Google Pixel Buds Pro 2
MSRP $229.00
“With a smaller shape, improved ANC, and much better sound quality, the Pixel Buds Pro 2 are a big upgrade.”
Pros
- Incredibly light and comfy
- Stellar noise canceling
- Great sound quality
- Fun Google Gemini integration
Cons
- No hi-res codecs
- Limited spatial audio
Google’s Pixel Buds Pro 2 earbuds are smaller, lighter, and have better battery life than their predecessors. They’re also powered by a new brain: the Tensor A1 chip. While those are praiseworthy improvements, the second-gen Pros are also $29 more expensive, narrowing the price gap that made the first-gen Pros so attractive.
For most folks, the biggest difference between the Pixel Buds Pro and the Buds Pro 2 will be their size, weight, and shape. Google says the new buds are 27% smaller and 24% lighter, and there’s no question about it — they feel tiny. Almost disconcertingly so.
Perhaps it’s because after a decade of reviewing these devices, I’m used to cramming objects the size of unshelled almonds into my ears. The Buds Pro 2 are so small and light, that they just didn’t feel securely seated. And yet, they were — a fact that my Google Pixel 7 Pro confirmed through its built-in fit test.
Now that I’m used to them, I think they’re the most comfortable closed-style earbuds I’ve ever worn.
By the way, we classify earbuds as “closed” when they use silicone tips to seal your ear canal, e.g., the AirPods Pro. We say “semi-open” when they don’t use silicone, like the AirPods line, and “open-ear” when they don’t sit directly in front of the ear canal, like the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds.
The default medium eartips worked just fine for me, but thankfully, Google includes three other sizes (XS, S, L) to improve the chances you’ll get a good fit too. That’s a small but important difference: the Pixel Buds Pro only came with two extra sizes.
What you don’t get are different sizes of stability wings. Like the Pixel Buds 2 and A-Series, the small, crescent-shaped silicone protrusion is built into the buds and isn’t replaceable.
And as with the Pixel Buds Pro, there’s no USB-C charging cable in the box. You likely have lots of these already. But if you don’t, the Buds Pro 2’s case has wireless charging. At a minimum, you might be able to flip your phone around and use reverse charging — or battery sharing, to use Google’s lingo.
Speaking of the case, it’s nearly identical to the previous model. It’s slightly thicker, and there’s now a tiny speaker opening on the bottom near the charging port for feedback tones and playing locating sounds for the Find My Device function. Oh, and here’s something I noticed immediately: the Buds Pro 2 are way easier to remove from their case than the previous version. They sit taller in their charging nooks and their mushroom-like shape is easier to grip than the Buds Pro’s seamless profile.
I was mildly concerned that the Buds Pro 2’s smaller size might make it harder to use the touch controls, but it hasn’t been a problem. The tap gestures are easy to use (I remain a big fan of the swipe-based volume control), even though you still can’t customize them. All the basic functions are supported (playback, track skipping, call management, and voice assistant access), but there’s still no way to mute yourself while on a call. Google hopefully will add this on the next version.
You still get wear sensors, which do an admirable job of pausing/resuming audio when you remove or reinsert an earbud.
If there’s one thing that really sets the Pixel Buds Pro 2 apart from their predecessors, it’s their ability to access Google’s Gemini AI hands-free, even when your phone’s locked and in your pocket. If you sign up for Gemini Advanced, you can also do real-time conversations via Gemini Live. Unfortunately, Gemini Advanced isn’t available in my location yet, so I couldn’t test that part out, but regular Gemini interactions via “Hey, Google,” worked seamlessly.
I won’t do a deep dive into everything Gemini can do, but I will say this: I’m glad you can double-tap the earbuds to stop Gemini in its tracks — some of its responses can be long-winded.
Google says that thanks to the Tensor A1 chip, the Buds Pro 2’s ANC is “twice as strong” as that of their predecessors. I couldn’t measure that claim, but after using them in a variety of noisy conditions, I’m inclined to agree. It’s most noticeable in mid-to-high frequencies. In my review of the first-gen Pros, I noted that they didn’t cancel these types of sounds as well as the first-gen AirPods Pro. Remarkably, the ANC on the Buds Pro 2 isn’t just better than the firts-gen AirPods Pro — it’s better than the AirPods Pro 2, and it’s only fractionally less potent than the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds, which I currently consider to be the leaders for ANC on wireless earbuds.
Everything from the droning noise of air conditioners and vacuums to the unpredictable racket of traffic and construction was pleasantly reduced to a level that either disappeared entirely or was mild enough not to bother me. But here’s a (ahem) tip: The fit test in the Pixel Buds app may indicate that you have a good seal, but it shouldn’t be taken as gospel. Using the medium tips, ANC was noticeably better. But it wasn’t until I installed the large tips that the Buds Pro 2 showed me their full potential.
Conversation detection — a feature that was added to the Buds Pro in 2023 — works brilliantly on the Buds Pro 2. Just start talking when you’re in ANC mode and the buds shift smoothly into transparency mode while simultaneously pausing your media. Shortly after it detects you’re done chatting, it switches back to ANC and resumes whatever you were listening to.
It works really well. But if you listen to comedy podcasts and have a tendency to laugh out loud, be prepared for some false positives. (That might have happened to me more than a few times.) Keep in mind that this is for quick interactions, not long conversations where you remain silent as you listen to someone else talk.
I’m a bit disappointed Google didn’t include the reverse of conversation detection: loud noise detection, which flips you from transparency to ANC when it detects potentially dangerous loud sounds. Apple and Bose offer this on their flagship earbuds, and given the computational audio prowess of the Buds Pro 2’s Tensor A1 chip, it seems like it would be an obvious inclusion.
Transparency mode itself feels unchanged to me — which is to say it works really well. You can hear the outside world with excellent clarity and your voice will sound clear. However, as with the first-gen Buds, the Buds Pro 2 fall just shy of delivering the AirPods Pro’s magical feeling of not wearing earbuds at all.
The Pixel Buds Pro 2 sound terrific. Much better than the first-gen (which I thought were already pretty good) and way better than the AirPods Pro. There’s more detail, and better clarity throughout, and bass response is more robust. And that was my take using the default EQ setting right out of the box. Google lets you tweak it with several presets and a simplified equalizer, which lets you mix your own EQ formulas and save them for future use.
They sound remarkably similar to the Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro 3 when both buds are connected to a Pixel phone. However, Google’s refusal to include high-quality Bluetooth codecs puts the Pixel Buds Pro 2 at a disadvantage compared to the Galaxy Buds Pro 3 when both are used with a Samsung Galaxy phone. Galaxy Buds and Galaxy phones communicate via Samsung’s Seamless Codec (SSC), which can preserve more detail from lossless audio sources. If you’re a Spotify listener, it won’t make much of a difference due to its lossy stream quality. But with Apple Music, Tidal, or Amazon Music (plus a quiet place for listening), the Galaxy Buds Pro 3 sound better, something that Galaxy phone owners may want to keep in mind if you’re considering both products.
If the Pixel Buds Pro 2 were merely average-sounding, I wouldn’t even bring this up. But when a set of earbuds sounds as good as the Pixel Buds Pro 2, I can’t help but wonder how much better they’d sound with a little help from hi-res codecs.
On a related note, the Pixel Buds Pro 2 also lack support for Bluetooth LE Audio, which means you can’t use them with Auracast. For now, that’s unlikely to matter. But as more public places begin to offer Auracast broadcasts (e.g. airport terminals, gyms, and movie theaters), Google’s lack of future-proofing may feel shortsighted (especially when Samsung has already embraced it.)
The Buds Pro 2 work with spatial audio and head tracking. Sort of. Google added it to select Pixel phones and the Pixel Buds Pro via a software update in 2023. Disappointingly, it remains limited to just a handful of video streaming apps like Netflix and Disney+, which offer 5.1-channel soundtracks. Not that I consider spatial audio to be a requirement on a decent set of earbuds, nor do I necessarily think that spatial audio sounds better than stereo. However, I do think that if you offer it as a feature, it should work with all kinds of media, not just movies or TV shows with multichannel soundtracks.
When the first-gen Buds Pro were released, spatial audio was in its infancy. Today, it’s mainstream, and Google needs to do better.
Still, for what it’s designed to do, it works well, providing a greater sense of immersion when watching videos on your phone. I tried it with movies like The Matrix on Netflix, and Iron Man 3 on Disney+ and it performs the same virtual home theater trick that Apple does with its AirPods when watching select content on iPhones, iPads, or the Apple TV 4K. They’re not identical, however. Apple’s head-tracking is more refined and seamless, while the Pixel Buds Pro 2 can feel notchy and abrupt as you turn your head.
Making calls on the Pixel Buds Pro 2 will be good for you and your callers. Shifting to transparency mode lets you hear your voice naturally, thus reducing fatigue. The environmental noise-canceling algorithms do an excellent job of keeping background sounds at bay, though at times, they can be a tad too aggressive and end up scrambling your voice when your environment is especially loud.
I tried using Google’s Clear Calling feature, which supposedly improves both your voice clarity and that of your caller, but I can’t say that my few test calls demonstrated this capability.
The new Pixel Buds Pro offer a significant bump in battery life despite their smaller size. The first-gen delivered a claimed seven hours of playtime with ANC on, and a total of 20 hours when you included the case. The second-gen buds can now get eight hours per charge (a modest improvement), but the case’s capacity has been greatly increased: total playtime is now 30 hours.
However, for those who like to wait until the very last minute to charge, the biggest improvement may be the addition of a quick-charge function. Fifteen minutes in the case will now extend playtime by up to three hours.
My relatively short five days with the Pixel Buds Pro 2 wasn’t enough to push the limits on endurance, but so far, Google’s numbers seem accurate.
All in all, the Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 are excellent wireless earbuds. If you’re a Google Pixel phone user, they’re the obvious choice, especially if you want easy voice access to Google Gemini/Gemini Live. For some folks, the improved comfort offered by their tiny size will be worth the price of admission, but everyone will benefit from their outstanding noise cancellation, transparency, and sound quality.
I still think there’s room for improvement. The spatial audio feature is too limited and Google’s engineers should look for ways to further improve call clarity. But these are small things; if you’re leaning toward buying the Pixel Buds Pro 2, they shouldn’t get in your way.
