In the past I have used AirPods (not Pro) 2nd generation for almost 3 years and I was very happy with it. They were light weight, fit my ears perfectly and no doubt sound quality was great. Basically I had no complaints. I have also used Bose QuietComfort 35 which are pretty good too but their range is very bad.

But I have been using a Pixel phone for more than 2 years so I couldn’t reap and use many of its features that were only available in the Apple ecosystem. Thus I wanted to try something new which resonated well and provided more goodies in an Android environment.

So when I saw Google launching Pixel Buds Pro, I knew I had to try it. The specs and all the features looked great during the launch but I wanted to try it for real before sharing my thoughts. And I think I am ready to provide honest and absolutely unbiased review after using it for almost 2 weeks:

1. Pixel Buds Pro are not gigantic. When I saw these earbuds during the launch, my first impression was they looked large but when I actually held them in hands their size was just perfect.
   
   
2. Speaking of form factor, these earbuds are extremely lightweight, so much so that I often don’t even feel that I am wearing those while using them.
   
   
3. The thing which I have been completely blown away is its touch controls which work seamlessly and provide complete control to do almost anything without pressing any button:
   
   • You can easily control the volume directly from the Pixel Buds Pro.
   • Needless to say but you can pause and play anytime.
   • You can skip to the next track.
   • You can go back to the previous track.
   • You can activate noise cancellation (ANC).
   • You can enable transparency mode.
   • And you can still use Google Assistant on the fly.
     

Using all the touch controls is very intuitive and requires no learning curve. The best part is that you can configure touch controls and customize touch & hold such that you are able to perform all of the above actions without having to pick one over the other.

4. I was also very impressed with the ANC quality overall. My previous headphones always had ANC but I didn’t use it often. But with Pixel Buds Pro, I am using ANC more than I have used it in the past. Partly because it is so easy to activate/deactivate it and also because they do a pretty good job weeding out the noise.
   
   
5. The Multipoint feature also works pretty reliably and I have been using it very effectively while switching between my Pixel phone and MacBook Pro. I no longer have to disable and enable Bluetooth or use any button to switch between the devices like I had to with my previous headphones.
   
   
6. One simple and common feature which is worth mentioning is in-ear detection. Not only did it work as expected with my Pixel phone but it also worked flawlessly while using YouTube and YouTube Music on MacBook Pro.
   
   
7. I didn’t experience any connectivity or latency issues whatsoever. As a matter of fact it has pretty good range and I am able to use them even when my phone is in some other room which my Bose headphones were not good at.
   
   
8. Automatic updates are enabled by default and it has been working without any friction or needing my attention. I also tried to manually update the firmware once through the app and it again went pretty smoothly.
   
   
9. The shape and texture of its case are so smooth that it draws your attention and will make you hold it more frequently just to feel its surface and perhaps play it like fidget.
   
   
10. The earbuds are also easy to put into the case and very easy to take out as well. Also they sit well into the case and don’t fall out with the lid open and case being upside down.
    
    
11. I was also able to wirelessly charge the case using my Pixel phone so that is a good feature to have if you don’t have the charging cable.
    
    
12. Some of the features which I haven’t tried yet are:
    • Finding the device using the location or ringing the device.
    • Audio switch which lets you automatically switch between compatible Android devices.
      
      
13. Also, I haven’t yet tried these earbuds while running or doing any physical activity but will update this post once I have some data to share.

Now these were the things which I really loved about my Pixel Buds Pro but was there anything which I didn’t like? Actually none to be honest but if I had to still pick then I would say that:

13. It took me a while to learn how to correctly put and fit them into ears. This involved learning how to correctly insert the earbuds into the ears and then rotating it. But once I mastered the technique there was no looking back.
    
    
14. I also have a feature request for Pixel Buds Pro which is to be able to mute/unmute the phone calls and video meetings using some touch control combination.