• Source: Google

  Google Pixel Buds Pro

  Our top choice

  $139 $200 Save $61

  Featuring ANC, excellent audio, and a fantastic transparency mode, the Google Pixel Buds Pro are great earbuds. If you’re looking for buds with a comfortable fit and long battery life, these may be worth the higher price tag.

  Pros

  • Excellent, dynamic sound profile
  • Decent ANC
  • Impressive battery life

  Cons

  • Weak transparency mode
  • Mediocre microphone
  • Pricey

• Source: Google

  Google Pixel Buds A-Series

  Unbeatable value

  $59 $99 Save $40

  The Pixel Buds A-Series are Google’s midrange true wireless earbuds. They don’t have high-end features like ANC or multipoint connectivity, but for $99, they offer good audio quality and a comfortable fit. They also have a unique vented design that mitigates in-ear pressure.

  Pros

  • Great sound quality for the price
  • Awesome gesture controls
  • Comfortable and stylish

  Cons

  • Lacks ANC
  • Mediocre transparency mode
  • No wireless charging

Last year, Google introduced a premium tier for its true wireless earbuds lineup with the Pixel Buds Pro, following up three generations of Pixel Buds that never quite hit their stride. With the new flagship, Google’s Pixel Buds lineup takes its place among the best wireless earbuds.

What’s more, the new “Pro” buds also have Google borrowing a page from some of its competitors by offering both entry-level and higher-end options; Google’s third-gen wireless earbuds, the $99 Pixel Buds A-Series, are sticking around to provide a more affordable option for folks who may be wary about spending $200 on the more premium Pixel Buds Pro. At half the price, the A-Series is a nice wallet-friendly pick if you only need the basics, but if you’re on the fence about whether you should spend the extra money, here’s how they compare to the pricier and more full-featured Pixel Buds Pro.

Price, specs, and availability

If you’re looking to pick up either pair, they’re not hard to come by. The Pixel Buds Pro are available for $200 on Amazon, Best Buy, or directly through the Google Store, but you can often find them on sale for less if you play your cards right. The Pixel Buds A-Series come in at a lower price of $99 at the same retailers.

• 	Google Pixel Buds Pro	Google Pixel Buds A-Series
  Battery Life	ANC on: 7 hours, ANC off: 11 hours	5 hours (24 with case)
  Noise Cancellation	Yes	No
  Mono Listening	Yes	Yes
  IP rating	IPX4 (buds), IPX2 (case)	IPX4
  Supported codecs	AAC, SBC	AAC, SBC
  Dimensions (earbuds)	23.72 X 22.03 X 22.33 mm	20.7 x 29.3 x 17.5 mm
  Charging	USB-C, wireless	USB-C
  Driver size	11mm	12 mm
  Price	$200	$99

Hardware and battery

The Pixel Buds Pro share an unmistakable resemblance to the Pixel Buds A-Series — they’re both very Google, with no sharp angles and playful details like the debossed G logo on each earbud. But the Pixel Buds Pro are significantly larger than the lightweight A-Series. In our experience, the Pixel Buds Pro fit comfortably, but they will stick out of your ears a little farther than the A-Series.

While the Pixel Buds A-Series have what Google calls a spatial vent to help relieve in-ear pressure and let some external sound into your ears, the Pixel Buds Pro ditched that feature for a more closed design. Instead, the Buds Pro have a transparency mode that uses mics on the earbuds to pipe sound from your environment into your ears alongside your media. (Google also says that the Pixel Buds Pro monitors the pressure in your ears to keep them comfortable, but Google hasn’t elaborated on how that process works.) The Pixel Buds Pro also ditched the stabilizing fin that the Pixel Buds A-Series have, so the Buds Pro might fit less securely in some ears.

As one of the more budget-friendly earbuds, the Pixel Buds A-Series come in just two colors: Dark Olive and Clearly White. The Pixel Buds Pro come in Charcoal, Fog, Lemongrass, and Coral.

Battery life on the Pixel Buds A-Series is a bit of a sore spot, quoted at just five hours of playback on a single charge — and remember, those earbuds don’t have active noise cancellation. Pixel Buds Pro are an enormous improvement on that front, with a quoted battery life of seven hours on a single charge with ANC and up to 11 hours without ANC. In addition, both pairs of buds can get about two additional charges from their cases. Both cases charge with USB-C, but only the Pixel Buds Pro’s case supports wireless charging.

Audio and features

At $99, the Pixel Buds A-Series punch above their weight in audio quality, with clear and full sound and more bass than you’d expect given their slim design. The $200 Pixel Buds Pro also sound very good, but the overall quality isn’t much better than the Pixel Buds A-Series. Both pairs support the AAC and SBC codecs but not higher bitrate standards like aptX or LDAC. That shouldn’t matter if you mostly stream audio through Spotify or YouTube Music, but if you’re in the market for audiophile-grade sound, neither of these buds fit that bill.

There have also been reports of shoddy Bluetooth connectivity in the Pixel Buds A-Series, including audio skips, static, and outright disconnects, which we experienced some of with our review unit. In our testing, connectivity is generally okay, but it might get dicey if you’re listening outside with your phone in a bag or back pocket. Google says not everyone will be able to hear the static, but if you can, it’s not always easy to ignore. The Pixel Buds Pro don’t have any of these issues.

Aside from improved fundamentals like battery life and connectivity, the Pixel Buds Pro’s big draw is their feature set. Both the A-Series and the Pro support Fast Pair on Android, and both have optional always-on “Hey Google” listening for hands-free Assistant access. But the Buds Pro have more desirable features than the A-Series, including active noise cancelation and Bluetooth multipoint, which lets you connect them to two audio sources at a time (a phone and a laptop, for example). The Buds Pro’s case can also charge wirelessly, whereas the A-Series is USB-C only.

Which should you buy?

Pixel Buds A-Series are by the cheaper option, as the Pixel Buds Pro go for twice as much. While the audio quality alone doesn’t justify that price increase — the A-Series sound just as good under the right conditions — the Pixel Buds Pro are a much better choice for noisy environments thanks to ANC and their excellent transparency mode. They also offer markedly better battery life, premium features like Bluetooth multipoint, and more stable connectivity, all of which combine to justify their higher price tag.

Source: Google

Google Pixel Buds Pro

Our top choice

A fantastic pair of true wireless earbuds

$139 $200 Save $61

If you can afford them, the Pixel Buds Pro are the complete package. Featuring ANC, great audio, and a fantastic transparency mode, you can get them in a few fun colors. If you’re willing to spend a bit more, they are a great option.

Nevertheless, since the A-Series provide very similar audio quality, they’ll get the job done if you only need a pair of decent-sounding earbuds for listening at home or in other quiet places and don’t care much about the extra bells and whistles. However, their unique vented hardware makes them less universally useful than more conventional true wireless earbuds. The spatial vent design might be good for ear comfort and situational awareness, but it means you’ll get external sound leaking in all the time, rather than just when you want it to, and since the A-Series don’t have ANC, your only option to drown out more of your surroundings is to crank the volume, which won’t be good for your hearing health.

Source: Google

Google Pixel Buds A-Series

Unbeatable value

One of the best value ‘buds you can buy

$59 $99 Save $40

The Pixel Buds A-Series are a good mid-range option if you’re not looking for all the bells and whistles. Lightweight, comfortable, and affordable, they are a good pick if you want to save a little.