Customer Ratings & Reviews

I like these earbuds a lot and wanted to rate the 5 stars, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Let me outline the good and bad so you can decide for yourself: PROS: - The buds themselves are so lightweight that I honestly forget they're in - Battery life on the buds (not the case) will probably last an 8 hour day easily - Google will constantly improve everything with updates - "Immerse" sound profile (as a sort of opposite of noise canceling) is a nice feature, as you can hear your music except when someone else is trying to talk to you. I didn't feel like I should only wear one earbud so I can hear when people are trying to get my attention at work - Sound quality is almost perfect, I could definitely hear the bass notes well which isn't as common with earbuds - The mic for phone calls seemed to be good - no one I spoke with had any trouble hearing me although I did have a quiet background when making phone calls CONS: - Noise canceling couldn't handle a gentle wind when I was going for a walk, as I heard the wind noise as much as my music. This was much worse when listening to a podcast (which makes sense), but I have other earbuds with noise canceling that don't have these problems with so little wind. Granted, those are twice the price of these, but maybe it's worth paying more for. I do think this will improve with updates from Google over time. There is a feature in the app that helps you ensure you're getting a good fit, which I think is supposed to help with this, but it didn't seem to make any difference - The downside of their light weight is that they're somewhat easy to knock out of your ear and they don't really make noise when they land on the ground so they can be hard to find - The case seems to only hold enough to recharge the buds 4 times. Maybe that's not the worst as you can always recharge the case reasonably quickly, but it just seemed low for how little I used the buds and put them back in the case to see it drop so much - This is a total nit-pick, but the white case can easily get stained (like by my black pants, so it now has a black ring on it)

Normally to get good sound with active noise cancelling (ANC) for earbuds, you’d have to spend a lot to get them. Google manages to bring ANC to their budget earbuds in the form of Pixel Buds 2a. The case is simple and straightforward. It doesn’t have wireless charging like its big brother but that’s fine. It also lacks some of the advanced features its big brother has. But again that is fine. Google designed the Buds 2a to have the basic essentials. The earbuds are uniquely designed and I am finding it tricky to put into my ears. The pre-installed tips are medium-sized and come with 3 other sizes - extra-small, small, and large. I’ve settled on small to fit my ears. Using a Google Pixel 10 Pro XL, the setup process is very easy. The first time you open up the case lid, the phone picks it up and starts the pairing process for you. After the pairing connection is made, it walks you through a couple of preference settings and any other optional settings. Settings and preferences are handled through the Connected Devices section. This may be different if you use a different Android phone (likely via the Pixel Buds app). In it, there are 3 ANC settings: on, off, and transparency. It’s a shame that there is no custom level of ANC for transparency. But for a budget ANC earbuds, I suppose that’s acceptable for now. Sound EQ has 5 adjustment values which is nice for fine tuning the sound profile. Some only give you a mere 3 which doesn’t help much for audio tuning. Sound is quite nice for budget earbuds. But getting them to sound good depends on how well they fit into your ears. In the short time I’ve used them and the music I’ve used for playback, I didn’t hear anything out of the ordinary, which is quite a surprise. I am definitely happy that people can purchase these earbuds and not worry about bad audio tuning. I wasn’t able to determine battery life for the earbuds. Unfortunately time constraints prevent me from being able to use them for long sessions. But the expected battery life means it is long enough to endure an extended trip like a long flight or train ride. At the end of the day, the Buds 2a is a great basic ANC earbuds that comes at an affordable price. You’re only missing the advanced features found in its higher tiered sibling. While there are other potential products that could provide the same functionality as the Buds 2a, there is a risk in purchasing from a brand that you may never heard of. If I am looking for earbuds that complement the smartphone, then the Buds 2a is the way to go. The Good: comfortable, 5 level EQ, good sound The Bad: tricky to put on, only 3 ANC modes The Ugly: trying to find that right fit with the included tip sizes Verdict: highly recommended for basic ANC earbuds

I’ve had a lot of different earbuds from a lot of different manufacturers, but never ones designed specifically for smooth integration with my Pixel phone. The release of the Pixel Buds 2A brings most of the advantages of the Pixel Buds Pro at a wallet-friendly price. The initial setup is amazingly simple. Unbox the buds, open the flip-top of the charging case, and press the button on the back of the case. A few seconds later, a pop-up appears on the phone telling you that the buds have connected to the phone and are now associated with your account. That was literally the easiest earbud setup I’ve ever experienced! What would normally take a few steps to open settings, go to Bluetooth settings, etc. is now handled by that single button press. This is how it should be! Once connected, you can tweak the settings for the buds in the Pixel Buds app. This is where you can set the behavior of long presses, turn on ANC, and choose the levels on the 5-band equalizer. The app is intuitive and makes it easy to find what you need, including links to videos with further instructions. Google touts its new “twist to fit” feature of the Pixel Buds 2A. It’s basically a rounded fin on the back of the ear bud. Twisting the bud counterclockwise allows the fin to nestle into the back of your ear, making for a more secure fit. Twisting clockwise will create a looser fit and presumably not seal as tightly in the ear canal. Personally, I prefer the tighter fit all the time. Part of the reason for my preference is that these are very comfortable to wear. The app also includes an ear seal fit check to ensure that you’re using the optimal ear tips and are wearing them properly. After choosing my EQ settings, I was ready for some music. The sound is clear and has a somewhat neutral signature. What I mean by that is that the bass is solid but not muddy and the highs are clear but not overly crisp. In other words, the sound signature is probably designed to appeal to most people. After listening to several different musical genres, I was very pleased with the sound these buds produced. Active noise cancellation works quite well, and it’s easy to toggle it on and off with a long press on your choice of earbuds. The other one can be set up to start your phone’s digital assistant. In addition to ANC, there is also a transparency mode, where the sounds around you are slightly amplified to overcome the fact that you’ve got something in your ears. This version sounds more real than what I’ve experienced on lots of other buds. Lastly, you can turn off all noise processing and just get the natural sounds that you get with buds in your ears. Call quality was surprisingly good. Unlike many other earbuds, callers could not tell I was using the buds. The sound on my end was just as good. Many buds focus on music quality at the expense of call quality, but I’m happy to report that the Pixel Buds 2A do not. That’s refreshing, especially at this price point. Speaking of price point, it’s also refreshing that Google is offering such a quality product at a reasonable price. I’ve been bothered by the recent trend of ever-higher prices for ear buds, so I hope this strikes a blow for more reasonable pricing. I don’t have the Pixel Buds Pro, but reviews I’ve read say that 2A buds provide most of the same performance for a lot less money. These are solid earbuds that won’t break the bank. A nice touch was the addition of a “find my buds” feature. This allows you to have the case start chirping, even if it’s closed. Not only that, but the app can also pinpoint the location of the case on a map. I expect that kind of tech to be on my phone, but it was impressive to find it on earbuds, especially at this price point. Lastly, the Buds 2A also support multipoint pairing, which I think is a must these days. This allows you to pair the buds with both your phone and laptop. Once that’s done, the buds will automatically switch to whichever device is putting out sound. It also prioritizes calls, so that if you’re listening to something on your laptop when a call comes in to your phone, it will prioritize the call and switch automatically to it. This is very convenient. Overall, I think the Pixel Buds 2A are an incredible value with performance beyond what you’d expect. These don’t feel like a step down from the Pro, so you can feel good about choosing these.

It didn't take long for me to ditch my over-the-ear noise cancelling headphones in favor of the Pixel Buds 2a. While I absolutely love my over-the-ears for their phenomenal sound quality and isolation, the Pixel Buds are among the best fitting, best sounding, best ANC IN-EAR buds I have ever tried. Flying frequently, I thought that over-the-ear noise cancelling headphones were the only way to get peace and quiet on a plane. However, they aren't the best for falling asleep against the window as vibrations would work their way into the headband effectively cancelling the ANC feature of my over-the-ears, or the headrest would dislodge a muff from an ear. With the in-ear buds, I don't have that concern on a plane anymore. The Pixel 2a buds have noise cancelling that is nearly as good as my Sony over-the-ear, the sound quality is impressive (and EQ-able from the app), the fit is well balanced and snug thanks in part to their "twist to fit" design (I don't fear them falling out if I fall asleep, or while hustling through an airport to catch a connecting flight), and the touch controls are responsive and on par with other touch commands for headphones (i.e. one-tap to pause/resume music or answer a call, long-press to start voice commands, etc.). That being said, there are a couple of disappointments moving from an over-the-ear to in-ear noise cancelling buds starting with battery life. These tiny buds can only hold so much juice--and they do a good job of providing 7-8hrs (my testing) battery life with ANC on about 80% of the time, which is less than your standard over-the-ear headphones. Fortunately, the storage case is also a battery pack that charges the buds fairly quickly--up to an hour for 5 minutes in the case is what Google claims...or 1.5 hours to fully charge the buds from the case. 1hr to fully charge the case. I also had some issues with noise bleed-thru that I don't have with over-the-ear headphones. Usually that comes from the "seal" of the earbud losing its "snugness" which just requires a little twisting or re-inserting of the bud affected, but I also feel like some noises sneak through that I shouldn't hear--usually things with a higher pitch/frequency. Nonetheless, constant noise (think lawnmower, airplane engine, crowds, etc.) is well cancelled. Price is about right for the quality and features. The Pixel Buds app shows you how much juice you have for each bud, plus the case. Location finding works just fine with the Google Find Hub in case you misplace your buds...or wonder if you left them back at the hotel by accident. The app lets you customize the touch controls, but again, you cannot use touch to control volume which is a disappointment for me. You can pair the buds to multiple devices and "real-time" switch between which device is active ("multipoint"--but you have to pair your buds to multiple devices first before multipoint works, of course). I definitely recommend these buds for everyday use.

These earbuds are less expensive than the pro model and they sound like they are. I wore them through a long workout, and they performed fine as far as resisting sweat, but I was plagued by inadvertent touches which would stop my music whenever I would wipe sweat from around my ears. They also suffered from the tendency for the fit to loosen as I moved around. When I could get a hand free to reseat them in my ears, such as when I was on the elliptical, they performed fine, but there was serious degradation in sound quality by the time I was finished with my rowing workout. These are also the only buds I recently tried that required me to use the larger tips to get a good fit. Usually, the medium tips work right out of the box, but I had to swap the larger tips onto these buds to get them to fit decently. Even then, they would tend to loosen up over time. That whole "twist to fit" feature only works if you can keep twisting them as they work their way loose over time. Bass response was decent, but not overly impressive as long as you kept adjusting them, but the sound was kind of tinny after they loosened up, and the noise-cancelling performance degraded as well. Compared to other buds in this price range, they're fine, but there are much better performing buds if you're willing to pay a little more.

Best headphones, especially if you have pixel devices, noise cancelling works great, no complaints

My son luvs them just wishes the were a deeper purple.. would buy them again in a heart beat.