Impressions: Google Pixel Buds

Google Pixel Buds are Bluetooth earbuds from Google. Unlike the other Bluetooth earbuds that came out around the same time, these supposedly support all sorts of real-time translation, plus Google Assistant of course.

First off, the build quality on the Google Pixel Buds is genuinely good. I got the blue version. Pairing is quick, but also kind of dumb: you have to put the earbuds back in the case, press the pairing button inside the case, and wait for the light in the case to start blinking. Then your phone starts asking you whether you want to pair.

Once paired, you can use them like any normal Bluetooth earbuds.

I’ll skip the filler and just give you a few impressions.

1. Comfort is mediocre. Mostly because I’m used to in-ear noise-cancelling buds, these always feel like they’re not pushed in far enough…
2. Isolation is bad, worse than the noise-cancelling buds. If you like the “put on headphones, shut out the world” style of listening like I do, these earbuds will probably annoy you.
3. The controls are basically useless. The Pixel Buds have a few gestures built in, including double-tapping the right earbud to read out your “latest notification,” but that only works in English, and when it reads WeChat notifications the earbuds emit a ton of noise…
4. Easy to trigger by accident. If the earbuds are uncomfortable and you want to adjust them, you’ll easily brush the right earbud and trigger that “touch control,” and whatever you’re playing pauses…
5. Sound quality is surprisingly good. Great for pop. I don’t know if these support APT-X and I don’t care — I’ve had tin ears for years. Personally I think they sound better than the noise-cancelling buds.

All in all, I don’t think the Google Pixel Buds are anything close to a good pair of earbuds. Besides looking nice and sounding decent, there are too many things to complain about. Sure, they’re aimed at Apple’s AirPods, but those are truly wireless, right? These still have a cord. And a lot of the features are basically useless in China — notification reading can’t do Chinese, and reading WeChat just produces noise…

And that “real-time translation” thing I couldn’t get working at all… After two days I wanted to go back to the noise-cancelling buds.

So just treat these as a decent-looking pair of Bluetooth earbuds. They’ve dropped to 300 yuan now, which is a solid deal — at least better than those idiot Edifier ones, right?