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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Pixel Buds 2a are Google’s newest midrange earbuds.
- Solid features for less than top competitors.
- Big upgrades in battery, durability, and connectivity.
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To complement the premium Pixel Buds Pro 2, Google’s latest midrange earbuds, the Pixel Buds 2a, aim to offer a near-premium experience for $100 less. The Pixel Buds 2a borrow some of their premium sibling’s best features and boast major upgrades over the first-generation A-series earbuds.
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At $130, the Pixel Buds 2a aren’t the cheapest earbuds on the market, but they make meaningful strides over their similarly priced competitors. Here’s a brief overview of how they stack up to Apple, Bose, and Sony.
Battery life
Compared to their predecessor, the Pixel Buds 2a promise up to five more hours of continuous listening time, depending on whether active noise cancellation (ANC) is enabled. With the charging case, they promise 27 hours of total listening time.
Looking at competitors in similar tiers, the Pixel Buds 2a beat the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds, Sony LinkBuds Fit, and Apple AirPods 4 in continuous playtime. However, the AirPods 4 charging case promises three more hours with ANC disabled.
Microphones
Kerry Wan/ZDNET
The Pixel Buds 2a sport four microphones, two in each earbud. These microphones aid in noise cancellation and voice pickup for hands-free calling. Sony’s midrange LinkBuds Fit have the same microphone lineup, while Bose and Apple’s midrange earbuds have one more mic.
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However, Google’s secret to ensuring the buds’ tiny, rounded form factor still achieves superb voice pickup and quality noise cancellation lies in its custom Tensor A1 chip, the same audio processor in the Pixel Buds Pro 2.
Relying on microphones alone, the traditional bud-and-stem design typically produces better voice pickup due to more earbud real estate and a microphone pointing toward your mouth.
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Google’s chip was designed with AI-powered noise processing in mind, aiming to make the Pixel Buds a tiny yet mighty pair of earbuds. The Pixel Buds 2a are also equipped with Bluetooth Super Wideband, a technology that builds on the Bluetooth hands-free protocol and allows you to take and make calls with your earbuds.
Super Wideband expands the bandwidth for calling over Bluetooth, resulting in clearer, more natural-sounding speech.
Dust and water resistance
Compared to the first-generation A-series buds with an IPX4 rating, the Buds 2a have an improved IP54 dust and water ingress rating. Although water resistance is usually the star of the earbuds show, increased dust resistance means your earbuds are safer from solid particles like dust, sand, or hair.
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Sony’s LinkBuds Fit and Bose’s QuietComfort Earbuds sport an IPX4 rating, while Google’s Pixel Buds 2a and Apple’s AirPods 4 have an IP54 rating. The first number indicates dust resistance, and the second number indicates water resistance.
Although IP54 doesn’t mean your earbuds are completely dustproof or waterproof, it does mean that the earbuds can keep out enough dust to avoid interference with performance.
The Google Pixel Buds 2a are available for preorder in Iris and Hazel.
