one of the most joyfully genius features of the last few years in their real-time translation, but that is totally contradicted by their ugly, pain-inducing design and the fact it’s already a feature hidden in the Google Translate app that you don’t need the headphones to access.
Sound quality is frustratingly decent, and while they are a surprisingly different product to the AirPods, they are better in this respect than Apple’s buds. But we can wear AirPods all day long whereas the Pixel Buds are so badly made we can’t even wear them for an hour.
There’s no doubt Google is onto a good thing with its vision of an AI-first world. But with a product as maddeningly unusable as the Pixel Buds, its hiding its excellent software in a hardware product we can’t recommend.
40