Google Pixel Buds 2a review: Diet Pixel Buds at a palatable price

As personal audio has been partially subsumed by big tech, it’s no surprise that Google has had its tentacles in earbuds for quite a while. Despite not owning a previously-established audio brand, the conglomerate’s offerings have been pretty decent — even going so far as to run their own listener preference studies behind closed doors. But are the latest earbuds they’ve brought to market any good? I spent a few days with them to find out.

What’s it like to use the Google Pixel Buds 2a?

Straight out of the box, the Google Pixel Buds 2a seems to embody Google’s design ethos, just in physical form. Muted, inoffensive color schemes and very smooth surfaces without any hard protrusions have become synonymous with big tech’s oevre, and the Google Pixel Buds 2a is no different. The buds have a circular touch plate on the back of each housing, with extremely rounded edges and a soft finish. Each bud has a semicircular fin that pushes against your outer ear to hold the buds more firmly in your ear canals, which does its job admirably — even though it often feels like the earbuds are ready to go flying out at any moment.

Those with shorter ear canals or smaller ears will absolutely prefer these to AirPods Pro models in terms of comfort. However I will note that sometimes — and I mean very infrequently — high-pitched whining was audible with a bad fit. Twisting the earbuds a little further into place fixed this, but if you aren’t wearing tips that are big enough, you might have trouble getting the Google Pixel Buds 2a to stay where you want them. In that case, try sizing up with the included sleeves, and you should be golden.

The Google Pixel Buds 2a was built to survive the outside world, with an ingress protection rating of IP54. Consequently, rain, sweat, or sand shouldn’t pose a problem for these. If you’re someone who needs constant music throughout the day, it’s nice to know that these earbuds can handle a freak downpour or impromptu sprint.

As these earbuds are meant to be an extension of your Pixel phone (or really, any Android phone), there’s a bunch of goodies baked in for those in the Google ecosystem. For example, using a supported Android phone will allow you to make use of the super wideband feature for improved call quality, or the hands-free Gemini integration that allows you to replace your voice assistant with… another voice assistant but different.

You can control the earbuds by using either touchplate, with taps or long presses. As there are no buttons on the earbuds, you don’t need to apply any force to the earbuds — which is a relief. You can customize the long press function for each earbud using the Pixel Buds app, setting it to alter the noise control mode (ANC on, ANC off, transparency), or to activate Gemini.

Basic controls:

What are the best features of the Google Pixel Buds 2a?

Though the Google Pixel Buds 2a is meant to be a sort of “step down” from the Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 for those who want something a little more affordable, the earbuds have a decent set of features for those who want them. For example, the call quality upgrades and the live Gemini features are solid inclusions for earbuds meant to augment your smartphone. Other features, like Find Hub, allow you to locate your earbuds on a map, and are solid additions.

However, there’s some Pixel ecosystem lock-in, and that’s quite annoying. Spatial audio, for example, is only available on non-A-series Pixel phones and the Pixel Tablet. That’s a load of hot garbage, but it’s the tradeoff for getting a product that’s meant to work within a narrower ecosystem than just “Android.” While I don’t personally much care for this particular feature, it still sucks to have to go without if you have the wrong phone. But it just seems to be the world we live in now.

How does the Google Pixel Buds 2a connect?

The Google Pixel Buds 2a connects to all of its source devices via Bluetooth 5.4, with the ability to connect using SBC, and AAC. Though this should mean that LC3 is also available, I was not able to find a primary source to confirm this in Google’s product documentation.

As these are a set of pretty basic earbuds, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Google opted to eschew higher-bitrate codecs in favor of a decent AAC implementation. This is good because not only is the compression very good for wireless, but the codec offers very low latency that Android has historically struggled with. Though there’s no way to link your device using a wired connection using only the hardware in the package, wireless dongles are cheap enough nowadays that you could pick one up for an airplane trip or older computer if you really need it. The Multipoint support will mean that you can swap between multiple devices fairly painlessly, though you’ll need to individually pair each device the first time.

How long do the Google Pixel Buds 2a’s battery last?

How well do the Google Pixel Buds 2a cancel noise?

With a good seal and noise cancelation (ANC) enabled, you can expect roughly 76% of outside noise to be attenuated before it reaches your ear. Isolation is a little bit of a sore spot with these earbuds, as the nozzle doesn’t go very deep into your ear canal. While this is excellent for comfort, it does mean that sometimes small breaks in a seal or imperfect isolation is possible in normal use. Even in ideal conditions like our lab, this design can sometimes fall a little flat when we run our ANC tests — which is what we saw.

The Google Pixel Buds 2a are generally effective noise cancelers, but there’s something odd going on in the high end. Despite the temptation to write this off as a fit issue with the test head, I experienced this in my own listening. I’m pretty confident that this is a real phenomenon, whether it was intentional or not.

With that big ol’ dip in isolation between 4 and 9kHz, I found that sounds like tearing paper, keys jingling, and other high-pitched environmental sounds can cut right through your music. Despite the fact that this sounds annoying, I didn’t mind it so much. Sometimes when I’m reviewing ANC headphones, I’ll drop something and not know — and that’s definitely not a problem I had with the Google Pixel Buds 2a. Still, don’t expect these to top anyone’s list for best ANC earbuds or anything. They’re good, but this odd gap isn’t ideal, even if it isn’t really something to get upset about.

How do the Google Pixel Buds 2a sound?

The Google Pixel Buds 2a sounds decent, though it’s not going to earn much in the way of accolades. Most people should be perfectly happy with the sound of the Google Pixel Buds 2a, but this is definitely not aimed at audiophiles.

Reviewer’s notes

Editor’s note: this review uses a hover-enabled glossary to describe sound quality based on a consensus vocabulary. You can read about it here.

Objective Measurements

The response of the Google Pixel Buds 2a is pretty consumer-friendly, but it definitely is on the weird side. There’s a bit of an issue where the range between 1 and 5kHz is a bit underemphasized, while there’s notable spikes in emphasis at 7 and 10.3kHz. This should come across as a bit odd in your music, as some sounds like cymbals and guitars will sound a bit less clear than they should, and a bit like early MP3-era compression with certain loud songs. It’s definitely something you get used to, but I wish there were more ways to deal with this than a 5-band equalizer slider array.

Bass and low mids are slightly overemphasized, making the underemphasis in the previously-discussed range much more noticeable. Though the Google Pixel Buds 2a does a good job of not going crazy here, it’s one of those times where even bassheads might struggle to figure out how to tweak their tunes.

Overall, this isn’t a horrible response, but I’m still curious to see why these earbuds are tuned the way they are. There will be those who really like this, but there will also be those who really hate it. Like a lot of earbuds!

Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Scores (MDAQS)

The chart below shows how the Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Score (MDAQS) algorithm from HEAD acoustics assesses the sound of the Google Pixel Buds 2a. The sound quality is rated on a scale from 1.0 (very bad) to 5.0 (very good).

Can you use the Google Pixel Buds 2a for phone calls?

As true wireless earbuds have evolved alongide headphones to be an appendage of smartphones, it’s no surprise that you can use the Google Pixel Buds 2a for your calls and video conferences. Below are samples of the product’s mic recorded in our labs, in both ideal conditions and not-so-ideal conditions. Just remember that your network, client, and computer all may give you differing results from ours, as you can’t always control the processing or noise reduction each might apply to your audio.

Google Pixel Buds 2a microphone demo (Ideal conditions):

Should you buy the Google Pixel Buds 2a?

At $129, there are far worse earbuds out there, and there aren’t many that offer AI integration like the Google Pixel Buds 2a either. For the tech-obsessed or even someone who wants to lean into newer features of earbuds, the Google Pixel Buds 2a is a solid bet. It ticks all the boxes that most midrange earbuds do, and doesn’t come with any horrible tradeoffs. However, audiophiles are probably going to pan these earbuds because of their sound.

If you find that you have trouble with most true wireless earbuds, I think that you should probably give either the Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 or the Google Pixel Buds 2a a try, as the design lends itself well to small ear canals and outer ears smaller than a car door. The fit is quite gentle, and doesn’t cause much discomfort to most users, which is something that I’d like to see more of in the market.

What should you get instead of the Google Pixel Buds 2a?

If you’re looking for alternatives to the Google Pixel Buds 2a, they’re going to be a little different than you might be expecting, simply because these earbuds are a little less expensive than others they compete against. For example, the Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 ($229 at Amazon) offer a clear upgrade, but the jump in cost is significant. You might not care too much for spatial audio or extra features, so something a little less complicated like the OnePlus Buds 4 ($99.99 at Amazon). Of course, if you really want the latest-and-greatest features, you’re going to have to shell out for something like the JBL Live Beam 3 ($199.95 at Amazon).

Bass enthusiasts will probably get a little more bang for their buck with the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds ($179 at Amazon). Those looking for better sound quality will likely be satisfied with the Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 FE ($149.99 at Amazon), though that particular model does not offer Multipoint. Should that be a problem, the Nothing Ear (3) ($179 at Amazon) is a passable alternative.

Google Pixel Buds 2a review: FAQs