CorysTechTime

  I received my Pixel Buds A this week and have been enjoying much more than I thought I would. More on my experience in a future blog post. Having the new Buds A made me want to revisit the OG Pixel Buds from 2017. For what it's worth the OG buds was an underrated and a solid product for me.  There were some design cues borrowed from the OG buds that are alive and well with the 2020 and 2021 Pixel Buds and Buds A. The outer circular design of the earbuds is genius along with the swipe gestures for volume and taps for play and pause. The OG buds also featured the fast pair capability that it later improved and enhanced. Then there was the headlining translation feature that I never used but it was there. It wasn’t all good though. The case was somewhat of a nightmare. Wrapping the cord around the inner part of the case was not ideal and proved not to be reliable. There was also the issue of having to push down the buds into the case to make sure the leads on the case and the buds t

  On paper, the Pixel Buds A appear to be a solid budget option when compared to the regular and more premium Pixel Buds. More on that in my review and comparison. Most of the same features are there and Google seemed to remove features that don't adversely affect the overall experience. So with that out of the way let's see where both the Pixel Buds A and Pixel Buds are the same. Pixel Buds A and Pixel Buds both have the same… Custom 12nm speakers for rich sound Call quality (except for wind reduction) Touch controls (except swipe gestures for volume up and down) Hold for Google Assistant Up to 5 hours of listening time and 24hrs with the case Hands-free Hey Google Adaptive Sound USB-C charging (no wireless charging with the Pixel Buds A) There is a lot to like about the feature set Google is bringing to the table. In my opinion, Google included features you expect in a modern set of true wireless earbuds and maybe a couple you didn't. So, what does the Pixel Buds A foreca

  Today, Google announced the Pixel Buds A. The feature set and the price point are not what I expected at all. The price is much lower than I originally thought and they kept most if not all of the features that really matter. The one feature Google removed that I am not a fan of is the swiping feature for volume up and down. The taps to play/pause and skipping tracks are still there. But at $99 these earphones sound like a really good deal. I ordered the Dark Olive color and will be doing a comparison against my 2020 Pixel Buds. Tech specs can be found below. Sweat & Water Resistant Sweat and water resistant Connectivity Each earbud Bluetooth® 5.0 Audio Each earbud Custom-designed 12mm dynamic speaker driver Passive noise reduction Spatial vent for in-ear pressure reduction and spatial awareness Voice Each earbud Dual beamforming microphones Battery Earbuds: up to 5 hours of listening time or up to 2.5 hours of talk time Earbuds with charging case: Up to 24 hours of listening tim

  Technically the next Pixel Buds will be Google’s 3rd generation of the product. The OG Pixel Buds debuted in 2017 followed up by the current buds in 2019. I’m excited for what's to come but don't expect anything groundbreaking this time around. My guess is that we’ll see a more refined version of the current Pixel Buds and build on the things they got right. If I'm being honest the Pixel Buds 2 can be a bit buggy and had a rocky start at launch. In my experience, Google has mostly ironed out the issue however there are times when an issue pops up. Here’s to better internals with the 3rd gen model that can take full advantage of the software. See image for the FCC listing discovered today.  Image via FCC

  Last week the Pixel Buds received a firmware update to 553. The previous update was nearly 6 months ago when the first Pixel Buds Feature drop was released. There are no release notes as of today so I assume this is a bug fix update since the firmware version went from 552 to the aforementioned 553.  As for the update, so far so good. The Pixel Buds seem to be a bit more stable. The connection is solid and performance during phone calls is noticeably improved. Since the update, I have noticed that the left earbud gets a little louder randomly. It does go back to normal once I pause and play again. By the way, this only happens when both earbuds are being used and occurred twice in 5 days. Not a big deal just something I noticed and hope it gets fixed in the next update. As for the Pixel Buds, they are pretty good and are my favorite true wireless earphones to date. I've tried many others but these seem to offer a feature set and sound quality that's tough to match. The one ye