By The Telegraph (World News) | Created at 2024-10-29 18:11:43 | Updated at 2024-10-30 11:33:02
4 days ago
Price: £219, Google Store
Also £219 at O2, EE, Amazon, Very and John Lewis
Telegraph verdict: 8 out of 10
We like:
- Huge upgrade over previous Pixel Buds Pro
- Gemini AI in your ear
- Clever ‘twist to fit’ design
We don’t like:
- Talk detection is patchy
- AI is a little ‘Marmite’
- Some features only work with a Pixel phone
What are the Pixel Buds Pro 2?
Google’s signature headphones have returned, with a huge upgrade over the bulky and unglamorous Pixel Buds Pro. They are now far smaller and easier to fit in the ear, thanks to a clever ‘twist to fit’ design. There’s even an app which plays sounds into your ears to help you find the optimal fit.
Google has for the first time added its own silicon into these headphones, in the form of a Tensor chip which promises world-beating noise-cancelling and clearer music.
For owners of Pixel phones, or Gemini AI subscribers, there are fancy (if slightly unnerving) features such as being able to have a full-blown live conversation with Google’s Gemini AI, with the AI talking in a human-like fashion and able to resume smoothly after being interrupted.
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How we test wireless earbuds
We test earbuds against five key metrics. To rate the sound quality, we listen to a range of music from classical to drum & bass and heavy rock. We also make calls to check the clarity of the drivers and the microphones.
To rate comfort and usability, we wear the earbuds all day while working and exercising to make sure they stay in, feel good and are intuitive to use.
To rate the noise cancellation, we gauge their ability to dampen unwanted noise in the office, on the street and in the London underground. We’re looking for a clear signal with plenty of detail, without having to increase the volume in noisy environments.
To gauge battery life, we run the ear buds flat with continual regular use, time how long they take to recharge and then repeat the process again.
Finally, we look for any special programmes that the ear buds can carry out in conjunction with a smartphone or other peripherals. Here’s how I rated the Pixel Buds Pro 2 on all those metrics:
Sound quality: 9 out of 10
The sound quality here is pretty impressive, although it won’t trouble the crowned heads of the earbud sector like Sony and Bowers and Wilkins. Google has gone to a lot of effort to upgrade these from the last generation, with the entire audio subsystem re-engineered to deliver cleaner sound, from the acoustics to the speaker driver.
The attention to detail in ensuring the earbuds fit correctly (see Design and Comfort, below) also helps ensure music and calls sound crisp. The result is tight, realistic sound with satisfying bass levels when needed.
The headphones also sound great on calls, with a lot less distortion, drops and ‘What did you say?’, thanks in part to an AI ‘Improved Clear Calling’ function designed to overcome background noise.
Design and comfort: 8/10
This is no mild upgrade on the design front. It’s a back-to-the-drawing board, root-and-branch rethink of the whole look and feel. The original Pixel Buds felt distinctly clunky, whereas these are petite, well-designed and unintrusive.
Google improved the shape after analysing millions of ear scans and conducting ‘wear tests’ to find a shape that could be twisted to secure the buds in ear, and fell out less. These stay resolutely in place even when you jog, are easy to put in and out, and the ‘twist to fit’ function works extremely well.
An auto speech detection function cuts the music and enables transparency, so you don’t have to take the buds out of your ear to talk. It works well - although it’s slightly prone to activating by accident in noisy places such as trains. The only other (very tiny) fly in the ointment is that it’s a little too easy to put the buds into the case backwards.
Noise cancellation and EQ: 7/10
Google has brought its considerable tech and AI expertise to bear on the noise cancelling here, and it shows. The new Tensor A1 processor here (Google’s own-brand silicon) enables extremely fast audio processing, sensing and adapting to the environment up to three million times per second, and also adapting to the shape of your ears.
The chip also deals with one of the bugbears of ANC in headphones, that it tends to impact sound quality: the Tensor chip opens what Google describes as a ‘highway lane’ which allows music to bypass the sound processing. The result, Google claims, is that the buds cancel twice as much noise as their predecessors.
In practice, the noise cancelling is a vast upgrade from the first-gen Pixel Buds headphones, with a powerful but not disorienting hush that’s up there with the sector’s very best (although still not quite the equal of Bose). The transparency mode which allows sound to ‘pass through’ is even better.
The dedicated Pixel Buds app offers six EQ presets (from ‘Heavy Bass’ to ‘Vocal Clarity’) plus adjustable EQ sliders.
Battery life and recharging: 8/10
For buds so small, these really deliver on the battery front. The Pixel Buds 2 will do an impressive eight hours off one charge with the noise-cancelling on, and if you’re running low on the go, you can pop the earbuds back in the case for 15 minutes to get three more hours of battery life. With the case, these will go for 30 hours without having to visit a USB-C cable.
You’ll also get a touch more battery life if you disable Active Noise Cancellation and other gizmos such as speech detection. Naturally, they’re wirelessly chargeable, so you can top up off compatible Androids using the battery share function.
Connectivity: 10/10
The Pixel Buds 2 have ‘Find My Device’ capability, so you can see where they last were on a map or force them to make a noise if you’ve misplaced them. But the big news on the connectivity front is the integration of Google’s talking generative AI bot Gemini Ultra (although you’ll have to pay for a subscription unless you get the free one that comes with the latest Pixel phones).
Simply by saying ‘OK Google’, you can talk to Google’s most powerful AI, and even hold slightly surreal live conversations with it by saying, ‘OK Google, let’s talk’. When my nine-year-old surprised me on the way to school with the question, ‘How many atoms are there in a tardigrade?’ Gemini was able to answer without missing a beat.
It’s surprisingly useful for everyday little queries (I found myself using it to ‘research’ factoids while working), and the ‘live’ conversation aspect is interesting. I had a long and well-informed discussion with it about the merits of this year’s updated Dungeons and Dragons rulebooks.
Where it falls down slightly is the integration into apps. You can ask it about emails you’ve received, or YouTube videos you’ve watched, but it’s not 100 percent reliable in retrieving this information in a useful way.
‘Live’ assistants are clearly going to be a big technology going forward, though, so despite a few hiccups, this has clear early adopter appeal.
Technical specifications
The Telegraph verdict: 8/10
These are a vast upgrade on the previous Pixel Buds and a clear sign that Google is serious about this sector, possibly with a view to a future in which we all wander around chatting to AI and ignoring each other.
For Pixel owners, the Buds Pro 2 are very much worth considering and the twist-to-fit design makes them easy to use, even for users who might be reluctant earbud adopters.
Some of the extras here, like ‘live’ conversations with AI are more of an interesting extra than an essential, but these buds perform well, look good and sound great.
FAQs
What is the release date of the Google Pixel Buds Pro 2?
The Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 were released on September 26, 2024.
What is the price of the Google Pixel Buds Pro 2?
The Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 are priced at £229.
Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 versus AirPods Pro 2: what is the difference?
The Pixel Buds have a neater fit in the ear thanks to the new ‘twist to fit’ design, and offer some AI features that the AirPods lack, as well as great noise cancellation. As ever, the AirPods offer tight integration with other Apple products.
Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 versus Sony WF-1000XM5: what is the difference?
The Sony earbuds offer truly excellent sound quality, but lack some of the clever AI features and voice integration in the Pixel Buds Pro 2. The Sony buds are also a little bulkier and more intrusive in the ear.
