In a nutshell, I love these Pixel Buds Pro. Once the tips are firmly screwed into our two ear canals to provide perfect sound insulation, then the noise cancellation works at full capacity.
Speaking of noise, we are talking about constant background noise, such as 85 dB on board an airplane, or even 95 dB if you are seated in the back, the noise of rolling in a car or the noise of a worn out fan. which deserves to be replaced. In short, this din or these engine or road hums are greatly reduced by the active noise cancellation of the Pixel Buds Pro.
On a plane, there’s no need to add the audio volume of your film on your tablet or phone to the 85 dB, active suppression greatly reduces ambient noise and your cinema can be listened to at a normal level.
Voices and other noises are not filtered out and that’s perfectly normal, as there is no need to remove them to have a discussion. This is transparency mode, in Google terminology. A long press on either earbud turns noise canceling on or off.
Successfully inserting them
Google ships three sizes of tips with its headphones. And to check which ones are suitable, you must have an Android phone, version 6 or newer, to test with the Headphones application the sound insulation of the tips in your ears.
This same Android device will also be used to update the firmware of the headphones, which just need to be placed next to the phone, but outside the case.
Once the size has been found, it is necessary to make them fit well in the ears. In my case, no problem with the left ear but, with the right, I need a few tries to achieve perfect sound isolation, because without the latter, the noise cancellation performs less well. It is enough to feel the skin around the tip a little to discover sound infiltrations.
Compatible with all Bluetooth 4.0 devices
It should be noted that during a telephone or video conversation, these same background noises are not transmitted to your interlocutor. For example, in a car, the person on the other end of the line will not know that you are moving on the highway.
Speaking of connectivity, Pixel Buds Pro can pair with any device with Bluetooth 4.0 or later, including tablets, laptops, and Apple’s Android and iOS devices.
To pair them with your device, pressing the button at the base of the case (headphones inside) makes them appear in the list of your Bluetooth gadgets. Other than updates and earbud testing with an Android device, these Pixel Buds Pro work great with Apple products.
Also for music
Not being a music lover, it is difficult for me to establish the accuracy or the audio quality. That said, the bass is very present for listening to techno music.
In distance, the Bluetooth connection gives you 10 meters and, in autonomy, Google advances 11 hours of listening per charge without noise cancellation for a total of 31 hours with the charging of the case.
With noise cancellation turned on, Google claims up to 7 hours of listening time with the headphones and up to 20 hours of total listening time with the charging case. A 5-minute charge of the headphones in the charging case provides up to 1 hour of listening time with active noise cancellation.
As of this writing, the Pixel Buds Pro retail for $199.99; three colors to choose from.