Pixel Buds 2a review: Adorably tiny, too touchy

There is no shortage of mid-range headphones with good active noise cancellation (ANC). The only problem is finding one that offers good value for money. Google is pursuing this goal with the Pixel Buds 2a – and it does an okay job, but not great.

The Pixel Buds 2a are a good pair of mid-range earbuds. They do some things right and others wrong. You’ll either love them or you’ll hate them. I’ve been using a pair of Pixel 2a headphones for a week; here’s what I learned.

The Pixel Buds 2a are adorably small

Credit: Joe Maldonado / Mashable

Good old earbud and stem construction has its merits. Pixel Buds are designed to reside almost entirely inside your earlobe. It’s a design that I personally like, even if it has some obvious flaws.

The main reason I like them: the size. The Pixel Buds 2a are just small enough to sleep on your side with them. Your mileage varies depending on your ear shape, but I found I could sleep in them. There is a little pressure on the ear when I do this, but it’s barely noticeable.

Although they’re small, these earbuds last for around seven hours of playback on a single charge, with two more charges in an equally small package. In the week I’ve been using them, I’ve never charged the case – and it’s still at 35% charged as I write this. I’m also not the biggest user of headphones, so again, your mileage will vary.

LEFT:
Credit: Joe Maldonado / Mashable

RIGHT:
Credit: Joe Maldonado / Mashable

The downside: The stems that protrude from your ears are sensitive to touch. This can cause issues when you reach to push the earbud back into your ear…and inadvertently pause your music or turn off the ANC. There’s also no way to adjust the earphone volume by touch. You can ask Google/Gemini to do this, but that’s a workaround at best, annoying at worst.

Pixel Buds 2a sound and ANC are solid

Credit: Joe Maldonado / Mashable

The overall sound of these headphones is pretty good. Right out of the box you get a fairly balanced sound, although there is a little less bass than I would normally like. Google offers a five-band equalizer that you can use to adjust the sound. I’m usually more of a 7-9 band EQ fan, but I was still able to tweak the sound to my liking.

A welcome addition to these buds, missing from the previous generation, is ANC. I found it surprisingly good considering the price. It doesn’t drown out everything, of course, but it certainly filters out a lot of it.

During my review, my basement office was filled with noises from an HVAC system, a 3D printer, and a washer and dryer all running at the same time. Most of that noise has been canceled out. It was a very pleasant surprise.

The transparency mode is also effective. There is a bit of a secondary tone when you speak, which can be a bit annoying. But overall, I have no complaints about the transparency mode.

These headphones don’t cancel out wind noise very well when you’re cycling (of course, you should never cycle with ANC turned on: don’t try this at home). Still, the headphones do a good job eliminating wind noise for callers. Despite the excruciating wind noise I experienced on the phone, the person I was calling didn’t even know I was on a bike. So there you go.

Hearing health is a quiet wonder

Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable

Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable

It’s easy to overlook one feature of the Pixel Bud: the hearing health information it provides you. This is a feature that should be built into Android, and frankly any operating system you can pair headphones to. It can tell you in real time how loud your sound is and how it changes over time.

It’s a great feature, but Google doesn’t go far enough with it. What I’d like to see is a widget that you can put on your home screen that gives you the same information in real time so you can actually see it.

As it stands, this functionality is buried in the app settings; he desperately needs to be more forward-oriented. I would love it even more if Google didn’t make it so easy to ignore.

Controls are limited

Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable

Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable

One pet peeve I have with these heads (and other heads that do the same thing) is that they limit what you can do with the touch controls. You can control the Pixel Buds 2a with short and long presses on the earbuds, which is great except for the issue of accidentally pausing your music. But you can’t control what these taps do, except for the long tap.

A single tap pauses your music, a double tap skips forward, and a triple tap goes back. You can control what a long press does – either turn ANC on/off or summon Gemini, but that’s the only option you have.

I would much prefer to be able to configure your controls the way you want. For headphones, I prefer to double-tap left/right to turn the volume down or up, and triple-tap left/right to go back/forward; but that’s simply not an option. It’s not cool. They are my friends; let me control them as I want.

As with the AirPods Pro 3 and some other earbuds such as the OnePlus Buds Pro 3, the controls are in the Bluetooth settings, but Google automatically adds an “app” to access those settings as well. I put “app” in quotes because it’s essentially a shortcut to the same settings panel. Certainly practical, but it’s not a complete application.

Gemini is at your service…sort of

Credit: Adam Doud / Mashable

In 2025, a product cannot be launched without some sort of built-in AI. The AI ​​here, of course, is Gemini, which is generally superior to Apple Intelligence – but the nice thing about Apple’s AI is that you can use it to directly control functions in the buds, like turning ANC on and off.

Gemini on buds can’t do that, which is pretty weird. Gemini can control your smart devices, provide masses of information or get directions. But the ANC, apparently, is not on the table. This seems to go against using Gemini to turn the volume up and down (which works, btw). Using Google’s headphones to access Google’s AI does not make it superior to other headphones that respond to “OK Google.”

Overall verdict

Credit: Joe Maldonado / Mashable

The Pixel Buds 2A weigh in at $129: a decent price, but not amazing for what you get. I like the sound quality and ANC, but any set of headphones you buy for around $100 will have pretty good sound and ANC.

A good transparency mode helps, but the lack of wireless charging in particular is hard to ignore at this price. There are just too many good options at this price or below that have these features and wireless charging on top of that.

The main thing these headphones have over their competitors is their size, which is adorably small, with good battery life (considering their size), and the fact that they pair really well with your Google-branded phone…if you have one. Hearing health is a feature that no other set of headphones I’ve tested has, and Google should build on that and make it as front-facing as possible.

If these are all the things you absolutely want in headphones, then these are the headphones for you. But if you’re not necessarily interested in small headphones, or want to be able to control your volume by touch (which is much more important to me than moving forward/backward), then there are better options.

Ultimately, Google needs to either add wireless charging or lower the price to $99 to truly compete in this area. Being short and having a “G” on your head is no longer enough.