Pixel Buds Pro 2

I am a lover of earbuds, earphones, and anything audio. I don't have anything expensive, but I do have a few things that are pretty nice. For my nicer wired headphones, I have a Fiio BTR3 Bluetooth interface that does LDAC, so I have the ultimate wireless quality experience when I am sitting back and wanting to go deep into the details.

But when I'm tootling around the house, doing yard work, or at the grocery, 'true wireless' earbuds are the way to go. I've had a bunch of them over the years, most of them honestly junk until I got the Pixel Buds Series A. I've used them since early 2022, and their case has lived in whatever pair of pants I'm wearing that day ever since, and I have listened to them for countless hours. I've not noticed any battery degradation, they have no damage, and they're basically still like-new as far as I can tell. But audio seems to always be getting better, ANC is pretty enticing, and well, $200 ($100 for Pixel 10; $100 for a mishap where they didn't add my Pixel 6 refurb to the order somehow) store credit at the Google Store and $20 more, and I had myself a pair of Pixel Buds Pro 2.

Fit, Finish, Quality

Yep. Seriously, though, these compete with all of the earbuds in the $200 range, except on Bluetooth codecs, which I'll get to later, but turns out it's really not that big of a deal. They feel exceptionally comfortable in my ear for hours; I have even slept in them, which is the first time I've ever been able to sleep in earbuds and them not hurt or push into my ears, etc. They feel good, they're very lightweight in the ear, and they go into the case nicely with obvious audio cues to tell you when each earbud has been securely plopped into place. They are great to use and easy to use, which is where these types of earbuds shine.

As I mentioned in my Series A post, convenience is king in 'true wireless' earbuds. For this to be true in reality, they have to have good battery life, a good fit, work dependably, and sound good enough. These do; hands down.

Bluetooth Codec Weakness

Pixel A buds were only AAC; I accepted this as they sounded fine, and let's face it, they're pretty cheap. I had a hard time swallowing the fact that the Pro 2 is also only AAC. However, after having several sets of headphones or earbuds in recent years that are AAC I've decided that the codec itself is good enough for casual listening. Don't let me understate it here; the sound quality is actually quite good, and I'm very happy with the whole range of frequencies the Pro 2s provide, as well as the reasonably flat, even response and the ear seal, all leading to a very enjoyable listening experience. They are tuned very similarly to the Series A, so I took the existing Series A equalizer settings I use in PowerAmp and ultimately took a little bass out and a little less treble as the Pro 2's had a little more power in those areas, which was nice, as the Series A were a little weak on both.

TLDR: it's a non-issue, especially for most listening sessions. If you want super critical earphones, earbuds are probably not the right delivery mechanism to start with.

ANC

I have a pair of Sony 900Ns with ANC. They're low-end headphones, but I've always thought them pretty good. They're LDAC, isolate pretty well, and generally have really good sound quality. I've never listened to a really good set of earbuds (or headphones) with ANC, so these are the only headphones I can really compare against.

And the Pro 2's blow them away. I was amazed at how much noise the Pro 2s eat in ANC mode. My AC condenser is a rattling annoyance and drives me crazy when I'm outside on the porch; Pro 2's make it go away. Fan noise from my desktop; gone. Cars going up and down the street outside; they don't exist.

To be clear, ANC is not going to remove everything. It works best on lower frequency noises that are a continuous drone, so some higher-pitched noises or noises that come and go aren't as attenuated. But most things are reduced greatly, even snoring. Don't tell my wife; she snores.

I've also had the opportunity to compare them against the Anker Q45 headphones, which are said to be pretty decent on ANC. Pro 2's beat them in every way, but not quite as drastically as how badly they destroy the Sony 900N's. Man, there ain't nothing like new stuff to make your old stuff look shoddy.

Transparent/Adaptive Mode

Most ANC headphones have a Transparent mode that allows you to hear the world around you a little more easily without removing the earbuds or headphones. Most do a pretty okay job at this, but are still muffled. The Pro 2s honestly feel like you took the earbuds out. Everything is clear, there is no weird delay, it's a bit spooky. No sounds are amplified, but it really sounds like you took them completely out of your ear.

Google takes this one step forward with their Adaptive mode, which is effectively the Transparent mode with some added features. If your environment is particularly noisy, it will raise your media volume to compensate. If there are loud sounds around you, they will attenuate those sounds. It's honestly a great mode for shopping, or even sitting around in the house when other people may be asking you questions.

There is also an option to recognize speaking and drop into Transparent mode so you can hear someone more easily. I have not tried this, but I've heard it works fairly well, with the exception of you singing, even quietly, will trigger it, and when someone speaks to you, it only goes into Transparent mode for a few seconds before it goes back to the full ANC mode.

Battery Life

It's great, honestly. You'll easily see 7+ hours with ANC on, 12+ hours with ANC off, and the case will recharge the buds 2.5 times. The official specifications say 8 hours of listening with ANC, 12 hours without ANC, and a total listening time of 30 hours with ANC and 48 hours without ANC. They also claim an hour of additional listening time with only 5 minutes of charging; so if your earbuds do get low, just a short time in the charger and you're jamming again.

I have noticed that the case battery seems to drop about 3% a day, but pretty sure this is because each earbud and the case are actively on the Find My Device network, so that when you leave the case in a pair of pants or a backpack, you'll be able to locate it. The Series A earbud case, on the other hand, if it was closed, it was off. This was great for battery life, but there was no assistance in finding it. You can find the case via Bluetooth tracking, or the case itself has a speaker in it to emit loud enough noises to find it fairly easily.

I have set up a profile in Tasker to monitor notifications to get the case battery and a separate profile to track what the case battery percent may be over time, even if it hasn't gotten an update, by simply subtracting 3% a day from the last known value. Hopefully, this will alert me that the case battery might be getting low, even if I haven't used the earbuds in a while. Unfortunately, unless I open the case for a few seconds, it doesn't send the notification. I'm going to continue to look for a way to get the case battery level in a better way.

Battery Status

I love that the current battery percentage on each earbud and the case is directly shown in the Battery widget, or when going into the settings, even when not actively using the earbuds, it has an up-to-date battery status on Left, Right, and Case at all times. The Series A, you could only see the status of the Left and Right earbuds when they were in use, and there was no indication of the case battery status at all.

The case also has Bluetooth / Find Hub

Interestingly, even though I've found nothing on the internet that talks about the case having its own separate Bluetooth, it clearly does. The Find Hub is able to make the case beep when it has no earbuds in it, and the case itself is closed. Also, when the earbuds are out of the case and the case is opened, it will send a notification to the phone of the current battery status. Interestingly, in Tasker, I have a profile set up to run a task when the earbuds connect to the phone, and when the case connects, it seems to use the same Bluetooth MAC address.

Find Hub is able to send loud noises to the earbuds or to the case in case you can't locate them, although I don't believe there's any way for it to guide you to a room where they may be. If you can figure out the MAC address, a third-party app may be able to do this, but I am not sure. They are the Find Hub, so if you leave them behind somewhere, hopefully another Android device will hear their transmissions and update their location so you can relocate them.

The Series A earbuds had the ability to ring the earbuds, but the case has no speaker on it and also has no Bluetooth capability of its own, so finding the case could be more difficult if you somehow lost it. I always store my earbuds in the case, so most likely if I'm wearing the earbuds, the case is in a pocket, but I'm glad that the Pro 2s have more capabilities to locate them.

TPU Case

I put a skin on my Series A case, but for some reason, this time I went with a TPU case. The one I got has a latch that prevents the case from opening, even has a secondary latch (yo dawg...) that absolutely stops the case from opening. I never had a problem with this on the Series A, but I could see the case opening in a pocket and potentially getting damaged. No chance of this with the case I got, plus it's overall pretty protective. There is an obvious extra bulk in my pocket, but I got used to it pretty fast.

Charging

I put my typical magnetic USB-C plug in the case so I can charge it on any of my magnetic cables around the house, and this is likely how I'll primarily charge the case. However, it does support wireless charging, and it does charge pretty well in the Belkin 25W Wireless Charger I got for my Pixel 10. It gets warmer than charging over USB, but it is honestly really convenient. And zero issues in the TPU case.

Conclusion

I see no reason I won't use these nearly every day for the next few years, like I did with my Series A, I love them. They sound better, they're even more comfortable, and the ANC does a great job of blocking out annoying noises. It would be interesting to be able to compare their sound and ANC against the new Pixel Buds 2A, but I imagine some folks who do audio reviews better than I have already tackled that job.

Oh, and thank god, the Pro 2s don't have the problem that the Series A have where connection/disconnection sounds are insanely loud.