Pixel Buds Pro won't get customizable EQ until later this year

What you need to know

• The Google Pixel Buds Pro are officially available for $199, but are missing a few features. 
• Things such as Bass Boost, Adaptive Sound, and other features are nowhere to be found when using the Pixel Buds app. 
• A new report states the Pixel Buds Pro will replace those features with a "full 5-band EQ" later this year.

With Samsung Unpacked just a couple of weeks away, now's the time for Google to shine. The company's highly-anticipated earbuds, the Pixel Buds Pro, are now available for purchase, coming in at a reasonable $199 price tag. However, some reviewers have noticed that Google removed a few key features from the accompanying Pixel Buds app. 

Google had to work a bit of its software magic in order to make up for the lack of staple features such as Active Noise Cancelation with the Pixel Buds and Pixel Buds A-Series. These included features such as Adaptive Sound, designed to automatically adjust the volume of your media based on your surroundings. And according to 9to5Google, these features were intentionally removed for the Pixel Buds Pro. 

Our own Pixel Buds Pro review is live, and it agrees with others that we've seen. In order to take full advantage of what these new earbuds are capable of, Google needs to offer an adjustable EQ that is not currently available. However, Google has confirmed to 9to5 that a future Buds Pro update will bring a "full 5-band EQ" sometime later this fall. 

While it's a shame to see that Google removed some useful features, such as Attention Alerts, others such as Bass Boost and Adaptive Sound make a bit more sense. The Pixel Buds Pro are the first in the lineup to sport true Active Noise Cancelation, and thanks to the 11mm custom-designed drivers, the sound quality is pretty excellent already. 

As noted in our review, Ted Kritsonis found that the missing customizable EQ is "an omission that stands out more precisely because the Pixel Buds Pro sound good already." And while we expect Spatial Audio support to arrive at some point, it doesn't make much sense as to why Google would wait to include a key feature until a later software update. 

The Pixel Buds Pro are available now, and the third-party EQ tuning solutions aren't guaranteed to work for everyone. It would have made much more sense for Google to make this available now, instead of just removing features and (apparently) hoping that no one would notice.