This morning at a gathering in San Francisco, Google announced its entrance into the world of wireless earbuds with Google Pixel Buds, intelligent wire-linked earbuds that run Google Assistant. Where Google hopes the Pixel Buds will stand out in the wireless earbud market—which is currently dominated by Apple’s AirPods—is the device’s impressive translation abilities. When hooked up to an Android device, the buds can translate 40 different languages in real time. Google showed off this nifty trick at the demonstration, and you can check that out in the tweet below.
Pixel Buds offer around five hours of listening time on a single charge, and they come with a charging case that can increase that to about 24 hours. The Pixel Buds will be available in three goofily named colors—Kinda Blue, Just Black, and Clearly White—for $159. Pre-orders start today, and the devices ship in November.
The device’s translation capability is incredibly impressive, but one has to wonder how well the Pixel Buds would work on a busy street corner or crowded restaurant as opposed to the silent, controlled environment of the demo.
