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I’ve been waiting on this one for a bit. Since their launch, the new Pixel Buds Pro 2 have largely flown under the radar as some of the best wireless earbuds you can buy. I’ve talked about it before, but the biggest pillars of a solid earbud experience for me come down to comfort/fit, ANC/transparency, case size, and lag/software. If a set of buds nails those core things, the rest is negotiable.
And I can tell you without doubt the new Pixel Buds Pro 2 excel in all these categories. Sure, they have other features like head-tracked spatial audio, Gemini built in (whatever that actually means) and conversation detection, but those types of features are niceties that are fun when added on top of the core experience being solid.
And the core parts of the experience are fantastic with he Pixel Buds Pro 2. The wildly-smaller size and lighter weight mean they fit easier in your ear, stay put, and can be worn for long periods of time without discomfort. The new Tensor A1 chip inside means the algorithms running for both ANC and transparency modes is better than before (they were already great) and as good as I’ve ever experienced. They kill outside noise with the best of them and the transparency mode is so natural you tend to forget they are in your ears.
In either mode, the sound is full, transparent, and I have no issues whatsoever with the EQ settings out of the box. You can adjust it if you choose, but music and voices on calls and video chats both sound fantastic to me. The minimal lag for gaming is great, too, and when you combine it all together, I can’t find much to fault in these earbuds.
Maybe you could have felt they were a bit overpriced at launch, but with this current deal bringing them down to $179 right now, I don’t think you can make that argument, either. For the money, you are getting some impressive tech in your ears, and I know if I was an Android/Chromebook user shopping for earbuds right now, these would be directly in the center of my sights. It’s the first solid deal we’ve seen on these, so don’t miss it. It could be gone at any point.
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