Google Pixel Buds 2a: Two-minute review

Google’s audio department has had something of a tough go of it – our list of the best earbuds seems far, far out of reach, with buds (or Buds) after buds that fail to impress. After the brand netted only three stars in our Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 review, and again only three stars from the Google Pixel Buds A, it’s finally managed to release a pair of true wireless earbuds that aren’t disappointing… if only because our expectations were quite low.

The Google Pixel Buds 2a are a more affordable alternative to the Pro 2, and a significant upgrade on the original A-series buds, bringing features which – if we’re being honest – the previous buds really should already have offered. However, though Google has managed to make a pair of earbuds that are finally pretty OK, the company hasn't managed to make buds that are especially competitive in the grand scheme of things.

Let’s start with a positive: like the past Pixel Buds, these are nice lightweight earbuds that don’t weigh your ears or your pocket down. The fit isn’t reliable though, partly because stem-less earbuds don’t lend themselves well to stability, partly because the tip material doesn’t offer much friction and partly because Google’s eartip fit test invariably failed to work.

Upgrades over the Pixel Buds A bring the 2a up to speed with industry trends: they have noise cancellation finally, and a greatly-improved battery life than the 1a’s embarrassing figure. But the feature list is still svelte: the EQ doesn’t offer much control over your sound, you can’t control your music from the buds, and the ANC is very light-touch.

The sound quality is, for lack of a better word, sloppy. The tuning is just all over the place, with audio parts tripping over themselves and frequent peaking. Individual lines can be detailed and clear but they don’t sit together well at all; an orchestra of the world’s best musicians can still sound poor if led by a hapless conductor.

I’m used to mid-range earbuds sounding cheap and cheerful, sometimes sacrificing audio precision and clarity for a fun, energetic or distinguished sound. Google has seemingly decided to go the other way, and has in doing so, learnt why none of the other manufacturers did so.

At the end of the day, myriad tweaks and improvements over Google’s lackluster previous offerings make these slightly easier to recommend, but they still pale in comparison to many other options available. That’s still true, just to a lesser degree, if you manage to pick them up for a discounted price. All that being said, if you’re offered them as a pre-order or bundle package with a Google Pixel phone, you could do worse.

Google Pixel Buds 2a review: Price and release date

• Announced and released on August 20, 2025
• Launched for $129.99 / £129 / AU$239
• Seen discounts since release

The Google Pixel Buds 2a were announced on August 20, 2025, almost two years to the day after the release of the Buds Pro 2.

You can buy the buds for $129.99 / £129 / AU$239, although they’re the kind of buds that you’re just as likely to receive as a bundle or pre-order gift for something like the Google Pixel 10.

That’s a mid-range price, higher than the $99 / £99.99 (around AU$130) first-gen A-series buds, but more affordable than the $229 / £219 / AU$379 original asking price of the Buds Pro 2 (in theory – they’ve dropped in price quite a bit since their 2024 launch).

It’s also, unfortunately for Google, a cost which puts the buds slap-bang in the middle of a really competitive price point. The buds don’t have much to endear them against the competition… except perhaps price cuts, as I easily found them for $99 / £99 / AU$198 just months after testing (no, not on Black Friday, during a period devoid of sales).

Google Pixel Buds 2a review: Specs

Google Pixel Buds 2a review: Features

• ANC is here, but it's subtle
• 7/20 hour battery life (ANC on)
• Not all of the features work well

A new addition Google has granted the Pixel Buds 2a, over their predecessors at least, is the introduction of Active Noise Cancellation or ANC. Now, your buds will detect sounds around you and strip them out as much as possible. Better late than never, I suppose.

The ANC here is nothing to write home about. It’s present, removing some of the major annoyances from environmental or nearby sounds, but there are plenty of other earbuds (even at this price point) that do a better job of keeping things quiet. The ambient mode is a little better; this feature allows select noises to bypass ANC, so you can hear people talking to you or important beepings (time to unpack the dishwasher). This mode tends to be hit-or-miss at what it allows through, but I found few faults when testing the Buds 2a.

In terms of battery life, the buds hit the average I expect from in-ear buds: 7 hours of listening with ANC on or 10 hours with it turned off, with my own listening matching Google’s predictions. That’s fine, but a nice upgrade from previous Google buds with their lacklustre lives. The charging case brings the total to 20 or 27 hours respectively, which is perhaps a little lower than on most rival buds I’ve tested, but enough for several full recharges.

Like all good earbuds (read: all earbuds), there’s a phone app you can use to get some extra functionality. It’s called Pixel Buds, although you don’t need it to listen to music if you don’t want it. I wouldn’t blame you either; I spent the first week of my testing time without it, and when I eventually installed it, it didn’t really change the experience.

You can use the app to toggle ANC mode, turn touch controls on or off (but not change what they do; toggling ANC or awakening Gemini are the only two options), find your buds if you’ve lost them, update the buds’ firmware, set up multi-point connection and turn in-ear play detection on and off. So far, the standard array of features.

Pixel Buds offers an equalizer, with a five-band custom mode or a small range of presets. It’s some degree of control over your sound, but not a nuanced one. This option also offers an eartip seal check, so you can figure out which size of eartip to use, but I tried this about 10 times over the course of a week and not once did it work successfully. Every single time, it told me it failed, and that I needed to be somewhere quiet – even if I was home alone in the middle of the night. One time, in the wee hours, I even held my breath so my breathing wouldn’t disrupt it. It still failed.

There’s one feature I do like: there’s a hearing wellness test, which is useful for people who worry they’re listening to music too loud, as it tells you your music volume in dB. Even if you don’t think about that kind of thing, it’s useful to know, just in case you are damaging your ears unknowingly.

• Features score: 3.5/5

Google Pixel Buds 2a review: Design

• Lightweight buds
• Problems with fit
• Two color options, IP54

The Google Pixel Buds 2a are some of the smallest earbuds I’ve ever tested. They’re in-ear buds with no stem, weighing 4.7g each, and it’s easy to forget they’re in your ear when you’re listening to music.

That is, when they stay in. Despite the small fin to help the buds wedge in your ear, I found the fit a little unreliable, and they’d sometimes slip when I was walking or running. In theory the earbud fit test should help me ensure that isn’t the case, but you’ve already read about how well it worked out.

There are touch controls if you press and hold the buds, and they’re easy enough to trigger, but they can only be mapped to toggle ANC or enable your smart assistant. You can’t play or pause your music, toggle the volume or, from what Google’s app suggests, answer a call. These are all fundamental functions of other buds’ gesture controls, and I simply can’t understand why they’re not in place here.

The pebble-shaped case is small and light too, weighing 47.6g. It’s a no-fuss case and it’s easy to remove the buds, though returning them isn’t always as simple: it’s fairly easy to put the wrong bud in each ingress, and only realise your mistake when the case doesn’t shut fully.

You can pick up the buds in two colors: Iris or Hazel, as Google calls them, or violet or black as they actually are. The color choice affects the buds and inner section of the case, though the outer shell itself will always be a white cream. The case picks up scuffs easily, and I was constantly wiping marks off the case after a brief stint in my pocket.

The buds have an IP54 protection against dust ingress and splashes of water, and the case has an IPX4 rating. According to Google, the buds were made with “at least” 41% recycled materials, including the entirety of the buds and charging case magnets, solder paste and battery.

• Design score: 4/5

Google Pixel Buds 2a review: Sound quality

• 11mm driver
• No Bluetooth codec supported
• Sound lacks sparkle

Google has packed custom-made 11mm drivers into the Pixel Buds 2a; it hasn’t confirmed if these are the exact same drivers as in the Buds Pro 2, but the size is the same. I did most of my listening on the default EQ mode, simply because the presets didn’t seem to actually change the sound all that much.

On first listening, it sounds like the Pixel Buds 2a have it all: clear treble, solid bass and hearty mids. But the more I used the buds, the more I got the impression that something about the tuning was a little off. The elements don’t sit alongside each other well, and there’s an inconsistency to the sound.

In Seventeen Going Under by Sam Fender, as soon as the bass comes in it drowns out the acoustic guitar accompaniment; it’s not very well-defined or handled bass either, sounding too rumbly. Some parts of songs lack energy; the hook that begins Spector’s Chevy Thunder is too shrill and frail, while the guitar accompaniment is bounced down into a distorted mush; somehow in this song, the bass is barely audible.

There are times when the audio quality was enjoyable, especially when there was only one musical line, but that didn’t stay true when more instruments came in. In Vampire Weekend’s A-Punk, the introduction offers clear and detailed music but as more instruments come in, the overall package sounds worse. I also noticed consistent peaking and distorting, for certain instruments (I barely remember what a hi-hat is supposed to sound like after testing the 2a) and when the timbre became too complex.

So it sounds like the issue is with tuning across the frequencies, and not the technical specs, with audio sounding relatively detailed. There’s Bluetooth 5.4 for connectivity, but Google’s online specs sheet makes no mention of support for any advanced Bluetooth codecs.

• Sound quality: 3.5/5

Google Pixel Buds 2a review: Value

• Decent value at full price
• Better value on sale
• Great value as bundled gift

At their standard price, the Google Pixel Buds 2a are decent value: you get what you pay for, with a nice small body and fine audio quality for a mid-range price.

They’re not fantastic value though, and other buds for the same price can offer you more energetic audio, a fuller complement of features and a more reliable fit.

However, if you buy the Pixel Buds at the reduced cost, that changes… a little bit. They’re still not the most competitive buds even at the lower price, but they’re definitely better value for money.

• Value: 3.5/5

Should I buy the Google Pixel Buds 2a?

Buy them if…

Don’t buy them if…

Google Pixel Buds 2a review: Also consider

How I tested the Google Pixel Buds 2a

• Tested for one month
• Tested at home, at the gym, on runs and on walks

I tested the Google Pixel Buds 2a for just shy of four weeks, before submitting this review.

The earbuds were paired to my Android phone for the duration of the testing period, and I used them for a variety of tasks including streaming music, watching videos, gaming and taking calls.

I used the buds when at home, when going for walks or using public transport, when at the gym and while on runs.

I've been testing audio products for TechRadar for many years now, including a variety of other mid-range earbuds.

• First reviewed in December 2025

• Read TechRadar's reviews guarantee

Creative Aurvana Ace 3: Two-minute review

Earbuds specialist Creative is back with another fully-fledged assault on our list of the best earbuds with its Aurvana Ace 3. And like 2024’s Aurvana Ace 2, one small piece of tech makes these a shoo-in for audiophiles’ wish-lists.

The Creative Aurvana Ace 3 are the latest earbuds to have thoroughly modern solid-state drivers by tech manufacturer xMEMS, which are designed to bump up the phase consistency and allow audio to be dynamic while still coming from small drivers (and by ‘small’, I mean ‘ones that fit in tiny earbuds’). People who are put off by tech jargon may be scratching their head and preparing to tab out, but the gist is that the buds are designed to sound especially great. They do.

I said this about the Ace 2, and it’s true again: the buds provide high-quality well-defined sounds, bristling with energy and with a cosy, all-embracing soundstage. Fantastic. Audio spec-wise, though, the Aurvana Ace 3 take this pairing of xMEMS driver and a 10mm dynamic driver, and copy it wholesale. No hardware changes, but given what I thought about the previous buds, that’s no bad thing.

Instead, Creative has made improvements across the board to lots of other aspects of the previous buds that needed some help – mostly, but more on that in a moment – and brought some extras which make it easy to award the buds a higher star rating.

The battery life of the Ace 3 is greatly improved from the previous buds, touch controls feel a little bit more intuitive, the maximum volume has seen a bump, there’s LDAC support and the equalizer has a more palpable impact on sound quality. Plus, the introduction of a sound profile test (in collaboration with experts Mimi) provides you with a bespoke sound mix and, in my humble opinion, it’s one of the best listening tests I’ve taken in a pair of earbuds.

One area hasn’t seen a major improvement, and it’s ANC – noise cancellation still isn’t on par with rivals. And if you’ve just tabbed out to read my Ace 2 review, and were curious about the strange screaming sound the buds could make when in ANC mode, you’ll be confused to hear that it’s back – but only for ambient mode.

I first noticed this when I cycled to the cinema early on in my testing. I used ambient to be safe on the road but when I stepped into the foyer while removing my buds, I started getting odd looks: they were making a loud, shrill screaming sound, one far more pronounced than on the Ace 2. It stopped when I put the buds in the case, but on other occurrences, this wasn’t a reliable way to silence the noise; on one occasion they started making the sound out of the blue a few seconds after I’d cased them. It’s a shame, but having experienced the issue with the Ace 2, I did not request a fresh sample since I knew it had happened before. I’ve also occasionally faced it with other buds – it’s an odd side-effect of how noise cancellation works. Still, it's my job to notice these things and the simple fact is that many of the rival earbuds I have tested over the years do not suffer from this issue (and that is largely why this set of earbuds get the star rating you see above). If you use ambient and ANC sound profiles a lot, this will likely affect your decision on whether or not to purchase Creative's Aurvana Ace 3 earbuds – excellent audio performance or not.

Creative Aurvana Ace 3 review: Price and release date

• Announced on October 1, 2025
• Priced $149.99 / £139.99 / AU$259.95
• Price increase, decrease or no change depending on where you live

The Creative Aurvana Ace 3 were released on October 1, 2025, roughly 18 months on from the release of their predecessor.

Oddly, at the time of writing it seems difficult to buy the buds from anywhere other than Creative's own website, but I'll keep checking since major third-party retailer support is expected.

Anyway, the Creative Aurvana Ace 3 can be bought for $149.99 / £139.99 / AU$259.95, a fairly mid-ranged price for earbuds. For a bit of context, the Ace 2 sold for $149.99 / £169.99 / AU$229.95 so the new buds are cheaper in some places, more expensive in others but the same in the US.

That’s quite a competitive price point. Furthermore, out of all my favorite pairs of buds I tested in 2025, none are more than $50 / £40 above or below that (that’s about AU$80, but not all of the pairs were actually released in Australia, making it a harder comparison). You’ve already read the introduction though; you know the Ace 3 hold their own.

Creative Aurvana Ace 3 review: Specs

Creative Aurvana Ace 3 review: Features

• 7-hour buds battery, 26-hour with case
• ANC doesn't cut the mustard
• Highly intuitive sound profile test

One of my gripes with the Aurvana Ace 3’s predecessor was that the Active Noise Cancellation (or ANC) didn’t match up to rivals. Unfortunately that’s no different here and if there are improvements they’re not on par with the big leaps rivals are making. The buds will dampen surrounding sounds but you can still hear most of what’s going on around you – essentially, the ANC still leaves a lot to be desired.

The Ambient mode is a little worse though, and sadly the buds seem to amplify all surrounding whispers to deafening proportions when in this configuration. That’s not the worst of it either; the older Ace 2 had an odd ANC issue which would cause the buds to make a squealing sound when held tight in the hand, and while I didn’t have this issue with the Ace 3 in standard ANC mode, it was a lot more pronounced when I was in Ambient. Thankfully, simply using the buds in ANC mode (or with ANC off) stopped me facing this issue, but it’s something to know about if you often use ambient modes in earbuds.

Another problem of the Ace 2 that’s been nipped in the bud is battery life; no more 4 hours of listening time, or 16 hours in the case. The figure’s been nearly doubled, to 7 hours per earbud and 26 hours from the case. That’s still far from industry-leading (some buds can go for 8-10 hours now before needing a jolt of juice), but it’s a welcome upgrade nonetheless. Just note: listening with ANC or LDAC enabled will give you a lower stat, and I got 5.5 hours with ANC on.

The Creative app reveals some of the earbuds’ best features; if you buy the Aurvana Ace 3, don’t be one of those people who never bothers downloading the companion software. The standards are here: you can customize the buds’ touch controls, toggle ANC, play with an equalizer and set up Auracast (although I wish the buds’ assistant wouldn’t loudly announce that it was scanning for broadcasts every time I opened the app).

There’s more: the Ace 3 has perhaps the best listening test I’ve used on a pair of wireless earbuds. It’s easy to use, not overly long and delivers noticeable results that significantly improve music. Creative’s partnership with audio profiling company Mimi for the buds pays dividends.

The buds connect to your phone via Bluetooth 5.4, and they support low-latency mode for gaming and movies as well as LDAC if you don’t mind your battery life taking a hit. I had a few issues with Bluetooth connectivity, most of which were solved by my returning the buds to the case for a few seconds and then trying again, though the app struggled to detect the buds when I began testing and it took quite a few tries to get it working.

• Features score: 3.5/5

Creative Aurvana Ace 3 review: Design

• Understated purple hue
• Lightweight case and buds
• IPX5 rating

The Creative Aurvana Ace 3 earbuds have benefitted from big changes, but these are definitely not reflected in the design. I had to get right into the nitty-gritty of my review of the predecessors to discover that the case is in fact 3g lighter, at 43g, but to me they’re identical (other than a slight color difference).

That’s no bad thing given how the distinctive hue and zingy inside help the Aurvana stand out from the line-up. It doesn’t quite translate on camera, but the case has a purple sheen that catches the light well.

A few tiny design tweaks and a slightly lighter build do little to differentiate the Ace 3 buds from the Ace 2, but again there are no complaints on my part. They fit like a dream, didn’t feel achy even after long listening sessions, and stuck strong in my ear even when I was at the gym or cycling.

I had a little bit of trouble with the touch controls, as finding the exact correct spot at the top of the stem takes some practice. It doesn’t help that there’s no single-tap gesture, so you need to hit the right spot at least twice in a row to trigger a command. But I still found it a lot more usable than the Ace 2’s, especially when I’d gotten the knack.

One thing to note is that the buds have an IPX5 rating, which means they’re protected against jets of water. This is fine for rain or sweat but it’s not the highest kind of protection you see on earbuds – the new AirPods Pro 3 have an IP57 rating, for example, which means that Apple's newest can actually be submerged in up to one meter of water and survive (for a limited time).

• Design score: 4/5

Creative Aurvana Ace 3 review: Sound quality

• xMEMS + 10mm dynamic driver
• Range of codecs supported
• For natural-sounding detail and clarity, the audio quality is sublime

The bad news: while the Creative Aurvana Ace 3 enjoys a series of improvements across the board, that's not the case in the sonic department. The good news: that's because last year's buds were such a slam dunk that no upgrade was necessary to the sonic recipe.

So we're looking at a fancy xMEMS solid state driver paired with a 10mm dynamic driver. The first of those is the selling point: they can deliver high-quality, natural-sounding audio that's as true as possible to the artist's (well, sound engineer and producers') vision. The effect on your ears is that music is imbued with a sparkle and energy that you're simply not getting on lesser buds: it's palpable that these aren't electronic signals being blasted into your ears, but real musical instruments being played by real people (well, unless you listen to electronic music, that is).

The glorious bagpipe solo of John Farnham's You're The Voice rocks just as much as the later guitar solo and anthemic vocals, and you can hear the vibrato of The Boss' voice in Dancing in the Dark when it comes up on shuffle next. Next up is Chesney Hawkes' The One and Only, and I've never heard the harmonies as powerful and succinct as with the Ace 3.

I've been focusing on treble and mids because there's no denying that the Aurvana maintain their predecessors' lovely neutral sound; you're not getting your tunes blown out by thumping bass like many cheap and mid-range earbud makers love to do.

Despite that, bass is lovely and scooping, enough that you can picture the bassist's fingers walking on the string. And when lower pitches are important, the Ace 3 delivers; Sayonara by The 502s offers a well-defined bassline that sits harmoniously against the brass stings without either losing any energy (see, I can use musical examples from the last half-century!). The encompassing soundstage of the buds gives all of the instruments in a busy composition like this enough breathing room that you don't miss a note or a line.

All of these points could equally be made about the Ace 2 (well, except Sayonara, which wasn't out when those buds were released), but that's not to say that nothing's new in the Aurvana Ace 3. The addition of LDAC and aptX Lossless means the buds are better at supporting lossless audio and there's also now support for Snapdragon Sound, which will have a similar effect if your broadcasting device also is compatible.

• Sound quality: 4.5/5

Creative Aurvana Ace 3 review: Value

• A textbook example of getting what you paid for
• Ace 2 discounts may make it a tempting alternative

At $149.99 / £139.99 / AU$259.95, you’re getting what you pay for with the Creative Aurvana Ace 3 – they deliver a good sound quality and commendable feature set at a price that’s a little higher than some people can afford, but sits as a much more tempting alternative to many of the top-end buds on the market.

Don’t buy these expecting a bargain, but you’re certainly getting bang for your buck. Rather, you’re not getting bangs, but getting nice, well-tuned audio.

The messy price increase / decrease / maintenance of the Creative Aurvana Ace 3 compared to its predecessor, make a value comparison hard, especially with the older buds having seen a pretty significant price cut since release. The improvements may win over some people, but if all you care is the sound quality, you can save money with the Ace 2.

• Value: 3.5/5

Should I buy the Creative Aurvana Ace 3?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Creative Aurvana Ace 3 review: Also consider

How I tested the Creative Aurvana Ace 3

• Tested for 2 weeks
• Tested at home, on walks, and the gym and while cycling

The testing period for the Creative Aurvana Ace 3 was just over two weeks, and the buds were connected to my Android phone for the entirety of the testing process.

I mostly listened to the buds using Spotify, both with Lossless and standard quality, but I also watched some Netflix and played some games with them. I tested in loads of environments: at home, at my office, on walks around my neighborhood, on buses and trains, while cycling (in ambient mode for safety, of course), and while at several different gyms.

I've been testing gadgets for TechRadar for over six years now, which has included plenty of other similar-price earbuds, the previous Aurvana Ace last year and certain other Creative products.

• First reviewed in October 2025

• Read TechRadar's reviews guarantee

Creative Aurvana Ace 3: Two-minute review

Earbuds specialist Creative is back with another fully-fledged assault on our list of the best earbuds with its Aurvana Ace 3. And like 2024’s Aurvana Ace 2, one small piece of tech makes these a shoo-in for audiophiles’ wish-lists.

The Creative Aurvana Ace 3 are the latest earbuds to have thoroughly modern solid-state drivers by tech manufacturer xMEMS, which are designed to bump up the phase consistency and allow audio to be dynamic while still coming from small drivers (and by ‘small’, I mean ‘ones that fit in tiny earbuds’). People who are put off by tech jargon may be scratching their head and preparing to tab out, but the gist is that the buds are designed to sound especially great. They do.

I said this about the Ace 2, and it’s true again: the buds provide high-quality well-defined sounds, bristling with energy and with a cosy, all-embracing soundstage. Fantastic. Audio spec-wise, though, the Aurvana Ace 3 take this pairing of xMEMS driver and a 10mm dynamic driver, and copy it wholesale. No hardware changes, but given what I thought about the previous buds, that’s no bad thing.

Instead, Creative has made improvements across the board to lots of other aspects of the previous buds that needed some help – mostly, but more on that in a moment – and brought some extras which make it easy to award the buds a higher star rating.

The battery life of the Ace 3 is greatly improved from the previous buds, touch controls feel a little bit more intuitive, the maximum volume has seen a bump, there’s LDAC support and the equalizer has a more palpable impact on sound quality. Plus, the introduction of a sound profile test (in collaboration with experts Mimi) provides you with a bespoke sound mix and, in my humble opinion, it’s one of the best listening tests I’ve taken in a pair of earbuds.

One area hasn’t seen a major improvement, and it’s ANC – noise cancellation still isn’t on par with rivals. And if you’ve just tabbed out to read my Ace 2 review, and were curious about the strange screaming sound the buds could make when in ANC mode, you’ll be confused to hear that it’s back – but only for ambient mode.

I first noticed this when I cycled to the cinema early on in my testing. I used ambient to be safe on the road but when I stepped into the foyer while removing my buds, I started getting odd looks: they were making a loud, shrill screaming sound, one far more pronounced than on the Ace 2. It stopped when I put the buds in the case, but on other occurrences, this wasn’t a reliable way to silence the noise; on one occasion they started making the sound out of the blue a few seconds after I’d cased them. It’s a shame, but having experienced the issue with the Ace 2, I did not request a fresh sample since I knew it had happened before. I’ve also occasionally faced it with other buds – it’s an odd side-effect of how noise cancellation works. Still, it's my job to notice these things and the simple fact is that many of the rival earbuds I have tested over the years do not suffer from this issue (and that is largely why this set of earbuds get the star rating you see above). If you use ambient and ANC sound profiles a lot, this will likely affect your decision on whether or not to purchase Creative's Aurvana Ace 3 earbuds – excellent audio performance or not.

Creative Aurvana Ace 3 review: Price and release date

• Announced on October 1, 2025
• Priced $149.99 / £139.99 / AU$259.95
• Price increase, decrease or no change depending on where you live

The Creative Aurvana Ace 3 were released on October 1, 2025, roughly 18 months on from the release of their predecessor.

Oddly, at the time of writing it seems difficult to buy the buds from anywhere other than Creative's own website, but I'll keep checking since major third-party retailer support is expected.

Anyway, the Creative Aurvana Ace 3 can be bought for $149.99 / £139.99 / AU$259.95, a fairly mid-ranged price for earbuds. For a bit of context, the Ace 2 sold for $149.99 / £169.99 / AU$229.95 so the new buds are cheaper in some places, more expensive in others but the same in the US.

That’s quite a competitive price point. Furthermore, out of all my favorite pairs of buds I tested in 2025, none are more than $50 / £40 above or below that (that’s about AU$80, but not all of the pairs were actually released in Australia, making it a harder comparison). You’ve already read the introduction though; you know the Ace 3 hold their own.

Creative Aurvana Ace 3 review: Specs

Creative Aurvana Ace 3 review: Features

• 7-hour buds battery, 26-hour with case
• ANC doesn't cut the mustard
• Highly intuitive sound profile test

One of my gripes with the Aurvana Ace 3’s predecessor was that the Active Noise Cancellation (or ANC) didn’t match up to rivals. Unfortunately that’s no different here and if there are improvements they’re not on par with the big leaps rivals are making. The buds will dampen surrounding sounds but you can still hear most of what’s going on around you – essentially, the ANC still leaves a lot to be desired.

The Ambient mode is a little worse though, and sadly the buds seem to amplify all surrounding whispers to deafening proportions when in this configuration. That’s not the worst of it either; the older Ace 2 had an odd ANC issue which would cause the buds to make a squealing sound when held tight in the hand, and while I didn’t have this issue with the Ace 3 in standard ANC mode, it was a lot more pronounced when I was in Ambient. Thankfully, simply using the buds in ANC mode (or with ANC off) stopped me facing this issue, but it’s something to know about if you often use ambient modes in earbuds.

Another problem of the Ace 2 that’s been nipped in the bud is battery life; no more 4 hours of listening time, or 16 hours in the case. The figure’s been nearly doubled, to 7 hours per earbud and 26 hours from the case. That’s still far from industry-leading (some buds can go for 8-10 hours now before needing a jolt of juice), but it’s a welcome upgrade nonetheless. Just note: listening with ANC or LDAC enabled will give you a lower stat, and I got 5.5 hours with ANC on.

The Creative app reveals some of the earbuds’ best features; if you buy the Aurvana Ace 3, don’t be one of those people who never bothers downloading the companion software. The standards are here: you can customize the buds’ touch controls, toggle ANC, play with an equalizer and set up Auracast (although I wish the buds’ assistant wouldn’t loudly announce that it was scanning for broadcasts every time I opened the app).

There’s more: the Ace 3 has perhaps the best listening test I’ve used on a pair of wireless earbuds. It’s easy to use, not overly long and delivers noticeable results that significantly improve music. Creative’s partnership with audio profiling company Mimi for the buds pays dividends.

The buds connect to your phone via Bluetooth 5.4, and they support low-latency mode for gaming and movies as well as LDAC if you don’t mind your battery life taking a hit. I had a few issues with Bluetooth connectivity, most of which were solved by my returning the buds to the case for a few seconds and then trying again, though the app struggled to detect the buds when I began testing and it took quite a few tries to get it working.

• Features score: 3.5/5

Creative Aurvana Ace 3 review: Design

• Understated purple hue
• Lightweight case and buds
• IPX5 rating

The Creative Aurvana Ace 3 earbuds have benefitted from big changes, but these are definitely not reflected in the design. I had to get right into the nitty-gritty of my review of the predecessors to discover that the case is in fact 3g lighter, at 43g, but to me they’re identical (other than a slight color difference).

That’s no bad thing given how the distinctive hue and zingy inside help the Aurvana stand out from the line-up. It doesn’t quite translate on camera, but the case has a purple sheen that catches the light well.

A few tiny design tweaks and a slightly lighter build do little to differentiate the Ace 3 buds from the Ace 2, but again there are no complaints on my part. They fit like a dream, didn’t feel achy even after long listening sessions, and stuck strong in my ear even when I was at the gym or cycling.

I had a little bit of trouble with the touch controls, as finding the exact correct spot at the top of the stem takes some practice. It doesn’t help that there’s no single-tap gesture, so you need to hit the right spot at least twice in a row to trigger a command. But I still found it a lot more usable than the Ace 2’s, especially when I’d gotten the knack.

One thing to note is that the buds have an IPX5 rating, which means they’re protected against jets of water. This is fine for rain or sweat but it’s not the highest kind of protection you see on earbuds – the new AirPods Pro 3 have an IP57 rating, for example, which means that Apple's newest can actually be submerged in up to one meter of water and survive (for a limited time).

• Design score: 4/5

Creative Aurvana Ace 3 review: Sound quality

• xMEMS + 10mm dynamic driver
• Range of codecs supported
• For natural-sounding detail and clarity, the audio quality is sublime

The bad news: while the Creative Aurvana Ace 3 enjoys a series of improvements across the board, that's not the case in the sonic department. The good news: that's because last year's buds were such a slam dunk that no upgrade was necessary to the sonic recipe.

So we're looking at a fancy xMEMS solid state driver paired with a 10mm dynamic driver. The first of those is the selling point: they can deliver high-quality, natural-sounding audio that's as true as possible to the artist's (well, sound engineer and producers') vision. The effect on your ears is that music is imbued with a sparkle and energy that you're simply not getting on lesser buds: it's palpable that these aren't electronic signals being blasted into your ears, but real musical instruments being played by real people (well, unless you listen to electronic music, that is).

The glorious bagpipe solo of John Farnham's You're The Voice rocks just as much as the later guitar solo and anthemic vocals, and you can hear the vibrato of The Boss' voice in Dancing in the Dark when it comes up on shuffle next. Next up is Chesney Hawkes' The One and Only, and I've never heard the harmonies as powerful and succinct as with the Ace 3.

I've been focusing on treble and mids because there's no denying that the Aurvana maintain their predecessors' lovely neutral sound; you're not getting your tunes blown out by thumping bass like many cheap and mid-range earbud makers love to do.

Despite that, bass is lovely and scooping, enough that you can picture the bassist's fingers walking on the string. And when lower pitches are important, the Ace 3 delivers; Sayonara by The 502s offers a well-defined bassline that sits harmoniously against the brass stings without either losing any energy (see, I can use musical examples from the last half-century!). The encompassing soundstage of the buds gives all of the instruments in a busy composition like this enough breathing room that you don't miss a note or a line.

All of these points could equally be made about the Ace 2 (well, except Sayonara, which wasn't out when those buds were released), but that's not to say that nothing's new in the Aurvana Ace 3. The addition of LDAC and aptX Lossless means the buds are better at supporting lossless audio and there's also now support for Snapdragon Sound, which will have a similar effect if your broadcasting device also is compatible.

• Sound quality: 4.5/5

Creative Aurvana Ace 3 review: Value

• A textbook example of getting what you paid for
• Ace 2 discounts may make it a tempting alternative

At $149.99 / £139.99 / AU$259.95, you’re getting what you pay for with the Creative Aurvana Ace 3 – they deliver a good sound quality and commendable feature set at a price that’s a little higher than some people can afford, but sits as a much more tempting alternative to many of the top-end buds on the market.

Don’t buy these expecting a bargain, but you’re certainly getting bang for your buck. Rather, you’re not getting bangs, but getting nice, well-tuned audio.

The messy price increase / decrease / maintenance of the Creative Aurvana Ace 3 compared to its predecessor, make a value comparison hard, especially with the older buds having seen a pretty significant price cut since release. The improvements may win over some people, but if all you care is the sound quality, you can save money with the Ace 2.

• Value: 3.5/5

Should I buy the Creative Aurvana Ace 3?

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Creative Aurvana Ace 3 review: Also consider

How I tested the Creative Aurvana Ace 3

• Tested for 2 weeks
• Tested at home, on walks, and the gym and while cycling

The testing period for the Creative Aurvana Ace 3 was just over two weeks, and the buds were connected to my Android phone for the entirety of the testing process.

I mostly listened to the buds using Spotify, both with Lossless and standard quality, but I also watched some Netflix and played some games with them. I tested in loads of environments: at home, at my office, on walks around my neighborhood, on buses and trains, while cycling (in ambient mode for safety, of course), and while at several different gyms.

I've been testing gadgets for TechRadar for over six years now, which has included plenty of other similar-price earbuds, the previous Aurvana Ace last year and certain other Creative products.

• First reviewed in October 2025

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