At last year’s Made By Google event Google announced a new set of Pixel Buds but they were expected to arrive in the US Spring of this year — that is from March until the end of May. Google I/O sits within this timeframe so we just expect them to arrive there but even though that is still nearly three months away they have appeared online for pre-order.
Over at the B&H website the Pixel Buds are up for pre-order for US$179 — there is no image of the product and it must not have been an error because as of 5:30 this morning it was still online. The Clearly White Pixel Buds can be pre-ordered, including checkout with no shipping date given.
The new Pixel Buds appeared on the Bluetooth SIG website a few weeks ago suggesting that their release was imminent — this new listing on the retailer’s website is also indicative of that.
The Pixel Buds arrive with inbuilt Google Assistant Bluetooth 5 and onboard machine learning. Their sound has a feature called Adaptive Sound which monitors your environment and adjusts the sound to provide the best listening experiences for optimal clarity. Between beam-forming microphones and a voice accelerometer that monitors your jaw movements, the new Pixel Buds can focus on your voice and suppress other background noises. Finally, battery life is 5 hours per charge per earbud with up to 24 hours of battery life in the carrying case.
At this stage it is unclear if the Pixel Buds will be making their way to Australia but at that price they would want to be good to be able to compete with other established brands in the market segment. They do come in funky colours such as Oh So Orange, Clearly White, Quite Mint, and Almost Black so that could be one attraction.
All signs are pointing to an early Spring (US) release rather than Google I/O but it does not make sense. What do you think?
