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Google has made some solid wireless earbuds over the past couple of years, but the latest Pixel Buds Pro are its best yet. We gave them a score of 87 when we reviewed them last month, and now you can pick the buds up while they’re on discount for the first time. Amazon has the Pixel Buds Pro in charcoal and lemongrass for $175, which is $25 off their usual price and a record low. The more affordable Pixel Buds A-Series have also been discounted to $69, which is their lowest price yet.
Buy Pixel Buds Pro at Amazon – $175
Buy Pixel Buds A-Series at Amazon – $69
Essentially, Google made small changes to the earbuds’ design and also added a few key features to make them worthy of the “Pro” moniker. The buds themselves are bit more oval shaped than the previous models, helping them fit better into the contours of the ear. They’re IPX4-rated, so they’ll survive sweaty workouts, and they have onboard controls that let you play/pause, skip tracks, adjust the volume and switch between ANC and transparency mode.
ANC is arguably the biggest new feature on the Pixel Buds Pro, and Google did a pretty good job with it. The buds use a six-core audio chip for active noise cancellation, and a feature called Silent Seal helps block out even more noise and minimize sound leaks. All of those things combine to make solid ANC that blocks out noises like a TV show playing in the same room as you or sounds of people talking nearby. Sound quality is also quite good and Google added a feature called Volume EQ that automatically adjusts tuning when you change the volume, so the highs, miss and lows are more balanced and nuanced at any volume.
The buds’ companion app lets you do things like customize touch controls, change sound modes, fine-tune Google Assistant features and check in on the last known location of the earbuds. You can also turn on automatic switching between Android devices in the app, which will come in handy when you use a few devices in tandem. Finally, when it comes to battery life, you’ll get roughly 13 hours out of the Pixel Buds Pro when using ANC or up to 20 hours with that feature turned off. Google also added wireless charging capabilities to the buds’ carrying case, which is a feature that previous iterations didn’t have. So while the Pixel Buds Pro are Google’s most expensive wireless earbuds to date, they’re also its best sounding, most capable and most versatile buds yet.
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