The Google Pixel Buds Pro won’t officially become available until Thursday (July 28). But one lucky shopper was able to get a pair early due to a shipping mistake.
That shopper is Reddit user u/Linkakox (opens in new tab) who went ahead and wrote a full hands-on review about the new true wireless earbuds in advance of their release later this week.
According to their review, the Google Pixel Buds Pro are a real upgrade over the $99 Google Pixel Buds A-Series that the company put out in 2021. The new earbuds reportedly offer both great sound and surprisingly good active noise cancellation performance.
The bad news? There’s no charging cable in the box with the earbuds… which can be a problem if you don’t have USB-C charging cables handy. For tech enthusiasts, that’s not going to be much of a problem, but could potentially cause a headache for folks who aren’t on the every-year upgrade cycle like the rest of us.
Worth the upgrade?
While there’s no comparison to the Apple AirPods Pro in the Redditor’s review, they do go in depth about their experience with the Pixel Buds A-Series and how the Pixel Buds Pro are stacking up to them.
“I wore [the Pixel Buds Pro] today for 6 hours without interruption and I don’t have this little pain as I got with the series A. You completely forget them and you also don’t have the feeling of having your ears clogged.”
Reddit user u/Linkakox
“I can’t describe the audio quality because I don’t have the words for and every ears are different, but they are better than the Series A,” the Redditor says in the post. “Buds Pro are definitely more confortable [sic] than the previous version (I only owned the series A version). I wore them today for 6 hours without interruption and I don’t have this little pain as I got with the series A. You completely forget them and you also don’t have the feeling of having your ears clogged.”
Comfort and sound performance have been among the biggest issues for the Pixel series of earbuds, so it’s nice to hear that Google seems to have listened to user feedback.
According to the user, battery life looks to be about 6 hours per charge for the earbuds (a relatively normal number for earbuds with active noise cancellation) and their microphones do a decent job picking up your voice on phone calls.
The takeaway? The Pixel Buds Pro sound like quite the upgrade overall, even though they’re going to cost an extra $100 compared to the Pixel Buds A-Series. But, if you’re on a budget don’t fret — the Redditor ends their review by saying “If you are in low budget [sic], you can still get the Series A, they are really great too.”
Will the Google Pixel Buds Pro be able to land a spot on our list of the best wireless earbuds? We’ll find out when they become available on July 28.
