Gadgetory

Google's first foray into the headphone category has a quirky design good sound and put some Google assistant flavor in your ear it's Joshua Vergara what's going on everybody and these are the Google pixel buds let's start from the beginning with the pixel buds still in the case now the case itself already screams Google from the get-go with a design language that is reminiscent of recent pixel devices there's a fabric all around the clamshell case and it is charged with USB C cables and then of course there is the G logo in the middle open it up and there are the pixel buds themselves nestled inside of the little crevices that are also magnetized and the cord is wrapped around the edges now wrapping the cable around the edges when you're charging the earbuds takes a little bit of getting used to but once you get it down it's easy to do without even thinking about it and as far as charging these earbuds go the 120 milli amp hour unit is charged by 650 million powers inside of the case itself which allows the earbuds to work for pretty much the entire day a single button above the right ear bud area shows you what the charge level is of the case or of the earbuds if they are inside of the case but the initial setup does require use of that button you do have to pair the earphones to whatever phone you're using that has Google assistant on it by holding down on that button while the buds are inside now one thing I do want to mention real quick is that Google does claim that the pixel buds work best with the pixel 2 and while I did use it with them and it was perfectly fine I actually used them mostly with this 1 + 5 t I will admit that the pairing process on the 1 + 5 t was not completely seamless as it still prompted me with a pairing request on the pixel - this is not the case but once you have the pixel buds paired to whatever smartphone you're using they will always connect to it the moment you take it out of the case without any delays at all Google's design language permeates throughout the headphones themselves the court is made of a fabric material as well and it even extends past the ear pieces themselves more on that in a second the problem I have with the cord is that it's just not long enough more length on it would allow the ear buds to just securely hang around my neck but even during the recording of this video I've had to fix the cord so that it wasn't always slacking more on one side and at worse they would just fall off my neck and that happens more times than I would like I've heard a myriad of different opinions on how comfortable the buds are ranging from positive to downright upset personally the buds fit just right in my and the way that they make them fit is actually kind of interesting that extra bit of fabric cord that goes past the ear buds can be pulled or slacked in more in order for them to just sort of nestled underneath a portion of the ear that way they don't come out too easily now if you look closely the ear pieces do have an open construction and that means they are different from plenty of other earphones you might be used to that have a piece of rubber or silicone at the end that you would then insert actually into your ear now this is a little bit more like the Apple earpods and it does change the sound profile quite a bit but I'll get to that later the left earbud is simply for sound as the touch sensitive control is found on the right ear bud where you can tap hold or swipe for various functions and to be honest the gestures of the pixel buds are one of the main highlights interactions come incredibly naturally hit the right earbud to play or pause or to respond to a google assistant prompt hold it to talk to assistant or swipe forward and backward for volume control there's no control for changing tracks but that function is pretty easily replaced by just asking Google assistant to do so just hold on the right ear button and then you can ask it and it doesn't right away it literally happens that fast in opting for a more open configuration the pixel buds mainly lose an immersive level of bass but there was a good enough sound profile that I still enjoyed listening to music and also they get pretty loud so you are able to immerse yourself in the music at least to that level but it's the lack of a seal that I think most people are going to get a little bit upset at because they're used to just blocking out the noise of the outside world and while that is a very valid concern I also think that's kind of missing the point as a new way of having Google assistant on at all times it's a bit obvious that Google kind of wants you to have at least the right earbud in at all times if possible it might not sound particularly appealing but consider for a moment that Google assistant on the buds is actually the best iteration of it outside of the smartphone itself holding on the right earbud and asking to speak a different language launches the app on the phone and it begins listening you will be able to hear either the foreign language or your own translated accordingly in your ear but it will still be displayed on your device in order for the other person to read it and for you to read their response now this is a great function to have but it is only as good as Google Translate itself if you've used it at all in the past you would know that it goes for the more informal phrases so if you are traveling a lot with the pixel buds and with Google Translate just know that you might be talking more casually to people than they would used to currently the pixel blood support a number of different languages including Japanese French Spanish Korean Vietnamese and Thai but on a personal note Filipino is not supported so that was a bit of a bummer and to be honest if you have Google Translate installed on your smartphone a lot of these functions are still available to you so the pixel buds provide more of a convenience in terms of doing translation rather than actually being an essential part of the process but it's when you get into a dialogue with the pixel buds that it really finds its aha moment here's an example I double tap the right earbud to get Google assistant to do its usual tasks first it tells me the time and then it tells me if I have any calendar events coming up third it begins reading off my notifications on my phone if it hasn't already covered them this is a kind of literal part of the experience the notification that you would read on your phone in the notification drop-down becomes exactly what you hear verbatim in a slightly robotic way if you don't have anything playing already on the pixel buds the notifications will be read in real time which again is a reason why the open construction turns out to be useful if you happen to have one of these in your ear at all times so you don't miss notifications at least you're not sealing off the world and you have more awareness so that well you can be safer and finally Google assistant will sometimes hit a messenger application read out the message and give me time to respond five chimes or seconds in which I can hold the right earbud to voice dictate a response Google assistant repeats my response back to me and then I can tap the bud to send it or hold it in order to record it again I'm completely convinced that this is the point of the pixel buds not only has it been nice to have assistant always available but interacting with it through the earpiece has proved to be more natural than the alternatives let's face it talking to our wrists in order to respond to messages was kind of cool but ultimately not practical and definitely not foolproof the pixel buds simply do this a lot better now because of this the audience that will enjoy the pixel buds are ones that are going to already use Google assistant on the daily for everyone else these headphones will simply fall short they're not the best sounding they're not the best designed and they are not the best priced at 1:59 the question is whether or not the smart functions are worth it everyone else should still pay attention though because these are a lot like the original Google pixel assistant was a new exciting yet cautious move forward in Google's first in-house smartphone but soon it found its way to pretty much every I wouldn't be surprised if this was the same story with the butts in which the great gesture controls the maturing Google assistance and even more find their way to more headphones wireless or otherwise and it would only be a matter of time before a headset arrives that is the opposite of the butts instead of great smart functions and decent sound it would have incredible sound and it would happen to be enjoyably smart and now that would be music to our ears so as always thank you very much for watching and hope you enjoyed this review of the Google pixel buds they are an enjoyable sound experience but an even more enjoyable Google assistant experience and I think everyone should be paying attention because this is the way that headphones might mature and become smarter over time and honestly I'm really excited to see what comes next I wanted to give a shout out to some top comments on my last video which was the 1 + 5 t review so let's give you guys a shout outs and good job keeping the conversation going you can do the same in the comment section down below and some of the top comments might get a shout out from me in my next piece keep it tuned to Android authority for even more and subscribe to the channel if you haven't already and then remember that you can keep up with Android Authority and everything that we do using our official application easily found in the Play Store and then from there you can come on back here and head on over to Android authority comm for even more because we are your source for all things Android