It’s been 6 Months since I bought the Pixel Buds Pro and since their release,
I’ve found I actually like them more. The first thing i really like about them is a
feature that was actually missing at launch, which is EQ settings. Google did a great job
with the layout of the EQ settings, it gives you the full EQ but in a way that explains
what adjustments you make will actually do and they have multiple slides for bass and Treble.
Also I find their suggestions of different sound profiles at the top to be quite helpful.
however, a word of warning, there’s a feature called Volume EQ in the
sound settings that I personally have found to make the bass sound too muddy
and not tight. The next thing I like about these buds is their overall sound. I think
they sound pretty good. They've got pretty clear sound with a nice punchy bass. Now,
if you compare the Pixel Buds Pro to something like the Sony XM4s or Bose, they sound close,
but the Sony XM4s, which we've reviewed, in particular, sound noticeably better.
They have a wider soundstage than the Pixel Buds Pro and I’d say a bit of
a warmer sound to them as well. Now, I know sound can be somewhat subjective,
so if you've listened to the Pixel Buds Pro and or the Sony WF-1000XM4s, let me know in the comments,
how do you think these buds sound and how do you think they compare?
Now, one category where the Pixel Buds Pro clearly beats the more expensive set of
earbuds like the Sony XM4s is with their comfort. They’re noticeably more comfortable than a lot
of buds that have a more in-ear design. This is because the silicone tips of the Pixel Buds sit
just outside of the ear canal to create a light seal but they don't go in as far as the XM4s.
This does mean, however, for me, their noise cancellation, while still pretty excellent,
is not best in class. But considering they retail for a hundred US dollars less than
earbuds that I’d considered to have best in class noise cancellation, I think the Pixel Buds Pro are
still pretty good. The noise cancellation still blocks out most things you don't want to hear.
These buds, like a lot of the other buds they're competing against, also do not give you that
plugged ear feeling when you wear them and because of their noise cancellation, I found they sound
quite a bit better than the less expensive buds from Google, the Pixel Buds A Series.
Another area where the Pixel Buds Pro really stand out is battery
life. TThey’re rated for 11 hours of battery life which is a slightly
misleading figure since that’s without noise cancellation turned on. The buds
only get 7 hours of battery life with noise cancellation, which is still very respectable.
I'm not typically used to saying this phrase, but Google is absolutely crushing most of the
competition when it comes to the spec. When you add in the Pixel Buds Pro case,
you get a total of 20 hours of listening time with active noise cancellation on.
So, how exactly do Google manage to be most of their competition with a battery life spec?
Well, you have to make the year buds weigh more for the larger battery and you have to
be able to fit that battery into earbuds in a way that's comfortable. Google was able to do
both of these things while not making these Buds noticeably more uncomfortable to wear.
The Pixel Buds Pro, unlike the Pixel Buds A Series, do not feature a stabilizer arc in
their design, which I think actually helps make them potentially more comfortable but might not
fit some people’s ears as well. Another thing I love about these buds are the music controls
used for them. Unlike most competing buds, not only can you control the music by playing and
pausing it with taps or cycling through noise cancellation and transparency mode.
But Google also brought back volume controls. With volume controls on the Pixel Buds Pro, they
do occasionally misfire and instead of swiping forward for volume up and falling it back all
accidentally play or pause music. Most of the time the volume swipes do work for me. And honestly i'd
rather just take the misfires than not having the ability to swipe volume up and down on these buds.
So, some other things I've liked about these buds over the past six months,
are their multi-point audio controls, the Google Assistant works well on the buds themselves,
though I personally wish the response time of the assistant was just a bit
faster. One issue I ran into when using Nest speakers and displays is sometimes
the Google Assistant on the Nest speakers will still hear the requests that I meant
for the buds and they'll do the same thing like start playing music which can be a bit annoying.
I also like the buds come with a Find My Device feature and allows you to ring a bud
to try to help you locate it and the range of these buds is also very good as well as their
connection stability. Which I know some people had issues with, with previous generations of
the Pixel Buds. With Pixel Buds Pro, I have had no issues with their connection. The
mic quality of these buds for phone and work calls I thought was also surprisingly good.
Here's an example of how they sound compared to some other buds I own. Josh: “These are
the Pixel Buds Pro. These are the Pixel Buds A-Series. And now, we have these
Sony LinkBuds S. And these are the mics for the Sony WF-1000XM4s. And these are the mics for the
Bose Quiet comfort II. And once again, here's the Pixel Buds Pro and how their mics sound.”
Another thing I love about these buds is their case, t feels great in your hands
with this matte white finnish, it’s smooth like a river stone, has a satisfying open and close
mechanism that’s fun to fidget with, has USB-C for charging as you’d expect,
but unlike the A Series, these buds come in a water resistant case that
also brings back wireless charging to a set of Pixel Buds. The Pixel Buds Pro
themselves are also water and sweat resistant. Last few things I like about these buds. First,
they're setup process was easy and straightforward.
And Google did listen to people's feedback when it came to how confusing firmware updates were
for previous versions of the Pixel Buds. All right, now let's talk about a few things I
don't like about the Pixel Buds Pro and about the only downside I've run into with them over
the past six months is their transparency mode, which you can enable by just pressing and holding
the bud and when you listen to your voice like 'm doing now with transparency mode, it sounds
like i'm a bit underwater, it definitely sounds like I'm still wearing buds and it's not nearly
the best transparency mode i've heard, which is really weird considering that i thought
the mics on the Pixel Buds Pro were actually pretty decent. Another not really downside,
but slight disappointment with these buds is the spatial audio feature google announced
along with the buds hasn’t rolled out yet and we’re now 6 months into the life of these buds.
All in all, I think if Google could just improve the sound quality on these buds to be able to
match what Sony is able to do with their XM4s, these buds would pretty much be near perfect.
The only people I don't think these buds are for, is iPhone users. While
these buds will work with any device that supports at least bluetooth 4.0 or later,
you have to set them up using an Android device. Google does not make their Pixel Buds app
available on iOS like competing buds, because of that it really only makes sense to pick up
these buds if you're primarily and Android user. The Pixel Buds Pro retail for $199 US dollars,
come in several different colors and I’ve left purchase links in the description
so you can check out their current price because you can often find them on sale.
If you're looking for what to watch next, check out some of the other reviews I've done
on earbuds, headphones, and smart speakers and you can get to all of those reviews by clicking
on the playlist to the right. Hit that thumbs up button if you like this video and subscribe to
the channel for more reviews, like this one. For 6 Months Later, I'm Josh Teder, thanks for watching.