no more headphone jack? no problem

[Mike Mercury]

Google Pixel USB-C earbuds

Healing the wound left by the removal of the headphone jack

https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/17/...ant-headphones

Unmentioned during Google’s big hardware event this month was the introduction of a new member of the Pixel Buds family of earphones, the Pixel USB-C earbuds. Bundled in the box with the new Pixel 3 devices or available as a $30 purchase, they’re unglamorous and uncomplicated. Just plug them into the nearest USB-C port and play. Basic.

These basic buds happen to be very good. Superior to the average pair of disposable earphones in both design and engineering, the Pixel USB-C earbuds solve a problem that the tech industry imposed upon us: the extinction of the headphone jack.

Once upon a recent time, we all had a trusty pair of cheap wired earphones always with us, tucked into a jacket pocket or tumbling at the bottom of our bags next to charging cables and lip balm. We could plug those earbuds into our phones, laptops, desktops, or media players, and that universality was good and desirable and lovely. But then Apple and others got it into their heads that the 3.5mm analog audio jack occupied too much valuable space inside our phones, and poof went the headphone jack.

The obvious replacement for our cheap and trusty analog earphones was to be a pair of USB-C earphones, given how USB-C is well on its way to becoming truly universal across the same set of devices where the 3.5mm port was omnipresent. But right up until now, that product didn’t exist. Last year, my colleague Helen Havlak documented the travails of trying to procure a half-decent pair of USB-C buds at a reasonable price. Essential tried to provide an answer and failed. Libratone built what are still probably the best USB-C earphones, but those cost $149.

And now Google waltzes in with a pair of $30 buds that make everything better. The Pixel USB-C earbuds get all the essentials right: they sound great, they’re comfortable to wear, they’re compatible with most modern devices, and they’re affordable.

I tested the Pixel USB-C earbuds with a variety of recent Android smartphones, including Samsung’s Galaxy Note 9 and Huawei’s freshly minted Mate 20 Pro, and every one of them worked nicely with the buds. The same goes for laptops; Chromebooks, Windows machines, and MacBooks all recognized them. USB-C is still not out of its fragmented mess stage of compatibility. However, I can say that if you buy these USB-C earphones with the intent to use them with other relatively new devices, you can probably rest assured they’ll work well together.