I’ll be the first to admit I’ve been a bit all over the place when it comes to Google’s new earbuds. When they were first announced a bit surprisingly at Google I/O 2022 in May, I was nothing but excited. Finally, we were getting the Pixel Buds I always wanted, with all the ANC and transparency features I really enjoyed in other high-end buds. No longer would I have to put down Google’s earbuds and pick up some other pair to silo myself in a loud, noisy environment. Instead, I was ready to embrace the seamless Pixel-to-Pixel-Buds experience as my one and only earbuds.
But I was still scared that gaming lag found in older Pixel Buds would still be present in this newer model, and when the Pixel Buds Pro did arrive, they showed up with exactly that issue. I can’t say I wasn’t a bit heartbroken, and that feature disparity probably soiled my initial impressions with these excellent earbuds. While I praised the Pixel Buds Pro for their excellent sound, connection strength and seamless integration with the Pixel family of devices, I also knew that until the latency was addressed, these couldn’t be my daily earbuds.
Luckily, that issue was fixed recently, and along with that fix came some nice, added features that made me reconsider the Pixel Buds Pro. While I’m perfectly fine with the sound of these earbuds right out of the box, I love the fact that they keep getting better via software updates, and these types of little tweaks and fixes along the way are part of the over-arching Pixel experience that attracts me to the product. I want to stay plugged-in for what could be coming next.
And then came the extended sale price for Google’s new earbuds: $149 for a solid week at this point. While $199 gives me a tad bit of pause, $149 makes these earbuds feel like real contenders in the wireless earbud space. For $149, I feel like the Pixel Buds Pro deliver in all facets of the earbud experience that you could ask for. The ANC is fantastic, the transparency mode beats Apple’s AirPods Pro in my experience, the sound stage is wide, clear and supremely enjoyable, the seamless Pixel connection makes them simple to use, and the touch controls are second to none. All of the sudden, at $149, these earbuds are insanely attractive.
The last part of the puzzle for me
At this point, I only have a single gripe with these earbuds, and that is the fit of the ear tips. Specifically, my left ear just doesn’t love the 3 sizes Google provides, and it’s a bummer. Now that I’m using them far more regularly, my ears are adjusting, but a couple more size options would go a long way to fixing this irritation for a lot of users. Even my far-cheaper Anker Soundcore Life P3 earbuds come with 6 size choices out of the box and cost less than half of the Pixel Buds Pro.
Going to the small size, I can’t get a good seal in my left ear, and going to the medium options is ever so slightly too large. A couple of in-between sizes would be amazing, but there are no real options at the moment. I’ve searched around and the only ear tips I can find for the Pixel Buds Pro online are the Comply memory foam type, and I really don’t like those at all.
I understand this is a subjective matter and I fully recognize that not all people will have this issue. But there will be plenty who will, and expecting the wide range of ear canal sizes to be covered comfortably with 3 options is just not realistic. I know Apple only provides 3 sizes for their AirPods Pro, but someone like my wife can’t find a fit in the provided ear tips for those, either. The clear advantage for Apple is the fact that plenty of 3rd-party accessory makers will gladly show up and fill those gaps. For Pixel Buds Pro, that just isn’t the case right now.
I hope some other options arise, but to be fair, I won’t let that dissuade me from using the Pixel Buds Pro on a daily basis at this point. Their combo of price, features, connectivity and sound quality are hard to match, and if that means I have to get my ear canals trained up a bit to keep them around, so be it. Still, I’d love some extra ear tip sizes, Google. Please?
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