Google Pixel Buds 2A review: the right kind of compromise

The current state of headphones is a bummer. In one sense, the market has never been so good: from Bose to Sony to Apple to Google to Samsung to Sennheiser to JBL to unpronounceable Chinese knockoffs, you can’t spin around in a Best Buy without finding a pair of solid-sounding earbuds. Across prices and styles, we’re spoiled for choice.

But as headphones have improved, they’ve also gotten more stratified. If you want the pair with the most features and the best integration with your device, you pretty much have to buy the ones made by the company that also makes your phone. They’ll connect more easily, they’ll have more features, they’ll sometimes even sound better. They’re mostly Bluetooth headphones, and generally speaking, anything can connect to anything. But Bluetooth connections are not all created equal.

All of this is to say: I mostly use an iPhone, I’ve been testing the Google Pixel Buds 2A, and I find it utterly infuriating that they don’t work better together. Because at $129.99, the Buds 2A are one of the best headphone deals going. They sound good, they have good battery life, I like how they fit and feel in my ears far better than any set of AirPods, and they have most of the best features of the (also very good) Pixel Buds Pro 2 at a much lower price. I recommend them wholeheartedly. I just wish I didn’t have to ask which phone you use first.

My ears have always preferred Google’s Mentos-shaped Buds to Apple’s candy cane AirPods, and the Buds 2A are light and small enough that they don’t even really feel like they’re in my ears. Their tiny rubber flange keeps them more secure, too. I recommend trying every eartip size (the Buds 2A come with four options) just to see what feels best, and also taking seriously the whole “put them in and rotate them into your ear” instructions. Don’t take my word for it, though: Google lets you check your “eartip seal” to see if any sound is leaking out.

I’ve been impressed by almost everything about the Pixel Buds 2A hardware. For starters: I love the new purple color and officially think everyone should have purple headphones. But in general, it just feels like Google is finally ironing out the last of its kinks in this space. The previous models’ connectivity problems are all but gone; I’ve only experienced one surprising audio cutout in all my testing. The battery life is good, too: I’ve been using them heavily for a week and only just had to charge the case yesterday.

I was also surprised at how responsive the tap controls were — it rarely fails to register a double-tap to skip tracks, and I don’t think I’ve had a single accidental false tap. These buds don’t have the full swipe controls you’ll get on the Buds Pro 2, and I miss having the on-ear volume controls. My biggest gripe is the IP54 rating, which roughly translates to protection against “no more than a light sweat.” You can find even cheap no-name brands with better protection.

The big internal upgrade here is the Tensor A1 chip, the same one in the Buds Pro 2. It enables the 2A’s star new feature: active noise cancellation. The ANC in these buds isn’t quite on the level of the AirPods Pro 3, which are almost unnervingly good at cocooning you in a bubble of silence, but they’re generally very good at dampening consistent background thrums. The 2A’s transparency mode is also solid, even getting to that rare point where it feels like you’re not wearing headphones at all.

There’s only one flaw in the noise management: the 2As respond terribly to unexpected loud noises. In ANC mode, they’ll take a beat too long to tamp down a sudden siren or screech, and in transparency mode, I’ve noticed they sometimes actually make the sound briefly louder. Google supposedly has fixed this with a feature called “Loud Noise Protection,” but that’s only for the Buds Pro 2. The higher-end model was recently updated with other new audio-processing features, too, like one that tries to automatically lower the volume when it detects you’re in conversation or turn it up when your surroundings get loud. None of that is coming to the 2As.

Google clearly views the Pixel Buds as a way to speak with Gemini, so I had high hopes for the microphone and call quality. I’m torn on the results. Like most previous Pixel Buds models, the 2A’s microphones make me sound like I’m shouting into my phone from across a very large cave. But I never had trouble being heard, even in noisy places — the ANC does its job well — and my Gemini commands were always recognized correctly. It’s not a nice-sounding mic, but it’s a very functional one.

I’ve gone this long without mentioning the most important thing about a pair of headphones, their sound quality, because I honestly don’t have that much to say. The Pixel Buds 2A sound fine. They’re not the most dynamic headphones you’ll hear, but they’re crisp and pleasant, and you can always tweak the EQ to your liking. (A lot of people like the “Clarity” setting, but I find it a little too bright.) The bass at the bottom of Lil Wayne’s “A Milli” is strong and clean if not exactly thunderous. I could hear all the harmonies in Queen’s “ Fat Bottomed Girls,” but really complex tracks occasionally felt a little jumbled in my ears. The sound stage feels wide in a song like Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” which is good because turning on Google’s spatial audio feature adds roughly nothing more to the experience. In general, these buds have neither thrilling strengths nor glaring weaknesses.

So far, I’ve told you the version of the Pixel Buds 2A experience that comes with a Pixel phone. If you’re on another Android device, you get most of the same features once you get the Pixel Buds app. But if you’re on an iPhone, the 2As are just a pair of Bluetooth headphones. No EQ, no hands-free assistant, no nifty fast pairing, no two-devices-at-a-time multipoint, no tweaking the touch controls, nothing. You can change some settings through Google’s web app on a desktop computer, but the full experience is still reserved for Android devices.

The reality of headphone lock-in is hardly unique to Google, though. And if you have an Android phone, I recommend the Pixel Buds 2A for most purposes. These would be a screaming deal at the previous model’s $99 price, but even at $129.99, there aren’t many headphones with this combination of sound quality, noise cancellation, and other features. (The Apple equivalent here is the entry-level AirPods, which don’t have ANC.)

No pair of headphones is worth switching phone ecosystems for. But the Buds 2A are good enough to make this iPhone-toting reviewer mad that I can’t get the best out of them. And every time I use them to have Gemini look something up or remember something for me, I find myself wondering if it’s time to leave Siri behind and fully embrace the purple headphone life.