Furthermore, a five-minute charge of earbuds in the charging case delivers up to an hour of listening time with Active Noise Cancellation on, and a 15-minute jolt of juice with the earbuds in the charging case delivers up to three hours of listening with Active Noise Cancellation on. CNBC’s Sofia Pitt has been testing them for the past several days. They’re similar to Apple’s AirPods Pro but slightly inferior. Firmware 3.14 has added a graphic EQ and presets to their companion app. As a result, we've updated App Support, and the scoring of this test has changed. We've also remeasured latency across devices in Bluetooth and the scoring of this test has also changed. Google is also providing plenty of user-friendly features here, including super-speedy pairing where the buds simply pop up on your home screen asking to be friends, 'find me' features, and that dedicated app andmultipoint technology with automatic audio switching so the Pixel Buds Pro can stay happily connected to two different devices and switch easily between them. We tried it with the Google Pixel 6 Pro, the Samsung Galaxy S21 and even an iPhone 8 with no problems whatsoever, provided you switch multipoint on in the Buds' settings (it's off by default, but this takes seconds to toggle on).

As it stands, however, they mostly bring the company up to speed with competitor models that have been out for a while now. If you’re a Pixel phone devotee looking for a pair of compatible buds, by all means, go for it. Just don’t expect to be wowed. When listening to Sam Fender's Get You Down, there's three-dimensional and impetuous saxophone detail you can glean from the song when using the Honor Earbuds 3 Pro, but here it's underplayed through the treble, to the point that the overall profile sound feels a little muddied and woolly, even through the midrange. We wish there was just a little more space around each musical passage. The pebble-like case of the Google Pixel Buds Pro feels robust and cool in our hands and the brushed plastic never collects fingerprint smudges. It charges either wirelessly or via USB-C, although it's important to note that you do not get a charging cable in the box, which doesn't exactly feel premium. Google could have done a better job with fit, though. Proprietary Silent Seal technology is employed to maximize ANC and reduce leakage by having the buds optimize performance to your ear shape, and this appeared to work well in terms of range of audio output and noise cancellation during my testing. Better yet, switching between the two modes is fast and easy with a long-press on either earbud. Call quality

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For your reference, we've compiled a list comprising of available Pixel Buds Pro shades per region. Slightly bigger earpieces but they don't budge – plus there's plenty of stamina here (Image credit: TechRadar) Google Pixel Buds Pro review: sound quality Google claims a decent seven hours per charge when you have ANC enabled and a very impressive 11 hours when it’s off. That’s better than both the AirPods Pro and the Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro. However, the case doesn’t have much of a capacity — just shy of two full charges, so you’ll only get 20 hours of total playtime with ANC on. But that jumps to 31 hours without ANC, so at least you’ve got options. Google's Pixel Buds Pro are available in four colorways –fog, charcoal, lemongrass and coral –but your chosen hue adorns just the touch-capacitive top plate of the driver housings. At the end of the day, it's all about you. Select the color of your Google Pixel Buds Pro according to your personal style. Don't miss out on a fun colorway because you're lazy. It's not all that hard to clean your earbuds at home. Availability of Pixel Buds Pro colors in your region

In either case, your callers will have no problem hearing you clearly. But as outside sounds start to get louder and compete more with your voice, the noise canceling algorithms will start to smear your voice a bit, decreasing its detail and depth. As Google’s first wireless earbuds with ANC, it did a great job with the Pixel Buds Pro. When ANC mode is engaged, it provides excellent dampening of everything but the highest of frequencies. Right now, as I type, I have a fan below my desk keeping me cool during this intense summer heat, but other than feeling the air across my ankles, I have almost no awareness of it at all. Other noises, like traffic, or the din of construction are also well contained.If that sounds familiar, it’s because Apple does something very similar when you use its audio and computing devices together with iCloud. It seems to work, but I could not figure out how to adjust the prioritization of sounds and devices the way Google says we should be able to do. Yes. Especially if you’re an Android user, Google’s Pixel Buds Pro are an ideal audio companion that should get even better over time as Google releases new features like spatial audio. There’s nothing stopping iPhone users from using them, too, and they work great with iOS. But you just won’t get the full experience, and there’s no way to adjust their settings or update their firmware. I’m a little disappointed that Google chose to omit any kind of support for high-quality (or low-latency) Bluetooth codecs. With the standard SBC and nearly-standard AAC, you’re getting perfectly decent wireless sound, but without the aptX family of codecs, Sony’s LDAC codec or any kind of low-latency mode, the Pixel Buds Pro can’t quite make the most of their potential for fans of hi-res audio, or those who like to game — something of an odd choice given that Google owns a streaming music service ( YouTube Music) and a streaming gaming service ( Stadia). Every product category has multiple “winners.” In Android smartphones, you can go to Pixels for the software or the camera. You can go to OnePlus – or could, depending on how you feel about the brand’s recent trajectory – for raw performance. Or, you could just go to Samsung for the best of both worlds. A crowd-pleaser, so to speak.

Despite our best attempts, that "ah, nowthey're secure" moment alludes us. We certainly wouldn't want to start dancing or to take a trapeze class… so for fit alone, the Google Pixel Buds Pro won't be joining our best workout headphonesguide –but then again, hitting the gym is not what they're designed for. Android fans wishing they had a true AirPods Pro alternative will be thrilled with the Pixel Buds Pro. They’re comfortable, sound great, and have everything they need to become your go-to earbuds for work, play, and everything in between.

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We've added a comparison between these headphones and the Status Between 3ANC True Wireless in Noise Isolation. You can learn more about Google’s Pixel Buds below. Google is set to release the earbuds start in July 2022. A post-launch update will deliver support for Spatial Audio, a “3D” audio technique first pushed by Apple’s AirPods, and since adopted by Samsung’s earbuds as well. More on Pixel Buds:

All audio testing was done on Apple Music and Spotify across several devices that included a Google Pixel 6 Pro, Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, iPhone 12, and MacBook Pro. Streaming over Bluetooth 5.0 via AAC and SBC was solid, granted I would have preferred codecs support for aptX HD or LDAC, but the overall audio quality feels pretty decent all the same. The Pixel Buds Pro fast-paired with our Android phone in testing; a pop-up notification appears on-screen when you open the charging case near the phone. The app then walks you through an earbud fit test to ensure you have an ideal in-ear seal for ANC and audio performance. You can skip this test, but it takes only about 20 seconds to complete. Where the Elite 7 Pro have a slight edge is robustness (with an IP57 waterproof rating versus the Buds Pro’s water-resistant IPX4), better overall call quality, and a deep set of EQ adjustments to get their sound dialed in just right.

Pixel Buds Pro are an easy match for Pixel phone owners – but that's about it

On the other hand, you can charge the case wirelessly. And there’s also a pretty good chance that if you’re buying Pixel Buds Pro you already have a phone that uses USB-C. So there’s that. Design Charging case for the Pixel Buds Pro (left) and Pixel Buds A-Series. Simon Cohen / Digital Trends Google has added a Spatial Audio feature via a software update. However, this is only available on Google Pixel phones. We have updated Virtual Soundstage and App Support to reflect these changes. The app exudes the grace and simplicity of Google’s best software—it’s clean, simple, and functional. Unfortunately, part of the simplicity is due to the paucity of basic features we like to see for earphones at this price. For instance, instead of a typical five-band EQ, you get a switch for Volume EQ, which functions like a loudness button on a stereo. In essence, it just enhances the bass and treble at lower volumes so that the audio still sounds full and crisp. Volume EQ works well enough, but it’s unnecessary at moderate to high volumes. Google claims that a spatial audio feature should arrive in the fall of 2022, though we don't have any further details about it. One of the reasons the Gen 2 and A-Series feel so good is that they use a vented design that naturally relieves any air pressure difference between your ear canal and the outside world. Unfortunately, that also led to some unwanted sound creeping in, requiring an automatic volume boosting system to compensate, something it didn’t always do very well. While the Google Pixel Buds Pro improve a lot on the preceding Pixel Buds A-Series, the design hasn't changed radically. Apart from the brighter orange and yellow colors, the other two are similar to the older generation wireless earbuds from Google.