If you’ve been looking at Google’s newPixel 10 phones, you may have also seen that the company unveiled the new Google Pixel Buds 2a.
Built to offer the best parts of thePixel Buds Pro 2experience at a much more affordable price, the Pixel Buds 2a offer Active Noise Cancellation, excellent battery life, and some impressive reparability chops.
This is paired with a new redesign build, two color choices, strong sweat and water resistance, and the same Tensor A1 chip as Google’s Pro headphones. Despite several new improvements, the Buds 2a are available at an incredibly affordable price.
I spent half an hour with Google’s new entry-level headphones at its event in New York City, and they’ve left me impressed. Here’s the Buds 2a key specs, and why I’m excited:
Google Pixel Buds 2a Key specs
It’s all about the Tensor A1 and Active Noise Cancellation
If there’s one sole reason you should buy the Pixel Buds 2a, it’s the Tensor A1 chipset, which is found in each earbud.
Google’s custom chipset makes its way from the Buds Pro 2 to the Buds 2a and brings with it the biggest highlight feature for Google’s entry-level buds: Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) with Silent Seal.
The Tesnor A1 is paired with a custom-designed speaker driver and a new high-frequency chamber, which maximizes the quality of music and vocal reproduction. Google also claims that the wind-blocking mesh covers work in tandem with on-device AI to ensure that call quality is not impacted by background noise. However, it’s unclear whether the drop from three mics to two mics per bud in the Buds 2a will affect the call quality.
Of course, you won’t always want ANC enabled, so there’s also a new transparency mode (for the first time on the A-series), which is ideal for when you want to hear your environment (e.g., when walking in a city ) or when someone is chatting with you.
The battery is vastly improved
Of course, Active Noise Cancellation comes at the expense of battery life, but even here, Google has struck the right balance. Crucially, the new Buds 2a offer more than double the battery life of the original Pixel Buds A.
The Buds 2a should last for 10 hours on a full charge with Active Noise Cancellation disabled, while the case can extend this by an additional 20 hours. If you choose to have ANC enabled, this drops to seven hours from the buds and up to 20 hours total, including recharging with the case.
The carrying case is small and very reminiscent of the Pixel Buds 2 Pro and recharges via a USB-C port at the bottom. Google hasn’t specified how long the case will take to recharge to full, but did say that a 5-minute charge in the case can offer enough battery life for 1 hour of listening with ANC enabled.
Strong hardware, complete with Find My
The Pixel Buds 2a feature an 11mm dynamic driver for excellent audio playback, as well as a five-band equalizer that can be customized via the app. There’s also support for spatial audio if you have a Pixel 6 or later; before you get excited, however, this feature is limited to just Google’s phones.
One of my biggest frustrations with small charging cases is what happens when you lose them. Apple solved this by adding the AirPods charging case to the Find My network, and Google has followed suit with the Pixel Buds 2a charging case.
Although the newPixel 10 Pro Foldgains IP68 dust and water resistance, the Pixel Buds 2a feature an IP54 rating, which should protect against sweat and water damage during workouts. The case isn’t quite as durable, but IPX4 should still keep it fairly protected.
One of the most interesting Pixel Buds 2a features is in the case, as it joins the new Pixel Watch 4 and features a battery in the case that can be easily removed. However, this isn’t something you can do as a user, and rather, you’ll need to send this off to Google or an authorized third-party repair center. Google says this should help extend the lifespan of the Pixel Buds 2a.
Strong sound at a compelling price
The Pixel Buds 2a are a fascinating product. They offer most of the Pixel Buds 2 Pro experience at a more affordable price, set new repairability standards for earbuds, and feature strong ANC and hardware.
All of this is priced at just $129, and while there are many excellent earbuds in the market, the Pixel Buds 2a has every chance of challenging thebest earbudsonce it goes on sale on October 9.
If you choose to buy the Pixel Buds 2a, they are available in two colors: the new Purple-like Iris color is striking, but if you want something more reserved, the Hazel color is the one to pick.
